Canucks to sack bench boss Travis Green, hire former capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau as replacement

Photo: Pioneer Press

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Vancouver Canucks fired head coach Travis Green on Sunday and replaced him with former Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau, who signed a two-year contract with the club.

Heard tonight that Bruce Boudreau will be the next coach of the Vancouver Canucks.

– Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 6, 2021

A 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night, where the Vancouver Canucks took a 44-23 lead gave the team a 10th loss in 13 games (3-9-1), better than just the New York Islanders (0) -7 -2) as of November 8

Not sure of the exact timeline, but the change was made today. Not sure when the official announcement will be made.

– Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 6, 2021

Green just signed a contract extension with the Canucks this past season.

Overall, the Canucks’ .360 percentage points this season rank 29th in the NHL, behind only the Arizona Coyotes (.250), Montreal Canadaiens (.288) and Ottawa Senators (.295). Despite averaging 33.6 shots per game (eighth), the Canucks have allowed 32 shots per game (13th most) this season.

Although they have attacking weapons like center Elias Pettersson, right wing Brock Boeser, centre-back JT Miller and right winger Conor Garland, the Canucks are currently 28th with an average of 2.36 goals per game and 20th with 17th. , 4. % power generation efficiency. Not even starting in defence, where the team’s 64.6% penalty kill rate is the worst in NHL history across 25 games in a season. They also averaged 3.16 goals per game (10th most) after making multiple runs on the touchline and into the net in their final season in an attempt to correct their defensive flaws. .

In 314 games off the bench, Green led the Canucks to a 133-147-34 record (0.478 point percentage) and made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs just once, in 2020, where they lost. Vegas Golden Knights in seven games.

In 13 seasons as the NHL head coach with the Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild, the 66-year-old has 567-302-115 record in the regular season. He was hired midway through the year by the Capitals for the 2007-08 season and led them to the Stanley Cup Qualifiers for the first time in the Alex Ovechkin era with 11 wins in the final 12 games of the season. Boudreau won the Jack Adams Award as that year’s NHL coach of the year that season. During five seasons with the Capitals, Boudreau has 201-88-40. He guided them to their first Presidential Title in 2009-10 and to the top of the Eastern Conference again the following season but was never able to get them past the second round. .

Boudreau has taken his team to the third round only once in his NHL coaching career. That came to the Ducks in 2015, when they lost seven games to eventual Stanley Cup Champion the Chicago Blackhawks.

Boudreau worked as a studio analyst for NHL Network since Wild fired him and had a conversation with Capitals about returning to the same role after they fired head coach Todd Reirden in August 2020 but it didn’t go far. In the end, the team decided to hire Peter Laviolette instead.

By Harrison Brown