"Bruce, there he goes?": Why now is not the time for Canucks coaching change
It was inevitable that Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau’s light-hearted quote about the “Bruce, there it is” chants would reappear in a negative light at some point.
“If you lose the next game it could be, ‘Bruce, there he goes,’ so I pay as little attention to that as possible,” he told reporters last December.
Well, just seven games into the 2022-23 season, it’s fair to wonder if Boudreau’s days in Vancouver are already numbered.
The Canucks are currently 0-5-2. Every recurring loss is now a new record for the longest losing streak to begin a season in Canucks history.
We all know what happened behind the bench after the Canucks slow start last year. Not even 12 months later, does it make sense for this team to consider another coaching change?
No vote of confidence for Boudreau from Canucks
Canucks President Jim Rutherford was recently interviewed on Hockey Night in Canada‘s After Hours segment.
Rutherford provided some intriguing quotes, including one about how he thought the Canucks’ current head coach would only receive a contract for last season.
“He came here and it was my understanding that he was going to get a contract for just last year. He got a contract really for two years, and so he’s still got his contract.
“It wasn’t about that we extended him one year… we just lived by the contract he had.
“As I look at it now, it was the right thing to do. He’s gotta work through this with his team and at the appropriate time, we’ll talk to him about what his future is.”
Of course, bringing back Boudreau was the right thing to do. The Canucks legitimately looked like a good team under his tutelage last season, even if they weren’t quite as good as their 106-point pace under Boudreau suggested.
It’s also clear that Boudreau wasn’t Rutherford or General Manager Patrik Allvin’s hire. Boudreau was brought in immediately after Travis Green’s dismissal, while Rutherford was hired by the team a couple of days later.
Still, to hear Rutherford publicly say he only thought Boudreau would be hired for one year is a little startling. It also wasn’t a ringing endorsement to hear him say that he didn’t extend Boudreau, he merely “lived by the contract he had.”
Later in the interview, he talked about the Canucks’ lack of structure, something that usually falls on the coaching staff.
“When you have injuries, you gotta have the next man up and be ready to go, and I believe if our team has a real strong structure, you can play through those things.
“When you start talking about injuries, you know, you’re admitting you’re a losing team.
“I don’t like it. I don’t like using it as an excuse. We all have to be better and we have to use the players we got, and we have to play within a stronger structure to make that game easier for all our players.”
Why a coaching change doesn’t make sense… yet
Firing a coach is the easy thing to do when things aren’t going well.
But, is it the right thing to do for the Canucks?
Firing Boudreau in the near term is rife with flaws.
When Rutherford talks about playing with more structure, he certainly has a point, but we don’t have to look too far into the past to see what this Canucks team looks like when they tighten things up defensively.
Green switched from a similar “run and gun” system the Canucks currently have under Boudreau, to one that saw the team play tighter defensively at the beginning of 2021-22.
The results weren’t good. Vancouver did play better defensively, but they couldn’t produce anything at even strength. In those 25 games under Green, they had the fourth-lowest goals-for per 60 (1.84) and the sixth-lowest expected goals-for per 60 (2.21) in the NHL.
That suggests Vancouver’s roster isn’t built to play a shutdown style.
So if a more defensive-minded bench boss isn’t the answer, what about a coach with the opposite personality of Boudreau?
“He’s got the reputation of somebody who makes players comfortable,” Elliotte Friedman said recently on the 32 Thoughts podcast. “I think if they make a coaching change, I wonder if they’re going the exact opposite way.”
Well, the Canucks have that opposite personality on their bench already with Senior Assistant Coach Mike Yeo. Last season, he replaced Alain Vigneault as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, and posted an uninspiring record of 17-36-7.
There’s no easy answer for the Canucks, but a coaching change doesn’t seem like the solution.
Nothing suggests that a coach who is meaner or who will implement a better defensive structure is the answer.
There’s also no coach that’s going to turn this team from winless into a Stanley Cup contender. The team just isn’t good enough.
Finally, there’s the financial side to consider. The Canucks are paying Green “almost $3 million not to coach,” according to Friedman. With Boudreau making $2.5 million this season, do the Canucks want $5 million tied up in coaches that they fired?