The process was unusually and unnecessarily messy. Vancouver Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford — remember him? — was typically candid during a news conference on Jan. 16 when he all but said he was going to fire Bruce Boudreau as coach of his underachieving team.
"All I can say is that Bruce is our coach right now," Rutherford said, adding he had talked to outside candidates and that "major surgery" was needed to fix the Canucks' many problems. But Rutherford didn't fire Boudreau until Sunday — six days later — making the popular Boudreau a sympathetic figure to the point that Vancouver fans chanted his name in support during his final two home games over the weekend.
Boudreau, who is well-respected in the hockey world, deserved better than to be savaged by Rutherford's brutal honesty.
