Bruce Boudreau on Ducks' firing, Senators' interview, Wild's core

At 6:30 a.m. on Friday April 29, Bruce Boudreau received a text message from Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray. Once he saw the note, Boudreau knew his time coaching the Ducks was probably over.

Boudreau’s Ducks had lost to the Nashville Predators in Game 7 of the first-round of the playoffs. It was the fourth straight Game 7 loss for the organization. Even though Boudreau had won four Pacific Division championships with the Ducks, he knew playoff failures in big games had defined his tenure.

“I knew (he didn’t text me) to congratulate me,” Boudreau said in a phone interview with Puck Daddy. “I knew it was coming before I went in and I made sure to phone my kids and talked to my wife and let them know what was probably going to happen.”

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And when the Ducks made the decision, Boudreau quickly became the hottest commodity on the coaching market. He interviewed with the Minnesota Wild and the Ottawa Senators in the week after he was let go. It also appeared the Calgary Flames fired Bob Hartley in order to go after Boudreau.

One day after Boudreau interviewed with Ottawa, the Wild moved quickly, landing the veteran coach to reinvigorate the franchise. According to Boudreau, he never had a “formal offer” from Ottawa. He also felt like he jibed with Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher – known as one of the savvier operators in the business. After the Senators hired Guy Boucher, they said Boucher was their No. 1 choice and had the resources to meet Boudreau's price tag of near $3 million per-year. 

“Meeting with Chuck I felt … I felt the same way with (Ottawa GM) Pierre (Dorion) but there was a little more – it was so easy to talk to them and their philosophy was great and I thought they had a really good team,” Boudreau said. “And I thought they always played hard against us so I was hoping and praying they were the ones that would come to the front and asked me to coach.”

Added Boudreau, “We knew it was going to happen quick and it did happen quick.”

A lot of attention with Boudreau has revolved around his offensive philosophies and trying to open up the Wild’s defensive-minded systems. But he also needs to coax more talent out of some of the Wild’s younger players.

Forward Mikael Granlund was once considered a budding star, but has never eclipsed 44 points in a full season. Defenseman Jonas Brodin is considered a mobile minute cruncher (20:25 per-game last season) but hasn’t turned into that No. 1 or No. 2 defenseman the Wild hoped when he was a rookie. Jason Zucker’s best year came in 2014-15 when the forward had 21 goals in 51 games. He had just 13 goals in 71 games this year. All three are age 24 and younger.

If these players can tap into their potential, then the Wild will have a better chance of taking another step. If they don’t then Boudreau will need to rely on the team’s aging core, which could make a fifth-straight playoff appearance for the Wild seem less likely.

“I’ve seen (their younger players) all play and thought they were great and again, how can I help them grow? I think there are a couple of ways. One is just natural maturation and two is I think if they put in the work, they’re going to get better,” Boudreau said. “I’ve seen so many players from a young age to middle hockey age in the mid-20s improve so much and I don’t see why these guys can’t either.”

Added Boudreau, "A lot of them haven’t hit their ceiling of how good they’re going to be. And I think they’re a very competitive team in the Central Division which I classify right up there with the best division in the league. If they haven’t hit their ceiling to be able to watch them grow I think there’s another step to be taken by the team and individual players."

This past year, there was some drama with Wild forward Zach Parise and his using Adam Oates as a skills coach. Yeo indicated he believed Oates’ presence with Parise hurt the team. When asked, Boudreau said he didn’t have an opinion.

“I haven’t really encountered it yet,” Boudreau said. “It’s too early for me to answer that question. We’ll see as we go along here.”

In his introductory press conference with the Wild, Boudreau indicated he preferred to limit the minutes of defenseman Ryan Suter more moving forward. While Suter’s showed no signs of slowing down – and put up his best statistical season of his career – Yeo had a tendency to overuse the blueliner. In four years with Minnesota Suter averaged 28:44 of ice-time.

With the Ducks, Boudreau had a pair of elite defensemen in Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm, but often preferred to roll three pairs.

“I’ve never said I wasn’t going to play him 30 minutes, I just think it’s advantageous if he doesn’t have to,” Boudreau said. “If you can roll out the three defense pairings – but you have to have three defense pairings to roll out – I think it’s more beneficial than playing someone 30-plus minutes per-game.”

Since the Wild brought in Parise and Suter before the 2012-13 season, the Minnesota hasn't finished better than 12th in the NHL in scoring. Last season the Wild finished 18th in the NHL with 2.60 goals per-game. In 2015-16, forward Mikko Koivu led the team with 57 points. Parise notched 25 goals.

Boudreau has often been known as an offensive coach and a coach that maximizes his team from a puck possession perspective. His past groups also had offensive superstars, and the Wild currently does not. This may mean Boudreau may need to change his approach to some degree.

“As much as I like Alex Ovechkin and Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, you don’t need those guys to survive to win,” Boudreau said. “I think we can do it the old fashioned way which is you work as a team and you have 20 guys playing. It’s cliché but it’s the thing I think that always works.”

Still, part of the reason why he was hired was because of his team’s offense.

"His teams play fast, they score, they win and they're entertaining," general manager Chuck Fletcher said. "[I think our players] need a different push, they need a different voice, and Bruce's experience, as long as his tremendous passion for the game and his hockey IQ, will allow him to push this group to heights they haven't been to yet."

Part of the reason why Boudreau has been such a successful coach is because he gets his players to buy in because of his caring personality. Boudreau has a 409-192-80 record as an NHL coach between the Washington Capitals and Anaheim Ducks. Boudreau has yet to speak with the Wild's core, but said that talk will happen in the "next week or so."

"I always vowed I’d get to know (my players) and it’s my job to find any little way to make them tick and make them play better and knowing a little bit about them is always beneficial," Boudreau said. "I know they appreciate it, I would have appreciated it as a player."

Both Boudreau and the Wild have been defined by past playoff failures. In Minnesota's four straight postseason appearances they've made the second-round twice, despite having one of the higher payrolls in hockey. Maybe both the coach and the players can find a way to get over the hump together. When asked about his Game 7 struggles, Boudreau noted he's still trying to find ways to hone his coaching craft.

"I’ve improved every year, I’m becoming a better coach," Boudreau said. "Hopefully that improvement can continue. As far as dwelling on the past … the past is the past. I’m looking to the future and forgetting about the past."

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper