The National Hockey League (NHL) today announced Ducks Head Coach Bruce Boudreau as a finalist for the 2012-13 Jack Adams Award. Boudreau joins Joel Quenneville of the Chicago Blackhawks and Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators as the three finalists for the NHL’s head coach who has “contributed the most to his team’s success” as voted upon by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association. This marks the second time Boudreau has been nominated, after winning the Jack Adams Award in 2007-08. It is also the first time in club history an Anaheim head coach has been a finalist for the Jack Adams. The winner will be announced during the 2013 Stanley Cup Final.

Boudreau, 58 (1/9/55), guided the Ducks to their second Pacific Division title in 2012-13, compiling a 30-12-6 record for 66 points. The club’s .688 winning (points) percentage was the best regular season mark in franchise history (previously 48-20-14, .671 in 2006-07). Anaheim completed the 2012-13 season second in the Western Conference and third overall in the NHL (Chicago and Pittsburgh). The club’s third-place finish in the overall league standings was the highest in club history (the 2006-07 club finished fourth).

Named the eighth head coach in team history on Nov. 30, 2011 and signed to a two-year contract extension through 2014-15 on May 10, 2012, Boudreau has posted a 57-35-14 record in 106 games with the Ducks. All-time, Boudreau has compiled a 258-123-54 record in 435 career NHL games with Anaheim and Washington for a .655 win percentage. As head coach of the Washington Capitals (2007-11), Boudreau won the 2007-08 Jack Adams Award and led his club to the 2009-10 Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top club in the regular season.

Before joining the Capitals, Boudreau spent nine seasons as an AHL head coach, including a Calder Cup championship with the Hershey Bears in 2006. He spent four years with Manchester (Los Angeles) and two with Lowell (Los Angeles) before joining Hershey (Washington). He compiled a 103-45-27 record with the Bears, including an AHL-best 51-17-12 in 2006-07. Boudreau began his coaching career in the Colonial Hockey League with Muskegon in 1992-93 and was named the International Hockey League Coach of the Year in 1993-94 with Fort Wayne. He also served as head coach and director of hockey operations for Mississippi (ECHL), where he won the 1999 Kelly Cup championship.



Boudreau addressed the media on a conference call this afternoon on his nomination for the 2012-13 Jack Adams Award.



On being nominated for the Jack Adams Award

I was very surprised. It’s a great honor. It’s hard coming on the heels of probably your most depressing moment in a year, when you’re still decompressing from losing in the playoffs. It’s certainly a great honor. I just know how many great coaches there are in this league, and how many great jobs were done by coaches this year. To be picked out as one of three is, I don’t know the right word, but it brings you down to earth. It’s a great compliment.



On the two other nominees, Joel Quenneville [Chicago Blackhawks] and Paul MacLean [Ottawa Senators]

They did phenomenal jobs. The great job in Joel, other than the fact that he’s one of the best coaches ever, was the fact that he kept his team at such a high level for such a long time. They’ve never had any down turn at all. Never any slide. And for Paul, for a guy who could keep his team in the running with all the adversity that they had to go through. I think both of them did a tremendous job. Just to be even mentioned with them is really quite phenomenal to me.



On if he expects to win the Jack Adams Award

No, I don’t. I’m just happy to be involved. It would be a really nice thing, but just to have your name mentioned among those guys, and the guys who weren’t mentioned who had great years and could very easily be here, it’s really an honor. I humbly accept the honor. But sometimes, it overwhelms me.



On his greatest contribution to the Ducks this season

I think if anything, just a continuation of last year and making them believe they were a good team. Giving them confidence in themselves. I thought we were very consistent. Through the first 35 games, I think we lost five games. And again, with the same mentality as Chicago, we were always chasing them. Just to keep the players on that same intuit all the time, where there was no real slide. Near the end, when Chicago ended up getting seven points ahead of us, we knew we couldn’t go forward and we couldn’t go backward, so there was a little break there. But we picked it up in the last games of the season and thought it would roll right into the playoffs. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out the way we wanted them to.