It was obvious to everyone after Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Buffalo that Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau was on thin ice. This was a man, after all, whose team had never made it past the second round of the postseason and could easily have been fired after last year’s playoff sweep by Tampa Bay.
Boudreau appeared at a loss. His team wasn’t playing a committed brand of hockey. They had been blown out in three of five games – twice to undermanned teams – with the blueline a complete mess.
“It’s got to come from within, I’ve got to believe,” Boudreau told reporters in Buffalo on how his team could escape a 5-9-1 skid that ruined a perfect 7-0 start to the 2011-12 season. “I’m hoping that’s got to come from within because if I’ve got to teach them how to be tough, then I don’t know quite how to do that.”
That quote smacked of Glen Hanlon’s words to general manager George McPhee when he was being fired on Thanksgiving Day, 2007 to make way for Boudreau. Hanlon, according to McPhee, said he wouldn’t have known what to say to the players at practice. When that happens it’s time to make a change and that’s what McPhee did with a 6:15 a.m. meeting on Monday morning.
“These are always difficult decisions. But as I said, you don’t want to make these decisions, but when you see what I saw, you have to make the decision,” McPhee said. “You can’t look the other way. And I’ve seen it in a few games recently, enough that I knew the team wasn’t responding. We’ve got their attention now, and hopefully they’ll respond in the right way.”
McPhee insisted he didn’t consult the players themselves. He’s never considered it a good idea to wade into a group of 23 men, each with their own thoughts and opinions, and form a consensus. That’s not how pro sports works. He did need to consult with owner Ted Leonsis, however.
“It’s never easy to let a coach go, and Bruce was a popular personality who helped turn around our franchise,” Leonsis wrote on his blog, Ted’s Take. Despite what transpired on the ice this year, I always will be thankful for Bruce’s time with the Capitals and will remember him fondly. He is a great coach who I’m confident will land another spot in the NHL. Unfortunately the shelf life of a coach is short; Bruce was the fifth longest tenured coach in the league. That’s amazing to me.”
McPhee acknowledged that Boudreau held his players accountable early this season. Almost half the roster was benched for one transgression or another. He didn’t elaborate, but there were things he saw in training camp and during the preseason games that gave him pause. The fast start papered over those issues. An injury to defenseman Mike Green (right ankle, right groin) didn’t help. But this is far from a one-man team – or it should be. So why not make the move last spring after the latest playoff flameout?
“I didn’t think it was Bruce’s fault that we lost in the playoffs. And I didn’t want to finger him,” McPhee said. “And as I said earlier, I don’t view this as a negative or a failure at all. I think Bruce came in and did a great job and his time was up. If we think we could have done this in the summer we could have lined up a bunch of candidates and of all those candidates, if Dale’s in there he’s probably the guy.”
The losses at Winnipeg and Toronto forced McPhee’s hand. He had to start preparing for a change if things didn’t turn quickly. That’s when he started “kicking around” the idea of talking with Hunter. The ugly losses to the New York Rangers on Friday (6-3) and the Sabres on Saturday (5-1) sealed it. McPhee says the Caps have had trade talks with other NHL teams to test the market, but the majority of the front office’s time in recent days has been sorting out the coaching scenario. With that finished McPhee will get back on the phone Tuesday. But this far from the trade deadline, deals are difficult to pull off.
“It’s tough. I don’t know exactly how it all happened. My first time every going through something like this,” defenseman Karl Alzner said. “But Bruce still has a ton to teach. For whatever reason, as a team we weren’t really responding well enough or as good as we should have been. And it’s kind of ‘Where do you go from there?’ And that’s when they come into play, the guys upstairs. And they do what they have to do.”
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