VANCOUVER—The image of Bruce Boudreau surveying the crowd on Saturday night, tears on his face, clapping and waving in deep appreciation for Vancouver Canucks fans after another home loss will resonate in this city long after the successful veteran head coach is fired in the coming days.
It was deeply touching in the moment, but it’s now an ignominious piece of Canucks franchise history.
Against a superior opponent Saturday night, Boudreau’s players emptied the tank to try and rally for him. They fell short.
And as the game ended, Boudreau stood on the bench, tears in his eyes and contemplated his hockey mortality.
He searched out his wife in the crowd and held back tears as the fans serenaded him appreciatively one final time: “Bruce There It Is!”
“You never know if it’s the end,” Boudreau said of the moment. He spoke through tears. He stopped frequently to gather himself.
“When you’ve been in it for almost 50 years, the majority of your life, and if it’s the end, I had to stay out there and look at the crowd and say, ‘Remember this moment’…”
Boudreau has been around a while. He’s been fired from NHL jobs before — on three previous occasions in fact. This was different, however, in part because he’s 68 years old now and in part because this is a…
