Bruce Boudreau - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

After his playing days were over, Boudreau began a highly successful coaching career. In the minor leagues, Boudreau has coached the Muskegon Fury, Fort Wayne Komets, Mississippi Sea Wolves, Lowell Lock Monsters, Manchester Monarchs, and Hershey Bears.

Under Boudreau's leadership, the Bears won the 2006 AHL Calder Cup championship. The Bears made it all the way back to the Calder Cup finals under Coach Boudreau again in 2007, ultimately falling to the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Previously, Boudreau coached the Mississippi Sea Wolves to the ECHL Championship in 1999, and also led the Fort Wayne Komets to the IHL Finals in 1994. Boudreau was awarded the Commissioner's Trophy (IHL) as coach of the 1993–94 Komets.

Boudreau was named interim head coach of the NHL's Washington Capitals on November 22, 2007, and later their permanent coach on December 26. He compiled a 37–17–7 rookie coaching record with a team that was 6–14–1 when he inherited it. Under Boudreau's leadership, the 2007–08 Capitals won their first Southeast Division title in seven years and made the playoffs for the first time in five years. He also won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach in 2008.

Boudreau continued his success in his second season as coach of the Capitals, leading the Capitals to a record of 50–24–8 and 108 points, good for another Southeast division title and 2d in the Eastern Conference.

In his third season with the Capitals Boudreau led the team to a 54–15–13 record and 121 points, which was not only good enough for a third straight Southeast division title but 1st in the Eastern Conference and the team's first ever Presidents' Trophy awarded to the team with the most points in the league, a vast improvement over their inaugural season of 8–67–5. Their success in the regular season, however, did not carry over to the postseason, as they lost to the 8th seeded Montreal Canadiens in 7 games, losing the last 3 games of the series. After a hot start to the 2011–12 season Boudreau's Caps fell apart, posting just 4 wins in 13 games during the month of November. Concurrently Superstars Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin both vastly underpreformed under Boudreau's watch during the stretch. These and other factors led to Boudreau's firing on November 28, 2011. He was replaced by former Capitals captain and then-current London Knights head coach Dale Hunter, despite being the coach to reach 200 wins in the shortest period of time in the modern NHL era. Two days later, the Anaheim Ducks hired Boudreau to replace the recently fired Randy Carlyle as their head coach. He became the fastest coach to be hired after being fired in the National Hockey League.

Boudreau is known for his talkative personality, earning him the nickname "Gabby." In 2009, he released his memoir, Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer.