The Vancouver Canucks are really bad this season. Sporting a 17-22-3 record, Vancouver sits sixth in the Pacific Division, above only San Jose and Anaheim. Their big weakness is their penalty kill, whose 66.1-percent kill rate is dead last in the league.

So you could certainly understand why the team is eager to make changes, particularly regarding head coach Bruce Boudreau. Boudreau’s firing seem to have already been decided, but the team will keep him around, coaching in limbo, for several more weeks.

During a radio spot on Saturday, reporter Rick Dhaliwal suggested that Boudreau won’t be replaced until later in January.

“Later in the month is what most people are hearing,” Dhaliwal said. “I heard Rick Tocchet‘s name last weekend, and they are talking to him [. . . ] Most people in the industry that you talk to are thinking two, three weeks away. It’s their decision.”

There was no mention of a possible interim coach.

A former NHL player, Tocchet previously coached Tampa and Arizona. Currently he is studio analyst for TNT, which may be the reason why Boudreau could linger for a few more weeks.

“Someone told me he’s gotta give a four-week notice at TNT or something to that effect,” Dhaliwal said. “It’s a process. It takes time.”

Following Vancouver’s 4-3 loss to Florida on Saturday night, Boudreau gave an audible grunt when asked about his job. Seeming both grim and plucky at the same time, Boudreau said, “I just wake up everyday and go to work until they tell me not to.”

Assuming no one else gets fired in the next few weeks, Boudreau would become the first NHL coach fired this season.

Boudreau is on the second year of a two-year contract, a fact that may have initially been a surprise to General Manager Jim Rutherford, who joined the team one year ago.  “It was my understanding that he was going to get a contract for just [2021-22],” Rutherford told CBC’s After Hours in October. “He got a contract really for two years, and so he’s still got his contract. It wasn’t that we extended him one year, it was that we just lived by the contract he had.”

Prior to his time with Vancouver, Boudreau spent four years with Minnesota, five years with Anaheim, and five years with Washington. His teams have not made a playoff appearance since 2018. Boudreau is also the owner of the Hershey Cubs, a United States Premier Hockey League team, along with his wife Crystal.

Headline photo: NHL.com