Bruce Boudreau interview | Head Coach Minnesota Wild | Patrick Roy Fight | Fellowship of the Rink
joining the show today is one of us by way of being a first round draft pick in the 1974 W ha draft by the Minnesota Fighting Saints Minnesota blue Hawks ownership group and coaching your Minnesota Wild from 2016 through 2020 Bruce Buro thanks for jumping on Bruce hey it’s my pleasure how are you guys today good do doing pretty well doing pretty well um you were in uh like Vegas recently for the playoff uh series there uh just what’s your schedule like now like I know you want to stay busy and and keep active with the game uh just what’s overall been this this time been like for you since you’ve been uh your last in Vancouver well you know what it it I’ve been actually quite busy I did a lot of um uh caps uh pre and post game and then at the end of the season they um uh they had an alternate feat which I was doing like like the the Payton Manning thing so I was going from there to TSN in Toronto um since the uh I think since the trade deadline I’ve been working with them and when I’m not doing that then I then I’ll go to the New York or New Jersey and do the NHL Network stuff so I haven’t been home much so that’s why we went to Vegas we I think we’ve been doing this for about 15 or 16 days straight and I said okay we need need a little bit of a break here and so my my wife loves going to Vegas so that we went there for 3 or 4 days and had some fun are you more of a a gambler or like a show or going to sports I’m more of a I lose and then she wins and so she pays me back the money that she won so to cover my losses and it seems like then it seems like I do okay you break even somehow I break even yes what what’s the go-to spot out there on the strap well you know what we stay we we’ve stayed at uh a lot of different places but I mean we were at manderlay Bay this time but I mean we’ll play Slots and that’s that’s pretty well it uh you know what and it’s just as expensive to do that but we like going to the shows and we like you know this trip we got a chance to see Vegas play a couple times so that was more important to me um but I mean it you know like the the the car games or the the table games almost price you out like I mean you got to play now $20 minimum $25 minimum and uh uh I I get too mad when I lose so I mean I just sort of stay away from that think that’s why they give the guys uh debit cards now versus cash on the airplanes for their pum so that you know yeah time to get off the plane I don’t don’t doubt it at all well as you know this is a fellowship of the rink is the playoff of fellow of the uh Lord of the Rings uh movie which we’re both big fans of and I was curious do you have kind of like a a nerd itch or nerd D that you like you know you collect cards are you a big into Star Wars like I saw juke box behind you do you collect Juke boxes like what’s your I guess well I guess I guess if I’m a nerd for anything it’s wrestling okay um you know i’ I’ve followed since the early 80s I guess it’s probably even before that but you didn’t nobody knew both wrestling and I on Saturday afternoon and in Toronto you’d watch it on channel 2 which was came from Buffalo and the guys back there I mean um that was that was in the early 70s and 60s but I mean I followed wrestling uh most of most of my life and and got to meet a few of them recently and um they became you know like sort of friends we did not like not hang out friends but I mean guys that text back and forth every now and again so uh uh and when the shows come into Hershey I always go and watch them and it it’s fun the person who was the person you met the wrestler that you met that were like maybe you had a little bit of all Factor there like well you know there was Kevin Owens I met in um at the Montreal draft and Jackie Redmond who works for the now you know does a lot of TV and works for the WWE on Raw she uh her and EJ Ric sort of of surprised me with uh Kevin coming in and um so I mean met Adam Copeland a couple times who’s formerly known as Edge uh in the WWE now he’s in aw but I mean uh that’s my real thing I mean when I was younger I collected Comics um and uh you know actually up to about 15 years ago or 20 years ago I had an unbelievable collection but I mean uh um and ended up selling it but other than that uh it’s like it’s all sports all the time with me baseball the summer uh watching and hockey all winter long I watch every game or as many as I can see and then football in the fall college football I mean it’s and then I live on a golf course so I mean I’m uh pretty well into sports stuff man that’s that’s quite the spread and what what what was the go-to comic comic yeah Spider-Man I had a all I had one one through 350 um at one point but I started collecting them in the early 60s when Marvel was just coming into into play and I had thousands of them and uh the crazy thing is I I sold them uh because we wanted in when I was in Hershey and crazy thing I wish to God I hadn’t sold them but I mean uh sold them all uh because we wanted to finish our basement it was just nothing there so we had to do it from start to start to finish and we didn’t want to put a bar in there and everything else I had we didn’t have the money to do that so we we did it we sold the comics completed it and then four days later I got called up to the capitals and at that point I’m so was so mad because now then I could afford it with the raise so it was crazy crazy timing man and we’ll talk right now I guess about just your transition from coaching into the media which you’ve been doing a great job like you said you’ve already been all over the networks how tough was the transition from coaching to media especially considering uh the the locker room language that uh you frequently threw out well you know I don’t I don’t swear at home or anything so I mean it’s been PR pretty easy to to handle and and quite frankly it it started um Sports Sportsnet called me uh after we lost out in Anaheim um to do some of the stuff in Toronto so I did that for the playoffs and uh then all of a sudden the NHL Network phoned when we missed out in in or when I was done in Minnesota and they called and so I mean the great thing is like I mean I just I just talk it’s it’s just me and and like it’s just the knowledge of of the game I guess and um but I mean I never think of myself as a media person I still want to coach so I mean I still this is sort of something to keep me involved in the game like I mean I know I’m getting a little long in the tooth for that but I feel I feel energetic and young so I feel if anybody wanted me I could still do the job but uh um it it’s just an extension of talking hockey and and and talking Sports and and to me that’s not difficult if I had to do any studying I’d be in trouble but I mean with this I just sort of shoot from the hip a little bit Yeah fair and are you ear I know like you said the the swearing and stuff not big outside of hockey but inside of hockey everyone knows about it became fabled from the HBO series obviously are you familiar with uh the neelon show uh TSN and uh the filthy Bruce segment that they would do when you were in Vancouver no no basically them spoofing your postgame pressers and uh adding additional colorful language I try not to you know what whether I was uh had a great team and was doing well or had a poor team and uh or it wasn’t doing well I never looked at myself on the media never looked uh never read anything so I mean all of these things you’ve heard about them but I would never I would never turn them on or do anything of that of that sort I mean I just uh I like doing it but I just don’t like like even now I would never I just don’t like looking at myself doing doing stuff on on TV or video or anything like like that that I mean the thing I’ve seen myself most of is the HBO thing where I threw about 40 F bombs in about 25 seconds and you know what’s interesting about that thing is is that we knew they were all they were in there all the time and the HBO HBO people were fabulous but I had told them uh after we came in after the second period of that day I said can you guys leave because I mean I knew I was going to give it to the the team pretty good and they said no we’re allowed to be in here I said okay here goes and like I’ve often told whether it was coaching mini or or Washington or whatever I mean it doesn’t happen all the time but I say listen boys I don’t know what’s going to come out of my mouth right now but here it goes and then you start on something and you just build up and it gets into a rant and like I mean I’ve said some of the stupidest things uh in these rants I remember in Mississippi one night I in the east coast League I I I was going you know was losing it a little bit and I said you got to take the the bull by the cows and the horns got to go somewhere and and they’re all looking at me and going like what the hell’s you talking about and I said I don’t know what I’m talking about I’m just talking oh man that’s straight out of Tommy Boy like it’s got to be the butcher yeah so anyway but I’m not worried about the you know the swearing and that I mean there’s a there’s a place for it and I mean let’s face it athletes or when they’re in their private settings they use the the those words a lot and it’s the same as if you go to movies you know you’re not allowed to swear but every movie has has swearing in it it’s like I don’t get it like I mean they start at eight years old I remember when they’ say you know hey don’t watch Slap Shot your kids are too young and and now every kid that’s 10 years old has seen the movie if you’re a hockey fan you uh you there was a few times in your career where youd only had maybe a few days in between your coaching job so you didn’t really have a lot of downtime in between but when you’ve had some more time like you do any studying up on or you know Shadow anybody or do anything like that or is mostly just kind of watching the games or talking to people to kind of stay because you you Haven not you you’ve been out of the game very long so not like you have to go refresh anything so no I I’m pretty sure I’m I’m pretty uh uh knowledgeable about a the change and if if if there’s been a change in the game like I mean um if the it’s I don’t have to talk to anybody I watch all of them I see the see the systems the way they play and and everything else and um they’re pretty knowledgeable about that so I mean you’re right this is the longest I’ve been away from from coaching in my life I mean or being actually part of either playing or coaching and so I mean it’s a but if you stay up with the times I mean I don’t have to study books or anything I just have to watch and and see what’s going on to be pretty knowledgeable whether the changes that have been made in like in power plays the changes that have been made in systems and how it’s going back and fourth that I mean it was was only 15 years ago uh that gbsh was in Tampa and he was doing the 131 and everybody uh matter of fact labet was there and in a Philly and they stopped the game because they wouldn’t Advance the puck and now you look at everybody’s doing either the 131 the 113 it’s almost the the one 122 in the neutral zone is morphed into something else and so I mean you just got to stay on top of that it’s the same as dzone coverage used to be you know a lot of Zone and now it’s it’s more manto man where and the defense don’t leave the front of the net or don’t go above the the dots type thing and that started I think um more with Bruce Cassidy and then I went to Jim Montgomery and Bruce did it in in um uh Vegas and and so you see that uh uh coming out a lot so I mean it’s a lot of different things like that it’s that you see changing but I mean not different it it used to be on the the penalty kill for example it was always either a two2 or one three now it’s all 13s like I mean uh and so I mean it’s you you see how those things go I was always studying the power play so I mean you try to you try to see when teams are playing in zone um how you know how how to break it and how to how to how to get around your uh what they’re trying to do so I mean I mean watching the game like that that’s what I study and what do you think about the other side of the coin though like obviously you’re very on top of the X’s NOS what do you think about the changes from like your early days getting called up to Washington to what you’re seeing now with how to manage this generation of player like a little bit softer is definitely the wrong word but you can’t really be on them the way you used to unless you’re John Torell out in Philly well you know what and that wears sin after a while too but I mean um and I’ve never changed in that way and I’ve always believed in one thing that it’s it’s my job as a coach to um find what I call the Achilles heel on every player and first of all you got to get to know him a little bit and then what one what might work with some guy doesn’t work with the other guy I mean you might some guys might need a kick in the butt other guys need a pat on the back other guys earlier on you could take ice time away or you could find them but I mean I got to find what makes that guy tick like I mean and when i’ go around the room and talk to them you look at the guys that if I called out somebody in the room that I mean I want them to say oh yeah I’m going to show you and and and that’s what you want from them that’s the reaction but some guys now the younger guys some of them coward some of these guys um when they’re younger have not been uh disciplined at all ever because from 11 years old or 10 years old they’ve been you know given everything because they’re great players right and uh so I mean sometimes they take it a little more difficult you got to put your arm around them and ask some things for an example Mike Green I found out early on in Washington when I had him in Hershey that if I went down the down the bench and I started screaming at him there was nothing I he he was lost for the day so I mean I’d found that I’d have to if he wasn’t doing doing well I’d have to go up to him and put my arm around him and say Mike I need you tonight you know you’re you’re not playing very well he didn’t want anybody else to know that I was yelling at him so I mean then you’d have other guys where uh I really believe and it’s whether now or whether it was a hundred years ago I mean um is is something that they W their whole thought is I won’t care about you until you care about me so I I wanted to get to know you know their wife’s name their kids and for example one day Matt Hendricks who was one of my favorite players ever um he had about two or three bad practices in a row and I and I went up to him and and I and I said Maddie you’re not working what’s what going on this isn’t you and he said well I got both my kids have C I’m up all night so I just said you take two days off like I mean you go take with your kids and and they they they not only respect that they they they they they say okay you’re doing that for me I’m going to go overboard and do something for you so I mean you can call that a player’s coach or not I just call it common sense like I mean if you want them to play your best how do I get the best out of these guys and that’s that’s one of the ways so when you ask the the original question whether you’re 20 years old or 35 years old it’s the same same thing getting to know them I mean with Pon it was the same he was like Mike Green I mean I would uh I got to know him a little bit and and we would talk all the time and I get to know what he wants and everything El he felt comfortable telling me these things so I mean you have a great Rapport and I think almost everybody that was that was my strength as a coach is having the rapport with the people or with the players and I mean I might not have been the genius in X’s and O’s or or line changes or what but I knew they would all play hard for me because they knew I would go to bat for them it’s crazy um to to look at now Bruce like there’s been 17 coaching changes since the end of last season could be more in the coming weeks because of you know after the playoffs are over and I was curious from your perspective like what do you think’s changing the most are led to the fact that there’s so many more seems like more of coaching changes each now than there were maybe 15 years ago as far as in over the course of a onee span maybe I’m wrong but is there something that’s maybe more pressure or the salary cap or just expectations it’s like I mean all the owners are so rich okay they they saw Bill Foley in Vegas win and right from the get-go and so it’s a win now league and listen coaches make a lot of money as compared to the outside world but as compared to what players make and the terms of the coaches very few of them make money that they that the owners and teams can’t absorb because it’s not involved in the salary cap and they’re the easiest guys to go like I mean every team that sort of has their exit meetings and you can see it every year that I mean if the management it used to be the coaches just had exit meetings and would report early on to the GM and say did you find anything out in there in the exit meetings now the coaches have exit meetings the GMS have exit meetings and if the the players say hey I can’t play for him it’s the coach that goes and I mean I think that’s happened a little bit this year even though they won’t tell you I mean in in the exit meetings if the players if enough of the players show displeasure or the top player says hey I’m gonna want out if this guy’s back then you know that the coach is the guy that’s going to be gone yeah that’s fair and I mean you talked about wanting to get back into coaching obviously like this being the landscape that it is if you’re sitting there and evaluating potential coaching opportunities like how do you actually go about that evaluation of like do I want to actually join this organization or not well I mean I I don’t think in those terms I think there there’s 32 jobs and you should be blessed and lucky if you get any one of them I mean never chosen when when I went to Washington we were in last place in the league when I went to Anaheim they were last place in the league when I went to Minnesota they had just come off a bad a really bad year where they had one point they lost 13 or 14 in a row and barely slipped into the they fired their coach three quarters of the way through Vancouver I took over the last place in the league last team in last place team in the league so I’ve never been picky at where I’m going and it just you take it and you go wow like I mean what a what an opportunity what a you know I mean you either fear it because you’re going into to a team that hasn’t been doing well or you think of the positives that can come out of it if you end up doing well and I’ve been lucky enough in each of those occasions the only time I’ve ever had a losing record quite frankly is the last year in Vancouver and uh I mean I mean I could talk about that for about two hours but I think I’d be in a lot of trouble when it would be all over so uh so I’ll just keep quiet about that year but I me episode yeah yeah that’s that’s a um like I said once before and got a lot of trouble that’s that’s a chapter in a book that I’ll never write let’s talk about the positive of that though like the fans overwhelmingly were on your side as all of that transpired like how how cool was it just to see that support from the community it was amazing and and I still get it everywhere I go and uh uh I still tell my wife I can’t believe you know that the the people are still like that that supportive of me and uh um and I thought they were they were amazing and Vancouver is a tough Market but I mean uh it’s again one of those things if you’re fear it if you fear the tough market and the tough questions then you’re you know you’re going to lose but if you embrace it and think of what can happen if you have success like I mean uh then then it’s it’s an awful lot better and you know Vancouver was was a all it’ll always have a place in my heart I mean it was it was a great place and some of those players that I mean they got some really good players that were really good people and there a lot of misinformation when I went there I was getting calls oh it’s a terrible locker room it’s this it’s that they were great they were all great well reminds me of the fact that what made that situation even more unique was you rely get to say goodbye to your players or know what’s coming right if you’re a coach you’re probably like you know like in Minnesota you didn’t know it was coming right like for Vancouver you had that time I guess was how emotional was that scene in the locker room when you like for your last game like I don’t know if you can paint a picture of what that was like to very a real thing well it was it was really I mean unique and I don’t know if it’s ever happened in any sport like that where I knew the day that I was getting fired I knew uh I knew knew the day uh like eight weeks before and uh it it was crazy but I mean so when the this the fans at the end of that game stood up and stayed in the seats and and uh gave me the Ovation and the players all came around the bench and tapped their sticks and like it gets pretty emotional and then very very few coaches of any sport get a chance to address the team after they they know they’re getting fired they haven’t been fired yet but I mean they know they’re getting fired the next day because like for example in Minnesota when Billy Garen told me it was right after I had a meeting with the players and before I was ready to go on the ice when he came in and told me and then so you don’t want to see anybody there and then you just leave out the the back door and you know they’ll text your phone you and that and that’s great but here I got to address and thank all the players for everything they uh they did and the support they gave me and it was great and then each each player uh almost to a man I think the maybe 20 out of the 24 guys came into my office and said goodbye to me um privately and I thought that was pretty amazing I mean uh uh you can’t you can’t make that up or you can’t uh manufacture that it was it was just real you know so I thought if you got to go this is as good a way to go as any for sure and I mean on the wild how crazy was it to be here for a four-year span but serve under three different GMS there it is it was pretty unique yeah the a quick story too like there was one one episode um when Billy was and uh we were flying and I I like he lost oxygen or something and he fell in the plane and he hit his head on the side and all I could think of I can’t go through another GM I mean we had the doctors and everything up there like this and he was flying which was great but I’m going another gam what’s going on here he was fine though he made it out all right but yeah no he was fine I just think maybe the the sudden altitude or something caught him in a different way and he just sort of fainted oh during that stretch uh a lot of crazy things happened over that time but the weirdest had to be the first true to today at least expansion draft were you involved in those conversations leading up to the 2017 Vegas expansion um um was I involved well Chuck was the GM back then and uh um he would tell me the Dilemma that we had and what he you know I didn’t know in the end what he was going to do but he knew we had five really good defenseman and that was the core of our team and that um we didn’t have very much money on the cap so I mean to stop them from say taking Matt and I may be wrong on this I mean we had to offer up Alex tuck who had played only one year and in in the miners and so they wouldn’t take a Matt Dumba uh who at that time was you know still pretty young and and he was a real upand Comer and I think it was the next year he had 12 goals in December until he tore his labam and I think it it became a little more difficult he missed the rest of the year and uh became a little more difficult for him but I mean when you think you had sudor Spurgeon brodine scandel and Dumba the and you were allowed to keep all of them and then we were the way we got um we traded scandel um for U I think palman bille at that time uh but it gave us enough money on the cap to pick up Eric stall which was was a great pickup so was like as as bad as it it looked because you you lose out on on Alex tuck I think Chuck did as good a job as he could in that moment in in in Saving um keeping the same team that he had had like the two names that will be forever in lore here are are par and sud you know for good and for I’m sure bad if you’re a fan right like the the moment of hope that they gave that when they signed and and picked Minnesota to be their longterm destination and then the exit which they’re still paying for with the the the dead cap hits like you around those guys like do you understand the reasoning for the buyout or do you see anything that would made them in a better the team in a better spot in the culture in the room by having those guys maybe not there well I mean I think um in the it wasn’t any conversations that I’d had with anybody but I think uh they were looking for younger leadership and they had just you know I mean uh Eric sck was starting to uh make make him make his his his presence aware and and Spurgeon was starting to be great and and they wanted different leaderships uh leadership guys in there so I think they wanted just to say okay we got these guys for you know they were supposed to be 13 years I don’t know how many years they bought them out after eight or nine but I mean um and they wanted just a different culture of leadership there because moo was they moved moo out and and they they got rid of all the three guys that were the leaders on the team and uh I don’t know if Bill had had talked to he didn’t talk to me about it but I mean he uh I don’t know if he had talked to at that time whether it was Dean or um any of the players and they thought that this was just a bad fit and we have to make the move now and I mean I’m I’m sure um uh uh you know I mean ownership knew about it and everything else and they were okay with it but I mean I think I mean they made a great draft that year I mean I think or the year before with Paul Fenton drafted baly and they got Rossi that year and I mean those guys are going to be you know solid for years to come and and now that they’ve got fav I mean they they they got the good young nucleus I think of what Billy Garen was looking for when he made that change how do you look at see the wild now like obviously when you fire a coach and during the year you know that there’s maybe some underachieving or some frustration there but you mentioned the young core like where do you see the wild right now like um this kind of this kind of who they probably should be while the the buyouts are still in play like missing 14.7 million are they should they be more of a playoff team well I mean I think it always boils down to goal tending I don’t care who you are and what team you’re you’re with I mean if your goal tending is good and I mean uh you’re going to usually be in the playoffs I mean you look at I mean uh I didn’t have the luxury of of having kaas off but I mean you got one of the best players in the world there and you’ve got uh I think Eric sck has has proven he may not be scor 40 but every year he surprises you and scores more and plays in every situation and he’s tougher than nails and I mean I love the guy I mean quite frankly as as far as a player goes uh Ryan Hartman has proven that he was you know I played him like Chicago did and Nashville did and Philadelphia did third or fourth line right winger now he became a second line Center I mean uh out of necessity and uh um he’s still there and he’s having a good he’s having a good career I mean zuk Carell I know what is he 36 next year or something I mean but he can still and he didn’t score as often as he would have liked to this year but he still his his chemistry with Capas off is still fabulous um next year you’ll have Spurgeon back with Faber and broin and I think the defense will be better overall so I mean I I I don’t know if they’re G to be a uh a playoff team and but I do think that they’ve got great character you know on that team and I think they’ll be fighting for the playoffs all the time and that’s uh uh they just got some good nucleus even you know Marcus Felino um is is a is a great leader and a great team guy I mean and you got him on the if you can use him on the third line then then I I think you you’ve got the nucleus of a good good top nine forwards so I mean it’s a uh I don’t see them taking a step back I think they they took a step back this year but I I think once the coaching change was made baly became the player that you expect him to be and um so I mean I think they’ll be right up there next year I don’t know what how much money they have I haven’t paid attention to that whether they can get one or two good free agents to mix in with what they’ve got because they’re young and they’ve got experience and so I mean I expect them to be a tough out next year where is Capri off in terms of one of the top players in the world on your mind like I got a chance to watch him now two years in a row or like I’m like that wow factor of I think he’s a top 10 player you know top 10 12 player in the world and and if you take away the top 20 the the 25 games that he was horrible at the beginning of the year and he’s still got 40 plus goals so I mean I I got to believe he’s a top 10 player I think there’s going to be a time and it may be as early as next year where he’s going to get 50 plus you know and uh um if if like their power play is is still solid and they still don’t have a you know they they use Brock uh on the point a lot and maybe that’s going to be his spot like I mean but I mean it it wasn’t that it wasn’t that spot until Spurgeon got hurt but I mean they’ve got the they got the nucleus I mean eek in front of the net the coft zuk Carell I mean they got a great boldy in the bumper they can have one of the best power plays in the league so I don’t understand or I don’t see why um it shouldn’t be where uh the they’re one of the better power plays and kaas off is not a 50 goal if he stays healthy is not a 50 plus go guy next year I mean don’t draw up the exact NOS but like talking about that group and the strengths of the different players like what would Bruce Buro look at and say like here’s what I really want to do to try and get the best out of those guys on the power play well I mean um here’s what you do is just think of the Five Guys think first of all I mean zuk Carell is not a not a a shooter he’s a passer okay um cof I would probably have on the half ball zuk Carell on his forehand so he could give both bie the puck in the middle and E is as good a front man he he takes a [ __ ] kicking and just keeps coming back at you you know like I mean he’s the perfect forward he never complains he’s in better shape than anybody so I mean you got all the all the things there like when I was in Vancouver and you had bo Horvat in the middle and you had JT Miller on the forehand and he could come down with a great shot or he could fake it and give it to Bo and Bo had 31 goals before I got I got let go and before he got uh traded so I mean I see that like that because baldi’s that kind of shooter there and um so I mean you just see the makings of a really good power play and and kaasa when he gets it if you think of McDavid and McDavid never stays in one place if kaasa has the puck he could go behind the net and Around the Net and around and find open guys and the minute you take your eye off gella he’ll shoot the puck little bit like um if you think of COV in Tampa who you know I mean he’s got Point headman stamp Coast to uh to to and he’s a playmaker and the puck the it runs through him so I mean but if you take your eye off him he’s shooting the puck in the net and I see Minnesota having a power play like that we would love that and I’m GNA do some zigzagging here but you talked about B Borat he’s uh over on the island now and uh his new coach Patrick W I just need you to talk me through what’s going through your mind when he is banging on the glass coming over and looking for blood well first of all fear is going through my mind I mean I didn’t even know one of my assistants had to uh tap me on the shoulders and say you know Patrick is coming after you right now and because it was so stupid it was his first game ever coaching in the NHL and they were leading I think it was 5 nothing we scored a goal Jacob silverberg scored a goal with five seconds to go in the game to make it 5 to one the game was over and I didn’t think I just let the same group it was boleski maybe kivu and and uh or Saku Kovu and and silverberg on the ice and Matt boleski would would fight you I mean he wasn’t a heavyweight by any stretch of the uh the matter and that’s just 5 Seconds stay on the ice and he throws some tough guys out there and the puck comes over to the boards and they start pushing us after the whistle and Cory Perry was there squirting water on them and I think that got that got Patrick going and he pushed the the glass over and I you know I mean I’m once I found out I got to protect my players and and started screaming back at him and then I saw his eyes roll back in his head and I go uh oh hold on glass stay strong do you talk to him after that did you ever like patch up afterwards or like you know I met the next year at the draft and he said he apologized for losing it or was a couple years later but I mean I hey no no worries Patrick it’s all part of the game you know another guy you know well you mentioned Russian Superstar capris off and I’m sure you coached a lot of goals out of ofkin in your time uh there um getting closer to an all-time record I know much was talked about you T Russo talked to you a bit for a story about ofkin in his playoffs like you know is it is it is it close to Father time with him catching up or is it just more so of like some guys just have a a rough playoffs it’s just the best of them you know everybody has a bad portion and a bad playoff a Bad season I mean maybe Gretzky was the only one that never had a bad year but I mean um I think Alex learned a lot this year and I think he’ll come back better next year I think uh maybe he realizes that once you’re getting a little older you have to maybe work a little harder in the summer as everything came so easy and now I have no idea I’m just guessing on this on this thing but I mean uh um I mean he saw how his year went I’m sure he wasn’t 100% happy even though he got 31 goals but I mean uh he he’s a really smart individual and he’ll say okay I got to do this better and that better and and he’ll train accordingly to get in those those spots better so I mean um it was it was a little tough for him but I also had like Teemu when Teemu my first year and second year in Anaheim was our leading scorer but by his third year when he was 44 years old sometimes you just get old you know like I mean it just happens like overnight almost that you can’t do what you did in the year previous so I mean um I don’t know if it’s gonna if if it happened this year to Alex or if he can readjust I’m hoping I’m hoping he can readjust he’s too great a person and uh too good a guy that uh he’s fought for 19 years to do this and um and hopefully he can get it done next year it’ be a tough task to score 42 next year but I mean at least get close enough that they can go one more year he’s I think he’s got two years left on his deal do you think he’s got the right cast around him right now or is that not even a factor when you’re talking about a guy like oetkin well I mean I to me they have to change the power play a bit it became way too stagnant but and I think they need maybe one more offensive weapon I think it really hurt when Nikki couldn’t play this year and ketov didn’t you know whatever problems he had didn’t work well that became because when you think about it like I mean um if Dylan stro was your third line center after those two if I’m looking at it in the in September I’m going hey we’ve got a pretty good squad here you know and pretty pretty good offensive when you think okay Oshi if he’s healthy and and Wilson and and Alex and now you get patch ready and you’re going yeah we’re a little old but these are all offensive weapons and it just didn’t work out but I I would venture to Guess that uh they’ll get three or four guys up from Hershey next year like they did this year and they were all good players when you’re looking at McMichael and protus and Blake uh malinin in the defense because Hershey’s team is by far the best team in the American League so I mean um they’ll graduate a couple players I’m sure so if they if they’ve got a little bit of money if they can do the Right Moves uh um at at the right positions I think they they will really try to get a centerman that Alex that would really help Alex out and I think that would be great who’s uh your Stanley Cup pick now that you’ve seen first part of the playoffs team it to be it’s it’s you know what I I’ll tell you who I was I originally had Colorado against Florida in the end um but I was so and I you know I mean obviously I I love George MC and um and want would like Vegas to do really well but I’ll tell you when I saw game three in uh in Vegas the speed of that Dallas team impressed me so much so much like I mean if it wasn’t for Logan Thompson that might have been a nine to2 game but uh um I was going wow like I mean things happen in such a hurry for those guys and uh you know now that it’s it’s 3-2 Dallas I mean it’s going to be really interesting I I think Vegas will win the next game and then game seven who knows but one of those teams are really good and I didn’t think Colorado would have such an easy time with Winnipeg but they did and uh um so Edmonton looks like just a a wagon uh right now defensive and if you give them a chance on the power play I mean it’s it’s lights out and um usually what happens in the playoffs as the rounds go on and on you get less and less penalties so I mean that’s you know if if you just look at history I mean that’s what happens so it I don’t know if they they’ll uh uh how they’ll do but I mean it’s going to be you know Carolina the Rangers I haven’t mentioned those two those two teams are great and let alone I mean I still believe Boston’s going to win I don’t think they could do this again two years in a row um but I mean and with Matthews not playing tonight again but boy would that make a storyline if the well if the Leafs win or lose it’s going to be a storyline let me tell you that yeah how does it affect the leavs yeah I was just in uh Tampa Bruce for exit interviews and you know talking about signing stamp go and had men and you’ve seen all the teams over the years the Kings and Blackhawks and Penguins go through the C runs and kind of go that inevitable decline um do you think Tampa still has some of that group where they can make another run at it um I don’t if they you can see anything that compares to what you’ve seen maybe then the teams that you that I just talked about the Penguins and like the Blackhawks and like that that went through it yeah I mean you know hedman’s in his 30s now I mean vasileski you know we keep talking about him but I mean it’s been two years there I thought he’s been pretty normal now and as is that the norm or is he’s going to get you know this year with a whole summer of training um you know we still think he’s everybody still thinks he’s the best in the world but to me my jury’s out let’s see um HOV is is 30 but he’s still so good I love Braden Point um St Coos is is as good a power play guy as you’re gonna have but I think he’s limited quite frankly if the power play isn’t successful for him I mean I I hope he signs with tampen he deserves to be there his whole career and he’s been incredible there but I mean time will tell but I mean they they’re third and fourth line and and the bottom three defensemen have really got to be improved upon for them to stay at the the level I think that they want to stay at well you’re a big golfer Bruce I wasn’t sure if you are or not well I’m big you know and a golf I mean okay we all yeah Let’s uh let’s kick our uh final question here from well I live on a golf course too so I mean it’s you know I’m out there all the time so no excuses right no excuses uh so last question here from our friends at waggle golf gety waggl on.com promo code sp10 to take 10% off Bruce Dead or Alive don’t care if they’re in sports entertainment whatever wrestling wrestling yeah it’s it’s going to be three wrestlers yeah who’s in your dream golf forsome oh really okay um that’s that’s interesting uh you you gotta give me a chance to think for a second one would be one would be Mickey mantel one would be Jim Brown and I have to think of a uh maybe Jack Nicholas I mean those would be three guys that I’ve admired in everything they’ve done um MI mantle growing up was you know being a Yankee fan was my favorite ball player um Jim Brown uh growing up Cleveland was my favorite team still are I I’ve suffered many years with them believe me um but I mean just and I got hit an autograph Jersey uh from him uh from Cleveland jersey so that’s hanging up in my house so that’s that and Jack Nicholas just was the greatest golfer if we’re golfing I mean um it would make sense and him uh you guys like like it would be him or like I’m more into the older guys like I mean Ben Hogan um um Arnold Palmer uh those guys would be going but as as it turns out I was allowed to pick who I could play with at the Tiger Woods proam like when my second year in Washington and uh um the guy that got me at it said you could you know you could pick Phil you could pick anybody I mean uh I you could pick Tiger but then Tony Romo stuck in came in and I couldn’t take pick Tiger Tiger anymore but I picked Mike Weir because he was Canadian and he and he just won the Masters so I mean they’re going you do all this and and you pick Mike Weir and I said well I’m proud Canadian yeah so who’s riding in the cart with you uh oh like at that time no’s who’s GNA rid in the cart with you for your forsome there oh wow I mean I’d have to go to a hockey player and be Bobby or you know I like that yeah when when when you got to pair up with your fellow Canadian for that proam like any crazy canadianisms or any stories swapped that are noteworthy well here’s the story okay and I know you gotta go here but uh so when I found out I’m playing with Mike Weir and we were playing in the group directly behind tiger we were on but we played the first hole together so I I made the the caps uh go get me two signed oasin jerseys and uh so met tiger and I said Ty you know Alex ovesen signed jersey would like to on behalf of the capitals give it to you and here’s the difference he said oh thanks and he stuffed it in his hockey bag right or his golf bag and I went okay and then Mike Weir came up and I said Mike on behalf of the cops I’d like to give you a hockey jersey now Tiger’s never really been a hockey fan but Mike Weir’s Canadian has been and he just went oh my God and then he told his cat he says you go put this in the back seat of my car don’t put anything on it nothing I want that like that I went all right that’s that’s that’s it so love that and then tiger you see him later he’s like cleaning divots off his Club you know yeah I did we played the first hole together at Congressional and the 10th we started on the 10th it used to be um uh yeah it’s it’s the tent it was just a par three over water and he put it in the water I put it on the green and uh two puted and I told him as he was leaving I’m one up you want to play and he just gave me the sneer and went away and talk cat with the best of them there you go so I mean he hit from about 80 yards behind me I mean they play the pros we play the empties but I mean I that I don’t usually tell in the story no no we we’ll delete that don’t worry yeah well thank you so much for uh for joining us I appreciate it and thanks to Crystal for helping with the audio there too um but no problem looking forward to see hope I didn’t bore us to death so you guys have a great day no never appreciate it Bruce Okie doie byebye
Joe Smith of The Athletic sits down to interview Bruce Boudreau, former NHL Head Coach of Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild, and Vancouver Canucks as covered on “Fellowship of the Rink” Episode 12.
Topics include:
–Wrestling and Comic Books
–HBO “Road to the Winter Classic” series and typical locker room language
–Coaching Carousel
–Serving 3 different GMs across only 4 seasons with the Minnesota Wild
–Current state of the Wild roster
–Fighting Patrick Roy
–Alex Ovechkin chasing Wayne Gretzky
–Waggle Golf Question: Who’s in your dream golf foursome?
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Bruce Boudreau interview | Head Coach Minnesota Wild | Patrick Roy Fight | Fellowship of the Rink
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