The Anaheim Ducks Replacing Bruce Boudreau With Randy Carlyle Is... Interesting? I Guess.
Now before we get going here, yes, I am fully aware that Randy Carlyle has won a Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks. I realize that during his time in Anaheim, the Ducks only missed the playoffs once before he was fired and replaced by Boudreau. But after getting let go from Anaheim and finding his way up to Toronto, Randy Carlyle has pretty much since been synonymous with incompetence and shortcomings. As I’m sure every single Bruins fans in the world remembers, Carlyle’s Leafs let up that 4-1 game 7 lead late in the 3rd period of the 1st round series in 2013. Then the leafs ended up losing 12 of their last 14 games of the 2014 season and missed the playoffs. And then Carlyle was fired midway through the 2014-15 season after 7 losses over a 10 game stretch. Oh, and of course you can never forget Randy Carlyle’s finest moment as the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs–his battle with the toaster oven.
So now you take a look at what the Anaheim Ducks have done post-Carlyle during the Boudreau/Getzlaf/Perry Era. Lost in 7 in the 2013 Western Conference Quarterfinals. Lost in 7 in the 2014 Western Conference Semifinals. Lost in 7 in the 2015 Western Conference Finals. And lost in 7 in the 2016 First Round. That is 4 straight years of game 7 losses. They can’t get over that hump. Credit where credit is due to the Ducks, they held out on Boudreau for as long as they possibly could. Most teams probably would have fired Bruce during the regular season with the kind of start the team had last year. But they stuck by him and they were able to turn the season around enough to comfortably get into the playoffs with that weak Pacific Division. But when you lose four Game 7’s in a row, I guess it’s time for some sort of a change. It’s just weird to let Boudreau go, a guy who maybe was unemployed for about a week before the Wild picked him up, and decide to go back with Randy Carlyle as his replacement. It’s perplexing to say the least.
Let’s just say this. When you break up with someone, it’s easy to think back to some of your exes and dwell on the good times you guys had. You’re sad, you’re lonely, you’re feeling a bit vulnerable. You need some level of comfort back in your life so you go back to what you know. You completely block out the reasons why you broke up with your ex in the first place and you only think about those good times. So sure, Bob Murray and the Anaheim Ducks are probably thinking about that time 10 years ago that they won a Stanley Cup with Randy Carlyle. But thy’re forgetting how the rest of his tenure went. They’re forgetting what he turned into once he got to Toronto. If the Anaheim Ducks had any real friends, they’d tell them that this is a bad idea. But sometimes you just need to let your friends make mistakes on their own. It’s a learning experience. It’s going to hurt. It’s going to end up poorly just like it did before. But this is their decision to make.