Bruce Boudreau fired!

[RedskinsDave]

I figured this deserved its own thread. He is being replaced by Dale Hunter.

I am glad they are finally letting Bruce go but am not sure about Hunter as his replacement.

[Ibleedburgundy]

Agreed. BB had to go despite being the fastest coach ever to 200 wins.

I am not hearing good things about Hunter though.

[RedskinsDave]

I need to ask ProHockeyTalk's Joe Yerdon what he thinks since I don't local sports guys to do anything but proclaim Hunter a great hire. I will post his response.

[redskin_rich]

Bad move. We need a coach that has his name on the Stanley Cup.

[RedskinsDave]

Bad move. We need a coach that has his name on the Stanley Cup.

Such as?

[redskin_rich]

Such as?

I don't know but we should have had somebody with that experience ready before firing BB.

This move smells of appeasing the fans and nothing more, IMO.

[RedskinsDave]

I don't know but we should have had somebody with that experience ready before firing BB.

This move smells of appeasing the fans and nothing more, IMO.

I think both Mcphee and Leonsis are smarter than that. If they wanted to appease the fans, Bruce would have been fired three postseason collapses ago.

[cal_junior]

When this story started leaking last night I was really hoping it was just rumor. Hopefully I'm wrong, but this does not seem like a good signing.

The Caps are basically rolling the dice somebody without any experience at this level will know what they're doing.

[skinfanjon]

I have been very critical of "F Bomb" Boudreau in the past and am pleased we are moving on. He's not a Cup-caliber coach in my view and he appeared by multiple accounts to have lost the team, for whatever reason. I expect his dismissal will light a fire under this team and get the season back on track. Whether Hunter is a capable coach at this level remains to be seen, but he has the sort of resume' that will command respect from his players and I expect we will see a stronger effort for the balance of the season. Of course, he will ultimately be judged based on the teams' playoff performance.

While I'm happy at the change, it's time to crank up the heat on Ovechkin and Semin. The team goes as these two go and they got their wish, so there's no place to hide if the team fails. They should be held accountable for the remainder of the season. You wanted Boudreau gone, you got your wish, now go play like stars.

[RedskinsDave]

While there’s a lot of pressure on Hunter to get things turned around for the Caps, he could make things a lot easier on himself and the rest of the team by doing something that Boudreau never fell back upon doing in his desperate final days in D.C. Instead of tweaking things defensively and turning the Caps into a pack of grinders, Hunter should just dial it back to a few seasons ago and take the leash off the team and let them attack at will.

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/28/for-dale-hunter-to-succeed-he-needs-to-do-it-old-school/

Yup.

[cal_junior]

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/28/for-dale-hunter-to-succeed-he-needs-to-do-it-old-school/

Yup.

Yeah, score a lot of goals and then lose to a crap team with a hot goalie in the first round of the playoffs. Pass. You don't win the Stanley Cup the way the Caps played in 09-10.

Style hasn't been the Caps problem this past month. The issue has been injuries, goalie play and generally crappy defensive accountability. Hopefully Hunter can work on the last one and the other two will come around.

[redskin_rich]

I imagine that Hunter will impose a more physical, punishing style of play, based on what Hunter did as a player. I'm cool with that and I actually think that works to the benefit of Ovechkin. Semin won't be here much longer but he should have been traded last season.

I'm starting to come around on this move but I still am concerned that if this fails, the team will have to go nuclear. Not to mention, nobody wants to see a beloved hero of the team become the subject of the fans anger.

[RedskinsDave]

Yeah, score a lot of goals and then lose to a crap team with a hot goalie in the first round of the playoffs. Pass. You don't win the Stanley Cup the way the Caps played in 09-10.

Style hasn't been the Caps problem this past month. The issue has been injuries, goalie play and generally crappy defensive accountability. Hopefully Hunter can work on the last one and the other two will come around.

Style has been an issue. Bruce reigned in the offense two seasons ago, not 09-10. Then last year they modified it some more and basically has taken Ovi out of his game.

I don't think for a minute that Hunter would be dumb enough to ignore the defense and if the goalies don't wake up it won't matter.

[cal_junior]

Style has been an issue. Bruce reigned in the offense two seasons ago, not 09-10. Then last year they modified it some more and basically has taken Ovi out of his game.

I don't think for a minute that Hunter would be dumb enough to ignore the defense and if the goalies don't wake up it won't matter.

I think Ovie has taken himself out of the game, frankly. Nothing the team has done the past 1 1/2 seasons has prevented him from doing what he used to do. Defenders are playing him better and he needs to adjust.

The Caps played the same style at the end of last season and the beginning of this one. It works. They just need to play better.

[Ibleedburgundy]

IMO, BB has been outcoached rather frequently, going all the way back to the first Rangers series where Torts took BB to game 7 despite having a vastly inferior team (except for Lundqvist, who is awesome). It's clear to me that other coaches make adjustments, and BB is not capable of reacting properly. The Tampa series last year probably should have been the final nail in the coffin. Guy Boucher had his team scoring at will. He was toying with BB.

Bylsma also made some key adjustments that BB wasn't able to counter despite having the early lead in that series. Same goes for the Montreal series.

Those losses weren't on Ovechkin - the guy who always produces in the postseason as evidenced by his 1.3 PPG in the post season over his career.

[cal_junior]

IMO, BB has been outcoached rather frequently, going all the way back to the first Rangers series where Torts took BB to game 7 despite having a vastly inferior team (except for Lundqvist, who is awesome). It's clear to me that other coaches make adjustments, and BB is not capable of reacting properly. The Tampa series last year probably should have been the final nail in the coffin. Guy Boucher had his team scoring at will. He was toying with BB.

Bylsma also made some key adjustments that BB wasn't able to counter despite having the early lead in that series. Same goes for the Montreal series.

Those losses weren't on Ovechkin - the guy who always produces in the postseason as evidenced by his 1.3 PPG in the post season over his career.

You're not giving BB as much credit as he deserves for the past few years. The Lightning series had a lot to with the Caps kicking several key goals into their own net, the Lightning's red-hot PP and Wideman being out. The first three games could have gone either way and the Caps were dominant during much of them.

With that said, I'm not opposed to BB being replaced. In the NHL it seems like at some point every coach starts to slide. But I don't like the way it was done and the experience level of the new guy.

It feels like the kind of move where the Caps will be jolted into better play in the short-term, but end up being worse off come playoff time and and over the next few seasons.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

[RedskinsDave]

Well according to Joe Yerdon from prohockeytalk.com, the move to Hunter was in the works as far back as last December. Here is his comment to me regarding the move:

Crazy part is, this move almost happened a year ago. If the Caps lost that game in Ottawa last December (the one they drama'd up on 24/7), Boudreau was done then and Hunter would've gotten the call. The Caps have had their eye on him for this long.

[cal_junior]

Hunter will win me over quick if this is how the Caps start to play. This is the way to win four playoffs series in a row:

"I want to be a good forechecking team, very sound defensively, and by playing good defensively we create offense. We knock pucks off sticks and they get caught on odd-man rushes because we’re sound in our own end."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capitals-insider/post/dale-hunter-gets-to-work-on-capitals-power-play/2011/11/29/gIQAXgcH9N_blog.html

[cal_junior]

Waaaay too early to make any comments about coaching, but that was a terrible way to spend 2 1/2 hours of my life. The Blues looked like they were playing a different sport.

[RedskinsDave]

Waaaay too early to make any comments about coaching, but that was a terrible way to spend 2 1/2 hours of my life. The Blues looked like they were playing a different sport.

You mean the soul killing boring kind of sport only masochists enjoy watching? That kind of sport?

[cal_junior]

You mean the soul killing boring kind of sport only masochists enjoy watching? That kind of sport?

What struck me was that only one team was able to cleanly and consistently clear its own zone while also creating scoring chances on the other end - and it wasn't the home team. I think the Caps had 2 scoring chance over the game's first 40 minutes.

And there is nothing soul-killing about the Blues' record since Hitchcock took over.