Washington Capitals show long time head coach Bruce Boudreau the door -NHL Update
The Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL), showed the door to long time head coach of their team, Bruce Boudreau, on Monday, November 28, 2011, in what is termed as one of the biggest surprise moves by the organisation in recent years.
Boudreau had one of the most colourful reputations in the entire major league, by having won 200 games the fastest in modern hockey, he established himself as one of the best coaches ever since joining the club four years ago.
The Capitals ended the past two seasons on top of the Eastern Conference at the number one spot, but failed to do anything as significant in the playoffs, which were termed as the teams chocking point and something they had wanted to change for quite some
time due to the damage it had on their reputation.
It was Washington Capitals general manager, George McPhee, who decided to make the change, regarding his decision based on the view that the players were simple not responding to his demands any more, which obviously signalled the need for change.
"This was simply a case of the players were no longer responding to Bruce. When you see that, as much as you don't want to make a change, you have to make a change," general manager George McPhee said.
After the 2011-2012 NHL regular season kicked off, Boudreau was noted to have difficulty in getting his top player, Washington captain, Alex Ovechkin, to do what he wanted and how he wanted it to be done, which created a clash between the thinking of both,
but it was not considered to be a factor in the change.
"I don't think this has anything to do with Alex Ovechkin," added McPhee, along with announcing that Ovechkin will remain the captain. "I think it's got everything to do with this team not playing well."
Bruce Boudreau has been immediately replaced by former Washington Capitals captain, Dale Hunter, making it especially exciting to see how things will play out as the season progresses.
Having a 12-9-1 record in their past 22 games and sitting eighth in the East despite the huge talent they have, seeing how this change affects their game play will be something everyone will be waiting to see.
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