Bruce Boudreau Defends His Team from President's Comments Over Team Structure
Yesterday, Vancouver Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford gave an interview in which he slammed the team's play/structure so far this season. The Canucks' disastrous start to the season leaves them at the bottom of the NHL's leaderboards, with 9 points. They would be in dead last if not for the Ottawa Senators, St. Louis Blues, and Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Canucks' woes have led Rutherford to bombast the team twice before American Thanksgiving. Generally speaking, that is not a good sign. Even worse, is that head coach Bruce Boudreau basically had to stand in front of the friendly-fire in defense of himself and his team. During his media avail this morning, Boudreau was asked about Rutherford's comments and suggested that 'outside noise' is not his concern. Calling the President of Hockey Operations' criticisms 'outside noise' is one way to tell him to shut up.
"We play as hard as we can, we play as well as we can and lay it all out on the line every night. It is what it is. I try to keep the noise out of the room as much as I can."
"I'm not in the players' mind, but if we take the positive effect, it angers them to show that everybody is wrong. This is my 47th year in the business and I've seen a lot of things. It's another added to the book that I will never write."
"I think every person wants to prove people wrong when they say things. I'm a pretty competitive guy at heart and maybe that's the message — prove that it's not a true statement."
Clearly, things are going swimmingly in Vancouver right now.
All of the club's words and actions over the past year are indicative of a group that is looking to win now, so their results are intensely puzzling. Not in the sense that it's a surprise or a mystery; most analysts knew that the Canucks have lots of roster management to do before they can be truly considered contenders.
Rather, the Canucks are puzzling because their management acts like they have this great team, when really they have a handful of good players and a handful of mediocre players on huge, immovable contracts. Going down the line; Tyler Myers ($6M x 2), Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($7.26M x 5), Tanner Pearson ($3M x 2), and not to mention J.T. Miller ($8M x 7 - which kicks in next season).
Which makes Rutherford's comments all the more enticing. Management stocks the team with inflated contracts, then chastises team for poor play...
Source material:
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 8 | 205 ANSWERS Bruce Boudreau Defends His Team from President's Comments Over Team Structure In your opinion, what is the biggest problem with the Canucks? | ||
| Coaching | 40 | 19.5 % |
| Management | 57 | 27.8 % |
| Players | 60 | 29.3 % |
| All of the above | 48 | 23.4 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 19 | 16 | 3 | - | 32 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||