We are blessed to have such a straightforward, authentic and good man as Coach Boudreau be our coach. He had a remarkable season - leading us to 94 points, a Division championship and a playoff spot - when there didn’t appear to be any hope of a successful season when he took over the team.
He was always positive. He loved the talent that we had amassed. He saw the youth we had as a positive and he is so in love with the game of hockey that every day was a “great day”.
He is a coach to lead our young team over the long term. He is aggressive, creative, honest and fair and he has certainly paid his dues. I give kudos to General Manager George McPhee for hiring Bruce and placing him in our Hershey affiliate and then having the courage to tap Bruce as our interim and then coach for the year and then getting him re-signed for a long period of time.
I can think of no coach who did a better job that Bruce this year in the NHL. Can you?
Dave, Montreal is going to be the biggest obstacle in the Caps’ way to winning the Stanley Cup in the Eastern conference, not Pittsburgh. The Pens are good now, but they have a *lot* of older talent (Gonchar, Roberts, Hossa, etc.) and likely will fall in the standings next year. The Caps and Habs farm teams each won the AHL championship the past 2 years…
Ted-
I agree with Mike L-Either Bruce or Guy would be a great choice. I think what Guy did as coach of the Habs, which I would compare to being the manager of the Yankees in the US, is remarkable. He also had his #1 goalie taken away from him. Montreal is a lot like the Caps, a young team with a core that is home-grown with some solid veterans to help along the way.
I just read this on the Caps wesite:
(Ovechkin (Pearson, Hart) will be joined by teammate Nicklas Backstrom (Calder Memorial Trophy finalist) and head coach Bruce Boudreau (Jack Adams Award finalist) at the NHL Awards show. The Capitals are the only team that could win four awards at the event.)
Absolutely amazing!! MANY kudo’s to the entire team, from top to bottom. This year ended with so many ‘positives’… that next year just can’t come soon enough!
The only coach who did as good a job as Bruce was Guy Carbonneau of Montreal (his was as good, not better). It’s a tough call between them. The other finalist, Babcock did have the best record with Detroit, but if he didn’t have the best record with that team, he should have been fired.
Personally, I would have put Babcock somewhere in the middle, my top 5 for the year would be:
Bruce Boudreau
Guy Carbonneau
Barry Trotz (Nashville)
John Stevens (Philly)
Ron Wilson (San Jose)
PS. Are you going rent a U-Haul or something so the guys can bring home all their hardware?