Can Bruce Boudreau lead the Ducks to a Stanley Cup?

Can Bruce Boudreau lead the Ducks to a Stanley Cup?

Can Bruce Boudreau lead the Ducks to a Stanley Cup?

The Anaheim Ducks lost only one game during the first two rounds of the 2014-15 playoffs before running into the Chicago Blackhawks in the conference finals, ultimately ending their impressive bid for the Stanley Cup. Head coach Bruce Boudreau is no stranger to that particular brand of disappointment; early post-season exits have become something of a theme in the course of his NHL coaching career.

Boudreau first took on the role of NHL head coach in November of 2007 with the Washington Capitals. Following the 2007-2008 season, he would go on to coach the Capitals for three more full seasons, leading them to four straight division titles followed by four disappointing first or second round playoff defeats. Despite his regular season success, frustration over the underwhelming post-season performance led the Capitals to fire Boudreau on November 28, 2011. Two days later, he was hired by the Anaheim Ducks. He had a rocky start in the Western Conference and the Ducks finished the 2011-12 season last in their division, but he was soon able to right the ship, and the team has since made three consecutive post-season appearances.

Since arriving in Anaheim in 2011, Bruce Boudreau must be feeling a certain amount of déjà vu. He arrived in November to bail out an ailing team, transforming them from a chronic under-achiever to a division powerhouse in the course of a single season. Just like in Washington, Boudreau has led his team to three straight division titles—and still hasn’t brought home a Stanley Cup to show for it. While in Washington, Boudreau earned the Jack Adams award for outstanding coaching in 2008, and led the team to a President’s Trophy win in the 2009-10 season, the first in the team’s history. Boudreau reached 200 wins in a shorter span of time than any other coach in NHL history while coaching the Capitals (later, with Anaheim, he would also become the fastest to reach 300 wins, in just 496 career games). In his first seven years coaching in the NHL, he has never had a losing season. He’s also experienced post-season success at the AHL level. Under his leadership, the Hershey Bears won the Calder Cup in 2006, and appeared again in the finals in 2007, though they lost in game 5 to the Hamilton Bulldogs. While replicating this feat at the professional level is certainly a taller task, it seems as though Boudreau should have at least secured a conference title given his regular season accolades and the quality of the talent he’s had on his rosters.

One telling statistic may be the performance of teams under Boudreau’s leadership in game 7 situations. Between 2007 and 2011, Washington went 1-3 in game sevens, with their sole win coming in the first round of the 2007-08 season to eliminate the New York Rangers and advance to the Conference Semi-Finals—where they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in another game 7. Despite the hard-fought nature of the series up to that point, Pittsburgh was dominant in the final game, coming away with a 6-2 victory. The Anaheim Ducks under Bruce Boudreau have fared no better in these do or die situations, going 0-3 in game sevens from 2013-2015. Their 2014 loss to the Los Angeles Kings showed eerie similarities to Washington’s loss to Pittsburgh in 2008. Both were crushing second-round losses following hard-fought series; both games ended up in a score of 6-2; and both the Penguins and the Kings would go on to the Cup Finals. While you could argue that these are two cases of bad luck, running up against hot teams on their way to the top, one has to wonder when it will be Boudreau’s team that’s on a hot streak.

In the 2015 playoffs, Bruce Boudreau reached the Conference Finals for the first time in his coaching career. After missing the playoffs in 2012, Anaheim has advanced a round further in each of their subsequent playoff appearances. If they hope to continue the trend and make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, Boudreau will have to exorcise his game 7 demons and succeed where he has previously failed in getting his team to stand up strong with the series on the line.