The Case For and Against Boudreau

Obviously with this pathetic loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning the talk of firing Bruce Boudreau, but everything must be considered before a move is made. Here's both of the cases.

Keep Him: Bruce Boudreau took a team that was in last place, in November of 2008, and won the Southeast division that year.  Boudreau has a record of 189-79 in the regular season.  Boudreau turned a team full of offensive minded players into a defensive minded system that was able to work towards the end of the season and in the first round of the playoffs.  Against the Lightning it was the players fault that they got frustrated and decided to abandon the system.  The coaches can only do so much, its up to the players to continue to play within the system and stick to it no matter what. Boudreau knows these players better than any coach in the NHL because he coached most of these players in Hershey. If Boudreau is fired, he will most likely get hired by another team then come back to beat the Caps in next years playoffs. 

Fire Him: Boudreau has a record of 17-20 in the playoffs, is 1-3 in game 7's all played at home and 3-4 in games were the Caps face elimination.  All of that is unacceptable for a team of this talent.  This team should of been, at the very least, to a conference final already.  Boudreau showed, in games 4 and 3, that he can't motivate this team.  It's the job of a head coach to motivate the team.  In 24/7, Boudreau was trying to motivate the team and the look on the players faces were basically we are not going to listen to you and we don't respect you.  At the time when I saw I thought, ok it's a long losing streak; everyone is frustrated.  But maybe the players don't respond to Boudreau anymore as was evidence in, once again, games 4 and 3.  Most of these players have had Boudreau as there coach for all of there careers, including in Hershey, and maybe the players have grown tired of him therefore they won't listen to him anymore. 

If Boudreau is to be fired, I say go with Ken Hitchcock.  He's the former coach of the Dallas Stars and most recently the Columbus Blue Jackets and Hitchcock won the Stanley Cup in 1999 with the Dallas Stars.  Hitchcock knows what it takes to get a team there.  I don't think a young, upcoming coach will be the right fit for this team because the superstars on this team will run him out of DC within a few months, if he does not get along with the players or runs a system that they players don't like.    

Overall it is a tough decision, Boudreau has had excellent success in the regular season, but hasn't in the playoffs.  Is it the player's fault? Or has Boudreau lost this team completely?  Of course, in a city that has not seen a major professional sports championship in 20 years, fans want success now.  But is firing the coach the right move? Or should players be traded? Ted Leonsis will have to give answers to these questions and hopefully those are the right ones.