After the firing spree of the coaching staff that went on last week in the NHL, a few teams have changed up their coaches. One of these teams is the Anaheim Ducks. Bruce Boudreau having been fired from his head coaching position with the Washington Capitals was not out of a job for too long. Three days later, The Anaheim Ducks fired their current coach Randy Carylye, so that they could hire Boudreau as his replacement. The Ducks management has been displeased with the current rut that the team seems to be in, and are hoping that Boudreau will bring the team some more wins as he continues to coach.
Thus far; however, Boudreau and the team have been falling flat in this hope. Boudreau made his debut as the new Ducks coach last Friday night in a home game against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. The first period of the game started out strong for the Ducks with a 2-0 lead, so it appeared that the Ducks were going to prevail, but Boudreau could not out do Flyers’ head coach Peter Laviolette. Laviolette eventually led his own team to the road victory with a 4-3 overtime win. This was a disappointing loss for the home team, as the loss was on the home ice and with a new coach.
This was only Boudreau first game as the new coach, so he has the benefit of the doubt that him and the ducks need to get used to a new team structure. Unfortunately the new head coach was unable to lead his team to victory last night when the Ducks played another home game against the Minnesota Wild. Again as with their last game, The Ducks were strong on the forecheck in the first period, but they began to fall to the Wild in the second and third periods of the game, where the Wild dominated. The Ducks were beaten by the Wild 3-5, despite the home ice advantage.
Boudreau has just become the new coach, so some of these losses might be the result of the team not being accumulated to his style of coaching. Whenever there is a drastic change to a team, sometimes it takes a bit before the team can change for the better. Ducks management is still hopeful that Boudreau can help the team in this way as the December month of the hockey season progresses.
