Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer

Description

Bruce Boudreau is living a hockey Cinderella story. After more than three decades in the minor leagues as a player and coach, he was promoted to head coach of the Washington Capitals in 2007. Boudreau revived the Caps, written off as dead, to a division championship and received the Jack Adams award as the National Hockey League's Coach of the Year in June 2008. His story is an entertaining odyssey of triumph, disappointment, and perseverance, stretching from Toronto to Washington. As a pro rookie, Boudreau had a cameo appearance in Slap Shot with star Paul Newman. Today Boudreau coaches superstar Alexander Ovechkin and a young Washington club poised to become an elite NHL team vying for the Stanley Cup. Boudreau stole the limelight at the 2008 NHL Awards Show with his self-deprecating and folksy manner, which has made him a popular personality at every stop he's made. Hockey fans know there's only one Boudreau.

Bruce Boudreau is head coach of the Washington Capitals. The former head coach of numerous championship teams, Boudreau is the eleventh all-time scorer in the American Hockey League. Boudreau played parts of eight seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks, recording 70 points in 141 career NHL games. He won two Memorial Cups with the Toronto Marlboros and set a Canadian Hockey League single-season scoring record that stood until Wayne Gretzky broke it. Tim Leone is an award-winning sports columnist and reporter for the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he covers the Hershey Bears and the NFL. Formerly with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune he also has written for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, and The Hockey News. Leone is the author of The Hershey Bears: Sweet Seasons (Arcadia, 2003).