Running 2007 NHL regular season thread

Caps press release:

apitals Name Bruce Boudreau Interim Head Coach

Hershey Bears coach has won back-to-back AHL Eastern Conference titles and 2006 Calder Cup



ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have relieved Glen Hanlon of his coaching duties and named Bruce Boudreau the team’s interim head coach, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.



Boudreau, 52, has coached championship teams in the American Hockey League (AHL) and the ECHL and is in his third year as the head coach of the Hershey Bears, Washington’s AHL affiliate. He led the team to the Eastern Conference championship and the Calder Cup finals in each of his first two years in Hershey, winning the Calder Cup in 2006. Boudreau has compiled a 103-45-11-16 record with the Bears (a .666 winning percentage), including an AHL-best 51-17-6-6 record (.713) last season. Seven current members of the Capitals played for Boudreau with the Bears.



Boudreau becomes the 14th coach in Washington Capitals history. He will make his debut behind the Capitals’ bench tomorrow at Philadelphia (1 p.m., Comcast SportsNet, Talk Radio 3WT: 107.7 FM, 1500 AM, 820 AM).



Boudreau is in his ninth season as an AHL head coach, having compiled a 340-216-56-43 career record. He spent four years with the Manchester Monarchs and two years with the Lowell Lock Monsters before joining the Bears. Before ascending to the AHL, he was the head coach and director of hockey operations for the Mississippi Sea Wolves (ECHL), where he won the 1999 Kelly Cup championship.



After making his head-coaching debut in the Colonial Hockey League with the Muskegon Fury in 1992-93, Boudreau took over the Fort Wayne Komets of the International Hockey League (IHL) in 1993-94. The Komets advanced to the Turner Cup finals his first season at the controls, and Boudreau was named the 1993-94 IHL coach of the year.



Boudreau played parts of eight seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks, recording 70 points in 141 NHL games. A third-round pick of the Leafs in the 1975 NHL draft, Boudreau enjoyed one of the best seasons ever by a Canadian junior player during 1974-75. He picked up 165 points for the Toronto Marlboros, a Canadian Hockey League record until Wayne Gretzky surpassed the mark during the 1977-78 season.



An outstanding AHL player, Boudreau ranks 11th all-time in scoring in league history with 316 goals and 799 points. No AHL player in the 1980s notched more points than Boudreau, as he played for the New Brunswick Hawks, Baltimore Skipjacks, Nova Scotia Oilers, Springfield Indians and Newmarket Saints during that time. He won the 1987-88 John B. Sollenberger Trophy for leading the league in scoring, and was also a member of the 1992 Calder Cup champion Adirondack Red Wings.



No timetable has been set for naming a head coach beyond Boudreau’s interim status. The rest of the Capitals coaching staff will remain in place.

 

I don't see a Thrashers-like turnaround from the Crapitals, although they'll likely do a bit better with Semin back.

 

Big-boy brawl in Ottawa: Laraque-McGrattan. No haymakers, though.

Game live on yahoo.

 

Surprisingly, all kind of hitting going on in Ottawa.

 

Bang-bang goals in the final two minutes and somehow the Pens are tied after the first period.

 

Not a Caps fanboy, but I hope they pick it up and make the playoffs. I think the NHL benefits from having Ovechkin in the playoffs and having the team in DC do well for a change would be nice.

 

Agreed that it would help the league, but I just don't see the depth in Washington's lineup and they've got to get better on the blue line.

 

True enough. Oh well, suffer on, Crapitals. I like the Whalercanes in that division, anyway.

 

Thing is that the Caps have some talent and shouldn't be 6-14-1 after 21 games.

If I were coaching the Cappies, the lines and defense pairings would look like:
Ovechkin-Nylander-Clark
Semin-Backstrom-Fleischmann
Pettinger-Kozlov-Bradley
Brashear-Laich-Gordon

Eminger-Poti
Jurcina-Erskine
Morrisonn-Pothier

From what I've seen, the Caps play a defense-first style. But with the offensive talent the team possesses, why not push the issue? There's no reason that this team can't put up four goals a game. The blueline corps doesn't have a superstar--though I think Jurcina is improving--but they can pass, hit, shoot and should be able to be solid in its own end.

 

Hell of a game between Pens and Sens. 5-5 with 9 min. to play. Also on the free yahoo video.

 

I've been a crappy fantasy-hockey manager the last two days: I bench Brodeur against the Pens when the Devils beat them 2-1 and I play Gerber against the Pens today in a shootout.

 

So bad you're only ahead 14-2?