The Vancouver Canucks have undergone a major overhaul since visiting the Boston Bruins on Nov. 28, as the franchise cleared house in the front office and made Bruce Boudreau the head coach.
And while he hasn’t gotten an opportunity to face the Bruins this season, Boudreau has plenty of experience against Boston and its top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak. Speaking to reporters ahead of Wednesday’s rematch, he recounted his history with the trio from when he was the coach of the Minnesota Wild — and acknowledged that not much has changed over the years.
“They’ve kicked my butt a few times,” Boudreau told reporters. “You watch them on TV all the time, they’re just so good.”
With that in mind, Boudreau was asked if he had a specific game plan regarding the top line, and while he didn’t go too much into detail, he acknowledged he will try to have specific lines or defensive pairings on the ice with the Bruins’ top grouping at all times.
“I think we’ll probably have one of two lines trying to be on the ice against them all the time,” he said. “Sometimes it gets difficult if you’re playing four lines and they’re playing three lines to match up, but we’ll try to get somebody. A defense pair against them is probably the easiest thing to do all the time.”
Puck drop for Bruins-Canucks is at 9 p.m. ET, and you can watch it live on NESN.
