Canucks: Bruce Boudreau brings ‘new ideas’ to first practice in Vancouver

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Bruce Boudreau was in his element Monday morning.

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The new Vancouver Canucks head coach, who has a gift for the talk and has been labeled “Gabby” for obvious reasons, was at his best talker at game day morning skating. He set out to search for young, impressionable struggling players like Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson for additional words of encouragement.

“He has a lot of positive energy and wants to bring out the best in his players,” Canucks captain Bo Horvat said. “He has some new ideas on how we can improve as a team and I’m excited to put them to work.”

The first order of business was to roll out lines, as the first hint of Boudreau’s fast-paced mantra was to place Pettersson between sprinter Conor Garland and impressive Russian rookie Vasily Podkolzin. It looked like this and it looked good:

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“We had a meeting this morning and he was speaking in a positive way and giving the guys the assurance that we have good players who have played good hockey and we have shown it before, so that we can do it again,” said the winger. Tanner Pearson.

The experienced 66-year-old Bruce Boudreau, who recently managed the Minnesota Wild after stops with the Anaheim Ducks and Washington Capitals, replaced Travis Green as the Canucks head coach.

Green, along with general manager Jim Benning, assistant general manager John Weisbrod and assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner, were fired by the team on Sunday.

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