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BREAKING: Senators Bid Recommended For Lebreton; Boudreau Top Of Wishlist?

April 28, 2016, 8:22 AM ET [78 Comments]
Jared Crozier
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
BREAKING: The bid helmed by Eugene Melnyk, Cyril Leeder and the Senators group has been recommended by the comittee to advance to the next stage of negotiations with the NCC, and eventually to seek final approval for the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats in Ottawa.

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He hasn't quite been fired yet, but the rumors began almost before the final buzzer ended the Anaheim Ducks season that Bruce Boudreau was on very thin ice after falling in yet another game 7 and blowing a 3-2 series lead to the Nashville Predators.

Anaheim stuck with Boudreau despite a disastrous start to the season, and the Ducks were one of the best teams in the league down the stretch before dropping games 1 and 2 at home in the series, clawing their way back to get the lead before failing to close out in game 6 or 7.

So if Boudreau does get the axe in the coming days, I would think he moves right to the top of the Senators' list in terms of currently available coaches to fill the current vacancy.

He does carry a track record of being able to come in and make an immediate impact, having won coach of the year in his first season despite coaching just 61 games with the Capitals. He even had a winning record when he was fired from the Caps job and wasn't unemployed long before the Ducks snapped him up less than 2 days later.

He has made the playoffs every year except for that half-season in Anaheim where he failed to do what he had done when he took over in Washington, overcome the obstacles to get to the post-season.

Boudreau has a 5-8 record in playoff series, winning at least one round in 4 of the 8 trips his teams made to the spring dance. The telling stat is that he is 1-7 in game 7's, which the simple solution for that dilemma is to end it before the final deciding game!

Any coach who comes into a situation is usually coming off being fired at some point, and usually multiple times. Such is the nature of the job and the old saying that coaches are hired to be fired is pretty accurate. The Senators want to go experienced this time around and Boudreau is probably going to be the best combination of recent success and experience among those candidates for the job.

Assuming he gets fired. Stranger things have happened than a likeable and pretty successful coach keeping the job he has.


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It is a big day for the Eugene Melnyk camp, and one that could determine a lot about the future of the franchise.

At 2:00 pm the NCC will announce which proposal the 5 person evaluation committee is recommending for NCC Board approval. One member of the Committee, without naming names said there was a clear favorite in the process.

One of the two bids is from Melnyk and his group, and the centerpiece of the bid being a new arena. The competing bid also has plans for an arena, which will make for interesting times and speculation if the Devcore Canderel DLS Group wins the bid as they will be looking for a tenant for the new building and will fuel rumors (that started as soon as the bids were announced) that they will be pushing to buy the Senators, who Melnyk has stated will not be for sale.

Whether Melnyk wins or not, it will affect the team's future, because I think a lot of their eggs are in the downtown arena basket and he is counting on that to secure future revenues to subsidize the team. If he loses the bid, what will the future hold, because I don't imagine he would enjoy having his team play downtown in someone else's arena while the one he owns sits vacant.

The recommended proposal will then go through negotiations over the summer with the NCC ahead of awaiting federal and municipal approval in the fall.
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