Selanne rips Boudreau

[sureLoss]

Juha Hiitelä @jhiitela
Ok… Here’ comes couple of tweets about Teemu and his relationship with Bruce Boudreau. All from Teemu’s new book.

”It would have been wrong if we had won the Stanley Cup with coach like that.” #teemu

”You are as good as you your coach wants you to be. If we had any other coach, I’d still be playing.” -Teemu

After BB decided to scratch him for game 4 against Dallas: "I waited after everyone else had left the ice and skated to Boudreau…"

" I yelled him right to his face what I was thinking. I ask what he has against me. I told him that since he became our coach…"

"he has not respected me one bit. You never put me on ice when we play 5on3 of 4on4 or when we are one goal behind in the end of the game."

"Be honest for one time and answer.! He just stammered that decisions we not his alone and it was a group decision."

"I ask which group and he said GM and scouts. I yelled him "whow, what kind of a coach you are if you don’t even decide lineup!”."

"He tried to skate away but I just yelled I wasn’t finish. I told Boudreau if you ever want to win something in a playoffs…"

”... you’re going to need me. Nobody else wants to win as much as me. It felt really good."




He met with BB after olympics: "I told him that if I can’t succeed in that, you can totally forget me."

"I got to play with Getzlaf the next four games, scored two goals and four points. After then everything went back to way it was before."




He also says he had doubts about resigning to Ducks in 2013, because of BB. Considered going to either LA Kings or… yes, Winnipeg Jets.

”BB promised (b4 season) that I will play 1st PP unit and 2nd PP unit and get average of 15min ice time…"

”He even said he wants to see me scoring my 700th goal."

”Season started well, but after that my time on ice declined, just like previous year. He didn’t keep any of his promises."




In first intermission of Game 7 against LA, Kings lead 3-0. Teemu took his cell phone in the locker room and sent a txt msg to his wife..

… and couple of friends. In English. ”####ing joke.



He also says last year was the first time in his career players didn’t see head coach at the exit meetings.

”He probably sensed that there was so many guys who would have just wanted to yell everything to him."




BUT he also says: ”There’s nothing wrong with my relationship with Boudreau. In fact, he is a nice man."

”We just had very different view of what kind of player I am."

”I’m surprised that Getzlaf didn’t react in any way to that situation."

”I told him several times that he’s the captain, he should take care of the situation. When we have played together on PP; we’ve been top3"

[Erick Estrada]

Honestly it sounds to me that Teemu just had a hard time accepting that he is no longer the player he used to be at 43. Props to him for playing far longer than 99.5% of NHL players but a guy like him should have handled this better as to me he comes off a little bit selfish.

[TheGrimm]

Well I can add this to my must read list.

[Poe969]

He seems bitter but he also make sense...when he played top minutes or with top line guys he would produce. It could have been handled differently by both of them.

I just have a hard time seeing a Finnish person yell.

[Caged Great]

When you have a master at his craft like Selanne, it is definitely understandable that he would have those feelings.

[Wastedyouth]

I'm surprised that Selanne couldn't retire with grace. I guess even the best of us have egos that can't quit.

[SuperMatt18]

On one hand he seems bitter, on the other hand he was the Olympic MVP and led his team to bronze when he was given a bigger role, so maybe he was on to something.

[edn88]

This makes him come off sounding like a self entitled butt-head.

[TheGrimm]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

I'm surprised that Selanne couldn't retire with grace. I guess even the best of us have egos that can't quit.

You don't get to, never mind maintain that level of play as long as he did without that kind of belief in your own abilities.

[killer_carlson]

To his defence, when given the opportunity, he produced. Cant deny that and the Olympic MVP drives that home big time.

Not saying he deserved 25 minutes of ice, but if I have a 5 on 3, i'm liking Selanne on the ice with Perry and Getzlaf.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by TheGrimm

You don't get to, never mind maintain that level of play as long as he did without that kind of belief in your own abilities.

Iginla would never do that.

But he's canadian so...

[Tinordi]

Hard for these guys to let go. Reads alot like sour grapes though.

[FanIn80]

If Teemu Selanne told me he could climb the Calgary Tower using nothing but hockey skates and an ice pick, I'd believe him 100%.

In other words, if he tells me to put him in so we can win the game, I'm putting Teemu Selanne on the damn ice so we can win the game.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

To his defence, when given the opportunity, he produced. Cant deny that and the Olympic MVP drives that home big time.

Not saying he deserved 25 minutes of ice, but if I have a 5 on 3, i'm liking Selanne on the ice with Perry and Getzlaf.

It doesn't even sound like he was looking for 25 minutes of ice time either. 15 minutes and some power play time which is exactly how I'd want to employ an aging Selanne. Understandably the guy lost a lot of speed but he still found the open spots and still had a killer shot.

[trackercowe]

Budreau's message seems to wear thin on a lot of teams. He worked well with the Caps for a couple years, but towards the end he was constantly being outcoached by the opposition, and misused many of his players. He's not a bad coach, but I don't think he's a Sutter, Quenneville, or Hitchcock that were capable of taking teams to the Cup in the dreaded Western conference.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

If Teemu Selanne told me he could climb the Calgary Tower using nothing but hockey skates and an ice pick, I'd believe him 100%.

In other words, if he tells me to put him in so we can win the game, I'm putting Teemu Selanne on the damn ice so we can win the game.

Well, except that he was getting his had beat in on easy zone starts and not actually doing a whole lot at evens to help his team win.

[killer_carlson]

exactly. The guy will put the puck in the net. One of the greatest scorers in NHL history. Unless you have people scoring 30 goals ahead of him on the depth chart, he needs to be on the PP.

Sorry Bruce, but Andrew Cogliano, Winnick, and Maroon don't bump him down the PP depth chart.

And the part that gets me is that they cannot say he's lost a step after he played like he did on the big international ice at the Olympics.

[SportsJunky]

He would produce when given top line minutes but how was the team doing I wonder? Were they winning more games when he had the reduced role or less?

I got to see him play the Jets last season in Winnipeg and it was awesome. They love him there and you can tell he loves them right back. Too bad he didn't bring things full circle and play there last season.

[Resolute 14]

The asinine thing about Boudreau benching Selanne for that game 4 was the fact that Getzlaf also missed it due to injury. Boudreau basically ripped the heart right out of his team - which quite naturally lost - at a critical point of the series. He is rather fortunate that the Ducks sucked it up and came back to win the following two games.

[Erick Estrada]

Warrener saying on the radio this morning regarding this that there comes a point in an athletes career where they no longer have it but still think they do and it's hard to come to grips with. Players are always the last to realize they no longer have it.