It seemed inevitable that Bruce Boudreau would pay for his latest Game 7 loss, and lo and behold, the Ducks fired him on Friday.
Boudreau, throughout his career, has coached some of the NHL's best regular-season teams, but he's never gotten past the conference final and, after Wednesday's loss to Nashville, is somehow 1-7 in Game 7s.
MORE: An SN Exclusive talk with Boudreau
That's a crazy, borderline unrepeatable streak of crummy luck augmented somewhat by flat starts in those games; at Puck Daddy, Greg Wyshynski did a good job breaking down what, exactly, has gone into it.
At least a bit of it is Boudreau's fault; the fact that the other team has scored first in six of those seven losses, and that's not a great sign. If you're looking for something to pin on the coach, that's where you should start and, probably, end. Coaches have to bear at least responsibility for results. That's the job.
Still, though, Boudreau's body of work everywhere else should get him his pick of positions, some of which are open and some of which are not. His teams don't get their doors blown off in Game 7s, and he wins most of the rest of the them.
In eight full seasons with one team, he has won eight division titles. He's the fastest coach to ever win 400 games, with a current record of 409-192-80. Enjoy that, Ottawa or Minnesota.
Bruce Boudreau was head coach of the NHL's No. 1 defence, power-play and penalty kill this season. Fired.
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) April 29, 2016
His demeanor, no matter what you think of it, has nothing to do with goalies making saves or players missing shots or pucks missing by an inch during two dominant periods, as was the case on Thursday. He's a good coach with a historically bad, weird bit of baggage, yes, but he's still a good coach.
Whoever winds up with him will be lucky, and better than they were the day before.