![Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher (right) introduced the team's new head coach, Bruce Boudreau, during a news conference at Xcel Energy Center. ] JIM GEHRZ • james.gehrz@startribune.com / St. Paul, MN / May 10, 2016 /12:00 PM – BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Minnesota Wild will introduce Head Coach Bruce Boudreau to the media at a press conference on Tuesday, May 10, at noon on the floor of the Xcel Energy Center.](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/URIOHHHRSMGFMUKMNNKPH3GMEA.jpg?&w=1080)
When the Wild hired Bruce Boudreau as head coach in 2016, it seemed like the absolute perfect marriage of coach and team – except for in the single most critical way, where it seemed like a disappointment waiting to happen.
To understand that strange dichotomy is probably the easiest path to understanding how we got from the point Boudreau was hired nearly four years ago to Friday, when he was fired by the Wild in the midst of his fourth season.
The perception of perfection came from handing the keys of a veteran team – one with mainstays at the time like Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Mikko Koivu already on the wrong side of 30 but still reasonably close to their peak years plus younger established players like Mikael Granlund – to a veteran coach who could maximize talent with a strong system.
The Wild had already been in the playoffs four consecutive seasons at that point, reaching the second round twice under Mike Yeo, and it was reasonable to think that a coaching upgrade might catapult the franchise on a deeper playoff run in a quest for its first Stanley Cup title.
The possible flaw – fatal or ironic, depending on how you want to look at it – was the strong veteran coach the Wild chose arrived with a reputation for wilting in the postseason as well. The only reason Boudreau was even available for hire was that he was coming off another crushing playoff loss with Anaheim, moving his all-time playoff record in Game 7s to a ghastly 1-7.
So the team trying to get over the hump hired the coach who couldn't get over the hump. They were either going to do it together, or continue to write a frustrating history in tandem.
And we know what happened.
Boudreau guided the Wild to its highest point total (106) in franchise history and home ice in the opening playoff series against St. Louis in his first season … only to watch Minnesota fall flat in a 4-1 series loss. The Wild missed chance after chance, the Blues buried enough of theirs, and all of it was made doubly frustrating by the fact that St. Louis was coached by Yeo.