The most immediate difference between the recently deposed Glen Hanlon and new Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau -- besides a power play that has suddenly eliminated the urge from Caps fans to scream "decline the penalty" during home games? Postgame press conference demeanor.Even after victories, Hanlon's words were smart but measured. Boudreau, by contrast, is a virtual quote machine. The 52-year-old coach has been kicking around the minor leagues since the 1992-93 season, waiting for this chance, and I can imagine he made many a bush-league scribe happy with his postgame comments. After Saturday night's 5-2 win over Carolina, a reporter said he had heard Capitals brawler Donald Brashear call the coach "Mr. Boudreau," and wondered if that was out of respect or fear. "Well, it ain't fear," the coach deadpanned.
Boudreau's the kind of coach who tells the media that "it's pretty cool" to finally have a shot in the NHL after managing the bench for teams like the Muskegon Fury, the Fort Wayne Komets and the Lowell Lock Monsters. He's the kind of coach that will go into a humorous story about his son in a youth hockey tournament during a postgame press conference, and begin that story by saying, "I won't bore ya's..."
By all accounts, he's a solid hockey coach with a classic hockey personality to match. Throw in a lifetime in the minor leagues, and he's the personification of Slap Shot lore. So it shouldn't shock anyone that Boudreau has an interesting connection to the 1977 Paul Newman hockey classic.
