Minnesota Wild part ways with head coach Bruce Boudreau

The end of the Bruce Boudreau era of the Minnesota Wild has arrived.

After three and a half seasons as the head coach for the Minnesota Wild, Bruce Boudreau has been relieved of his duties by first-year general manager Bill Guerin. He is being replaced by Dean Evason, who will serve as the interim head coach.

Last night, the Wild watched a 3-1 lead over the Rangers disappear in the third period, the tying goal coming with a 1:06 left on the scoreboard. This game ended in a shootout loss, and games like this that just getaway is why Boudreau is out.

In his time in the state of hockey, Boudreau had some pretty successful seasons. He was able to get his teams to the playoffs in two of his three full seasons but was unable to get over the hump of the first round. Last season, the team finished seven points out of a wild card spot, and this year seems to be following the same path.

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After a grueling start to this season coming out of the gate to a 3-7-0 record, the Wild now sit in sixth place in the Central Division with 61 points after 55 games, and only three points out of a wild card spot. However, after the team’s top player in Jason Zucker was traded to Pittsburgh, it seemed that this team would be sellers rather than buyers this season.

Boudreau has always been a respected coach, as he has had success wherever he has been. Despite not being able to make it to a Stanley Cup Final in 13-years, he demanded a lot out of his players and had strong success in the regular season.

Coming into the season, this Minnesota team did not seem to be anything special, as there were a lot of unknowns. Mats Zuccarello was a big offseason signing and has played quite well with 14 goals and 16 assists. But one player does not cut it at the NHL level.

Under Boudreau, the Wild were 14th in the league with 3.1 goals per game, and eighth in the league allowing 3.02 goals per game. The power play sat at 22.3%, 8th in the league, but the penalty kill sat 30th in the league, killing at a rate of 74.4%.

The real difference-maker this season has been the lack of depth scoring and the inability to keep the puck out of their own net. When top players like Zach Parise, Eric Staal, and Mats Zuccarello all have a negative plus/-, there is a major problem.

The other issue that has led to the mediocre performance this season is the play of Devan Dubnyk. This is a player that has performed above average over his time here, stealing games for his team. But this year, this was just not the case, as he only owns a .893 save percentage and a rather high goals-against average of 3.33.

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Even in a tight race for the playoffs, Bill Guerin made the decision on firing his head coach. This team was not going anywhere, even if they found a way into the playoffs. But with Boudreau’s contract coming to an end at the end of the season, it begs the question on why he was fired at this stage of the season.

The question coming into the season was what was the identity of this Wild team. And after 57 games, that question has still not been answered.

Zucker was just the first player to be traded, but especially with the firing, there will be more moves to come. Defenseman Matt Dumba will surely be on the move, as his $6 million AAV is something that Guerin would love to get off the books, and at the age of 25, can get some good-level prospects in return.

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Evason will take over for the remainder of the season as the interim head coach. Anything is possible, and with a ton of games remaining this season is not lost. Boudreau was in the final year of his contract, and my guess is Geurin making a move now, as the team is 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, should add a jolt to this team as they do what they can to get in.

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