Bruc e Boudreau at ESPN Zone. (Michael Hoffman photo)
A grand time was had by all last night as Bruce Boudreau fielded questions, signed photos, and talked hockey with Caps fans at ESPN Zone. Caps play-by-play man Steve Kolbe was the MC for the event, and one listen to him and you can tell why this guy is in radio. Kolbe has a deep voice that is just made for telling stories or regaling game anecdotes.
As far as the venue is concerned, well as a sports lover who has a very short attention span for doing the little things like you know asking someone how their day is going, the ESPN Zone you would think would be perfectly for someone like me who is easily distracted. This distraction manifests itself in many ways. It’s probably why Bruce Boudreau told me to “pay attention” after I earlier in the year asked him a question that he had pretty much already answered on what he was doing about the teams third period play. (the beauty of Lisa Hilary distracted me) Anyways, as much as the A.D.D. side of me loves being just completely overwhelmed by sports on all sides, the side of me that doesn’t have much money wonders, “what’s up with $7 beer?” It’s bad enough that you guys no longer cover hockey but if I stayed to long this night, the Worldwide leader was gonna send me straight to the poor house.
But I digress; let’s get on to the proceedings as you the fans asked a number of great questions
The night started with Bruce professing how much he and his kids love Washington D.C. The first question had to do with how he gets the Caps to play a full sixty minute game. Bruce had this to say:
“I think they’re just tired of me yelling at them. I get fairly vocal behind closed doors because I get frustrated when we lose any game. I don’t believe in excuses and I don’t believe that just because you won x amount in a row so you're due for a los. So every loss we try to make it like that’s a bad loss. I believe that’s helped us in becoming a better team in which we’re not having lapses."
So when was the last time Bruce had to get “vocal?”
“In the game against New Jersey where we lost 5-2. We watched almost the whole game on video the next day and I pointed out every spot where we stopped playing. I watch a lot of football and the prevent defense doesn’t prevent anything but winning! So we need to be responsible and proactive [with a lead] but we should always be looking to score the next goal.
Bruce then commented on who he thought was the toughest team to play in the East. He talked about how tough the Devils are, (who beat the Capitals twice this year) but there is another team that is clearly on everyone’s mind… “We haven’t played that other team with a P word. I don’t really like to talk about them yet,” joked Bruce, who yes called that P team from Pittsburgh the team to beat.
Many of the other questions hinged on individual players, with some questioning on if they would be re-signed. I’ve always believed Nicklas Backstrom to be the glue that held so many things together here with passing and even-headed play, so I was very happy to hear Bruce say the following. “I’m not George McPhee but Nicky’s not going anywhere.”
As for other players, let’s go down the list.
Bruce on Semin: “Who knows what he’s thinking. The minute I learn to read him, he throws me a curve ball. One day he looks like the greatest star on Earth and the next day you want to use a stick and beat him over the head with it. He’s the enigma of enigmas for our team. But in the NHL, you can’t find this type of talent everywhere.”
Bruce on Ovechkin: “When he’s on top of his game, he’s like a cruise missile… Some of you call it being reckless, I just think it’s being Alex. The older he gets the more experience he’ll get and then he’ll be able to pick his spots a little better. Sometimes now he gets so fired up he just goes.
Bruce on Knuble: “He is a perfect fit for our team, when we signed him this summer I said, ‘wow that’s a marriage made in heaven…’ Whether he gets 15 goals or 25 goals, his presence in the locker room is so important. He’s just a standup guy who will call a guy out when necessary. We have a lot of young leaders on our team who won’t talk much and Mike doesn’t either, but when he needs to, he’ll call a guy out.
I also heard from a member of the swelling ranks of the Michael Nylander fan club (8 members and growing!) who asked a bit of a charged question on why Mikey wasn’t playing. This elicited an immediate “uh-oh” from Bruce who said the following. “We told Michael last spring that it wasn’t a good fit and we thought he should find somewhere else. He had all summer to find somewhere else and he didn’t,” said Bruce. “We went out and got 14 forwards who are really good for what we have and I think we’re correct in that our record indicates that. At the same time Michael’s done nothing’s wrong, we wish him all the success in the world. But sometimes there’s a situation where you try to put a square peg in a round hole and that just doesn’t work,” continued Boudreau. Well said coach.
But the questions weren’t all about other players, many wanted to learn more about the leadership style of Washington’s favorite coach. One of the biggest laughs from the crowd all night came when Bruce answered a fan who asked if he ever gets “really really” (double emphasis) angry. “Oh yeah I mean unfortunately whenever I come home I’m told that people can read my lips from a long way away,” Bruce deadpanned to laughs all around.
All jokes aside, Boudreau told the gathered fans that he doesn’t like to yell all that often, and made an excellent analogy to explain why. “I find it’s a lot like being a parent. If your kid doesn’t clean his room and you keep yelling at him to clean his room it’s gonna go in one ear and out the other. So I really pick my spots when I want to explode,” said Boudreau who told the gathered crowd that the last time he got really mad was during a 5-2 loss to the Devils. “Luckily we’ve only lost six times this year so I haven’t had too much to get upset about.”
It’s a fact that Bruce deserves a lot of credit for, as the gathered fans told me during the signing. “He’s been able to get the team to play as a team instead of a lot of individuals. He’s got a lot of powerful people but they all play together,” said a fan named Georgia who I think is absolutely correct. In Bruce’s time here, can you name one time the Caps have had any major locker room issues among their players? I can’t.
Comments