VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Vancouver Canucks announced on Sunday the firing of Bruce Boudreau as coach.
The firing came less than a week after Canucks' president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said "major surgery" would be needed to fix the team. Vancouver has only made the playoffs once in the past eight season and appear to be missing the playoffs yet again.
Assistant coach Trent Cull was also relieved of his duties on Sunday. Adam Foote was named as an assistant and Sergei Gonchar a defensive development coach on Tocchet's staff.
Rick Tocchet was hired as Boudreau's replacement for a Vancouver team that has lost 28 of 46 games this season.
Tocchet has a record of 178-200-60 as head coach. He was at the helm with the Tampa Bay Lightning for parts of two seasons from 2008 to 2010 and the Arizona Coyotes for four years from 2017 to 2021. As a player, he won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins and then twice more as an assistant for them.
Bourdreau acknowledged the speculation around his future on Friday.
"I'd be a fool to say I don't know what's going on," Boudreau said. "But like I've said before, you come to work, and you realize how great the game is."
He was emotional during the press conference following the Canucks loss to the Oilers.
"You never know if it's the end," Boudreau told reporters after the game, tears welling in his eyes. "So when you've been in it for almost 50 years -- you know, the majority of your life -- and now if it's the end, I had to stay out there and look at the crowd and just try to say, 'OK, try to remember this moment type of thing.'"
Boudreau's exit marks the second coach that Vancouver has fired in less than 14 months. He took over in December 2021 when previous coach Travis Green and general manager Jim Benning were let go just 25 games into the 2021-22 season.
Boudreau won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 2007-08 where he was elevated from the minors to take over the Capitals on Thanksgiving and led them to the playoffs. His 617 wins are tied for 20th in league history with Hall of Famer Jacques Lemaire.
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