Fire Boudreau (And Murray)

Time to clean house.

I've been a Ducks fan since they were created, and a hockey fan since I was created. I've been through the lows and the highs. I got a noise complaint in my apartment complex in Honolulu when Keith Carney skated behind the net to set up the series sweeping goal against the Wings in 2003, and made it back to California to see Kariya score the goal after Scott Stevens made a Lindros omelette out of his brain in person, from the nosebleeds.

The afterglow of 2007 has worn off by now. While I surely appreciated being a steady playoff team and them winning the first playoff Battle of California as an 8 seed, it's clear that management has been able to trade on the previous decade's success, but that isn't going to work anymore.

Here are my beliefs about what has to be done. Some of it is pure heresy.

First, it's time to put Teemu out to pasture. He can still perform, but he's been on the edge of retirement for 5 years, and is only taking a spot on the roster that someone else needs to fill into the future. Having a great top 6 isn't the problem on this team, either. Implicit in this is that Koivu can go play in Florida or Phoenix, where players who normally want to still cash a paycheck while they are functionally retired go.

Second, Bob Murray may have told Brian Burke to get Francois Beauchemin the first time to his credit, but he let Burke give him to him the second time. Trade rape. He is obviously best as a right-hand-man or a scout. If he was going to whisper something in Burke's ear, it should have been, "Keep Ilya, ditch Giggy." I know the protocol: fire the coach. But when that doesn't work, and when you hire such an utter failure like Bruce Boudreau to replace a Stanley Cup winning coach, it's on you.

Third, Jonas Hiller has been a decent playoff performer, but he's never been the same since his extended absence. I'll leave it to others to judge whether he will return to form, but wtf.

Fourth, the Ducks should have an institutional memory of what happens when your whole team is forwards. Sure, Kariya and Selanne scored a lot of goals, and that might have been good enough for neophyte hockey fans, but this is now a team with fans who have tasted the Cup. When the team's two biggest stars were Niedermayer and Pronger, that's what happened. Trade one of those malingering young all star forwards for some D. Yeah, it's not that simple, but this is obvious.

This is one of those years where I'm not sure why I paid for the Centre Ice package. Oy.