Selanne rips Boudreau

[JMN]

I liked what Getzlaf had to say about the situaton:

I'm going to have to talk to him about it as friends," Getzlaf said. "But Teemu had numerous discussions with me last season, and the season before. As a captain, it's my job to weed through things that I can go to the coach with, and things that I can't. Teemu doesn't know all the discussions that I've had about him in the last two years, and there's been many times when I've went to bat for him, and there are some times when I have to step away and just let the coach and GM make their decision.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=462055

[Ice]

Teemu Selanne is a great guy. He is actually very humble, very friendly, just a total class act. His only mistake was blowing off steam after the season when he was clearly frustrated. This is not a man with a huge ego. He's one of the nicest players you would ever meet. I'm talking Conroy nice here.

He's not the first, nor will he be the last player who struggles playing for Bruce Boudreau. He wasn't an effective communicator in the AHL. I was surprised he got hired by the Caps. Being a blowhard doesn't work in today's NHL. It's way too easy to tune that out.

Can't blame Hiller either. Don't know him at all but he was mismanaged IMO and when he went in for Gibson in game seven, you could see all over his face that he wasn't feeling it. That's not a knock on him, it's a natural reaction to your boss making it clear he has no faith in you to do your job.

[sketchyt]

Originally Posted by Ice

He's one of the nicest players you would ever meet. I'm talking Conroy nice here.

Just wanted to echo this and that it's totally true.

How many coaches, GM's, teammates, etc... has Teemu played for? And how many times has that guy gone off on anyone? They couldn't have all been great.

I'm guessing he had a legit beef but going public about it is likely something he regrets.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Psytic

I wonder if the Ducks had a different coach if he would still be playing.

I can say with confidence they probably wouldn't be finishing on top of the Western Conference is they had a different coach. Nobody can dispute Boudreau's regular season coaching success in the NHL as he has a top 5 all-time winning percentage. Maybe some are too young to remember but Scotty Bowman was probably one of the most disliked head coaches in the history of the game (just ask Dino Ciccarelli) but the man got results. I know there were times when Iginla was steamed with Darryl Sutter. Players have had run-in's with Babcock as well.

Being the head coach of any professional sports team is much, much more difficult than most fans think it is. The coach is dealing in most cases with a group of players that earn more than them and may have more ultimate power and each one has their own individual ego and personality traits. Simply impossible to make them all happy. Impossible, but coaches still do their best to manage the personalities in hopes of bringing the best out of each individual. Now some coaches simply aren't as good at it as others as judged by their coaching records. You can easily tell by the results of the team is the coach still has the majority of the locker room. In the case of the Ducks I would say Boudreau definitely has that locker room on his side as that team has overachieved with him running the team.

[CliffFletcher]

Just because a player is a legend and a great guy doesn't mean he knows squat about how a team should be coached. Flames fans of all people should know that.

[boogerz]

Not to say that Boudreau didn't do a good job or that Selanne wasn't out of line with his comments, but 43 year old Selanne was a ridiculous PP specialist. Boudreau should have had him out on the PP with Getzlaf and Perry every single time. That was an obvious misstep by Boudreau

[PegCityFlamesFan]

I don't see how he comes off as a butt head? Asking a coach to meet to discuss and not getting an answer time and time again, especially with a veteran would be difficult. Having met Selanne, numerous stories about him, he's clearly not a me first guy. I like hearing these stories because it's a change of pace from the usual fluff we get from the "hockey insiders"

[sureLoss]

Getzlaf is ticked off:
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL.../21982626.html

During an interview with American sports radio talk show host Jim Rome on Thursday, Ducks centre Ryan Getzlaf says he was "pissed off" at criticism directed his way as Selanne felt the captain should have lobbied head coach Bruce Boudreau more on his behalf.

"I was pissed off, to tell you the truth," Getzlaf told Rome about comments made in the book Teemu.

“It wasn't great. I thought it was kind of unnecessary for him to come out and say something like that."

Getzlaf mentioned that he had numerous conversations with the coaching staff and management about Selanne's evolving role with the team.

Getzlaf interview available here: http://jimrome.com/2014/10/02/ryan-g...as-pissed-off/

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Getzlaf is ticked off:
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL.../21982626.html



Getzlaf interview available here: http://jimrome.com/2014/10/02/ryan-g...as-pissed-off/

Sounds like Selanne was having issues dealing with his decline and Getzlaf tried his best to help make the situation work but even he knew what was being done was for the best from a team perspective. Getzlaf was in an impossible situation here as he's trying to do the best for Selanne but also what's best for the team. It does sound like Selanne was becoming a distraction issue for the coach and captain. This is why you should keep your mouth shut as there's two sides to every story and the other side of this isn't very flattering to Teemu.