Boudreau talks reaching 1,000 NHL games, Canucks in Q&A with NHL.com

NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Sitting Down with…" runs each Sunday. We talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice.
This edition features Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau.

Bruce Boudreau coached his 1,000th NHL game Sunday when the Vancouver Canucks hosted the St. Louis Blues on Sunday. The 67-year-old became the 29th coach to reach the milestone and had been pondering what it would mean to him.
"I think if anything it means acceptance, that I'm an NHL coach," Boudreau said. "I don't know if makes any sense to anybody else, but I mean I was 33 years basically in the minors (as a player and a coach). So to get this 1,000th game after not being in the NHL until you're 53, I think is pretty cool that I finally feel like I'm accepted as a guy that's been in the NHL for a while."
Boudreau is 577-305-117 in 14 NHL seasons with the Washington Capitals (2007-2011), Anaheim Ducks (2011-2016), Minnesota Wild (2016-2020) and the Canucks, who hired him Dec. 5 to replace Travis Green. Vancouver (18-18-4) is 10-3-2 since Boudreau became coach, including wins in its first seven games.
Boudreau is trying to duplicate what he did in his first NHL job with the Capitals. Washington was 6-14-1 when he was promoted from Hershey of American Hockey League to replace Glen Hanlon as coach Nov. 22, 2007. The Capitals were 37-17-7 during the remainder of the season to finish first in the Southeast Division and qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Boudreau won the Jack Adams Award voted as NHL coach of the year that season.
NHL.com caught up with Boudreau and talked about his memories from his first 999 NHL games, trying to turn around the Canucks, his time between coaching gigs and Alex Ovechkin.
What memories from your time coaching in the NHL stand out?
"I think when we won the last game my first year [with Washington] to finally make the playoffs. We had to win 12 out of the last 13 and we had to win the last seven games. … I think that was as good of a feeling as I've had. Obviously when [the Ducks] beat Calgary to go into the conference final against Chicago [in 2015], for the first time I was in the third round, that was really exciting. I've been lucky enough to have teams that had great winning streaks. Anytime you have a 10-game-plus winning streak is always exciting and I was lucky enough to do it with all three previous teams. So all of these things add up to just an exciting time.
"The only thing left, to me, is winning a Stanley Cup and I can't even imagine what that would feel like because I dream about it every day."
What have been the challenges of jumping in midseason with Vancouver?
"It was challenging because I didn't know the players that well. There was only one player on the team that I had coached before (defenseman Brad Hunt with Minnesota), so you didn't know the situation or the lay of the land. I hadn't coached with any of the [assistants] before, so getting to learn about them and their idiosyncrasies and everything else. What I've done with the other teams is you sit there and you think, 'What should I do?' Then I ended up saying, 'I've got to be me and do exactly what I've done [before] or I wouldn't be true to myself.' So I changed a lot of stuff around into the way I would like it. Then to see the guys play so hard in front of you is really encouraging."

Some players. such as forwards Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser, have started to play better and produce more. How much of your job when you took over was helping them gain confidence?
"I think any coach would be trying to help them get their confidence back. That's the thing when they hire you and you've got great players not playing up to expectations. Your job, if you want to win and keep the job, is to get these guys to play as good as they can. You try different things, and if one thing doesn't work, you try another thing until you find something that they can hold onto and it works. Right now, Pettterson is playing really well. He's also playing 20 minutes a game, and I think he likes that. He likes to be relied on, and that's important. Brock's the same way. Thatcher Demko is playing about as well as any goaltender on earth right now. So when you have great goaltending, they make coaches look a lot better."
Is qualifying for the playoffs something you talk about as an objective or are you focusing more on smaller steps?
"I think they know it's the objective and it's the belief we have, but I don't talk about it. We talk about winning the week. If we can go ahead and win the week, then we'll be in good positions. And if we keep winning weeks, then you keep advancing. … Those short goals are an awful lot easier than the large goals. If I was to tell the team we have 42 games left and we've got to win 31 of them, that's quite a task. So these short goals are a lot easier."
You weren't out of work long after your first two NHL jobs with Washington and Anaheim. What did you learn about yourself while waiting between being let go by Minnesota (Feb. 14, 2020) and hired by Vancouver?
"That I'm impatient. Sometimes things happen very easily and you take them for granted. When I got hired in a day by Anaheim and within a week in Minnesota and then this time took a year and a half, it was easily the longest I've been out of work since I started playing. So it was very frustrating. To be honest, I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to get back in because your age starts to creep up on you and people use that sometimes against you. But I loved working for the NHL Network. I thought that was a fabulous job with fabulous people, and they all knew that I always yearned to get back behind the bench."
During your time off, you started the Hershey Cubs Junior A team (USPHL/U.S. Premier Hockey League) with your wife, Crystal, and your son, Brady, among others. What is your hope for that program?
"I think it was a niche that wasn't filled in Hershey and we're not looking to break to bank. We were just looking to be able to give back, if you can make enough money to give to charities and get the kids working and teaching the right things. We'd love to win a championship, but we want to make it a viable place for other people to see games in Hershey in a great venue, and at the end of the year we just want to give everything back to the community and be part of the community because that's where we live now."
Your son, Ben, won a championship coaching in the ECHL with Fort Wayne last season. What was your advice to him when he went into coaching?
"He loves the game just like I do, and I just said, 'Be prepared to move.' If you want to be a coach and you want to continue it as a career and you're going to be a lifer, you're not going to be able to have the white picket fence and have the kids grow up in the same neighborhood your whole life. You're going to move because there's going to be some great times and there's going to be some bad times when you do get let go because that's the nature of our game. So he took that and he said, 'Fine.' He's only in his early 30s, but he's lived in about seven different places, so he's getting accustomed to the moving."
When the Canucks were in Washington last Sunday, Alex Ovechkin scored his ninth goal and 18th point in 12 games against you since you were let go by the Capitals (per NHL Stats). Any theories on why he enjoys scoring against you so much?
"He did it again and he looked at me and he sort of winked at me and I mouthed the words, 'Don't score anymore.' He's such a good-natured guy. That's why I know he's going to break Wayne Gretzky's record (of 894 goals). He puts his mind to it, and it gets done."