Thursday, December 1, 2011

Duck Season

The coaching carousel in the NHL just doesn't want to stop.  It didn't take long for Bruce Boudreau to find a new job, as the Anaheim Ducks announced this morning that he would be replacing Randy Carlyle behind the bench.  The Ducks are currently near the bottom of the NHL in offense and the standings, and given that the Ducks have severely underachieved in the last three seasons, a change was inevitable.  I thought the Ducks were going to wait until after the season to fire Carlyle, but the Ducks were wise to pounce on a coach that has a winning record in Boudreau while he was still available.  Guys who win 200 games in their first four seasons do not fall out of the tree often, and Boudreau is one of them.  Prior to this season, he got a lot out of Alexander Ovechkin and Mike Green, so now that he's in Anaheim, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Cam Fowler will be the biggest beneficiaries of the coaching change.  Boudreau's hiring could also be a factor in whether Bobby Ryan stays in Anaheim beyond this season, as he's been rumored to be on the trading block.  As for Carlyle, the New York Islanders would be extremely wise to snag him up, not that I advocate teams firing coaches or anything like that (or do I?).

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