Bruce Boudreau will not see out his contract as the Minnesota Wild head coach
Bruce Boudreau is now in his third season as the Minnesota Wild head coach, every year he’s topped 100 points in the regular season and ensured play-off action in St. Paul.
This season, the Wild’s chances of making the play-offs are seemingly slipping away right in front of our eyes. With those chances, I see Bruce Boudreau’s stint as head coach also slipping away.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a bad coach but he’s also not Paul Fenton’s coach. The General Manager arrived at the start of the season and obviously didn’t want to immediately shake things up.
However, given the age of the core pieces on his roster; you have to think that he’s going to make some changes and try to shape things more in his image of how a hockey club should run. Unfortunately for Bruce Boudreau, I believe he’s going to see the door as a result.
In 201 regular season games, he’s delivered the Minnesota Wild 112 wins with a 0.612 points percentage. These statistics mask a poor season this year though, with only 39 points from 37 games, putting the team on pace for a lowly 86 points.
Even worse, when you look at his play-off record with the Wild, you’re immediately directed to the fact there have been just 10 games and only 2 wins.
You can argue for hours that he hasn’t been afforded a roster that is built for post-season competition. Likewise, you can argue for hours that injuries ruined any decent chance at a Stanley Cup run last season. Fact is though, I don’t think he is the right coach to see the Minnesota Wild throw to the second round, minimum.
Too often this season, the Wild are giving goals and chasing games. The coach has managed to get them shooting more but he hasn’t succeeded in getting the best out of many (if any) of his squad.
His recent pulling of Devan Dubnyk in the game against the Blackhawks, seemed to catch his number one goaltender off-guard. That doesn’t paint a picture of confidence around his player’s trust in him.
In 2019, I think we will see Bruce Boudreau moving on. Who replaces him; that’s the hard part?!