Bruce Boudreau is one of the most successful coaches in Washington Capitals franchise history. During his tenure, he led the team to four consecutive Southeast Division titles and a Presidents’ Trophy as the top team in the NHL. He was also the bench boss during Alex Ovechkin’s prime years, which included three straight 100-plus point seasons from 2007-2010.
While Ovechkin scored goals and tallied points at a historic rate, his defensive play sometimes strayed. That’s where Boudreau would have to come in and directly address the multi-time MVP during the club’s film review sessions, which Boudreau told the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast was a necessary but sometimes daunting task.
“I learned very early in Washington that most of the games it was Alex Semin and Alex Ovechkin were the stars of the video because it’s always about defensive mistakes,” Boudreau said. “We don’t really show a lot of offensive greatness in the videos, so I would have to tell Alex, ‘Ovi, come here, I just want you to know that you’re the star of the video today, and I have to come after you because you’re the captain.
“If I don’t come after you, then nobody else will respect me. And he’d always go, ‘Okay, coach. Okay, coach.’ And then he’d snarl at me for the rest of the day, but if I didn’t tell him and I surprised him, it would be a different story. He would be all over me for embarrassing him. This, he knew and wanted to take it like a man, so he took it like a man.”
Boudreau came to the Capitals after three very successful years with the AHL’s Hershey Bears, where he won a Calder Cup. Before his stint in the AHL, he coached in three other leagues and played professionally in six different leagues, including 141 NHL games primarily for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The vast variety of experience at all levels taught Boudreau how to manage a team’s roster, from the stars to the healthy scratches. He says he took a lot of that to Washington, his first NHL head coaching job, which impacted how he addressed a young superstar like Ovechkin.
“The one thing I always knew was whether you’re in the American League, you’re in the East Coast league – if you’re going to do something and you’re going to get mad at somebody, get mad at the best players first, so the other players fall in line,” Boudreau said. “The last thing you’d want to do is yell at the fourth-line guy because he’s not working or give crap to the backup goalie because he’s not stopping the puck at the beginning.
“You have to gain everybody’s respect before you do that. So, I remember in the first practice giving Ovi crap, saying, ‘Pick it up, pick up the pace,’ but it wasn’t affecting me because maybe my head was still in the ‘I can’t believe I’m in the NHL’ moment type thing.”
The tough love didn’t affect the two’s relationship too much, though, as they still have regular friendly chats. Boudreau and Ovechkin FaceTimed before the 2024-25 season started, which led to Boudreau declaring that Ovechkin would eventually break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record.
Boudreau hasn’t had a job in the NHL since being fired by the Vancouver Canucks in 2023 but still keeps busy doing TV spots for Monumental Sports Network and national outlets. His most recent coaching gig came as the bench boss for Team Canada at the 2023 Spengler Cup, and he is still the owner of the USPHL’s Hershey Cubs and a senior advisor for the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs.
