Teemu Selanne: 'If we had any other coach, I'd still play'
Teemu Selanne's decision to walk away after 23 NHL seasons wasn't made strictly of his own volition.
It was also made out of distaste for Bruce Boudreau.
“If we had any other coach, I’d still play,” wrote Selanne in his new autobiography entitled "Teemu," via Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.
The book is a tell-all of Selanne's upbringing and legendary career in hockey, but the most intriguing tidbits revealed are his scathing words for Boudreau, who he believes is preventing Anaheim from winning a Stanley Cup.
He describes the final words he exchanged with Boudreau, when he confronted the Ducks head coach after practice during their first-round series with the Dallas Stars.
I waited after everyone else had left the ice and skated to Boudreau. I yelled at him right to his face with what I was thinking. I asked what he has against me. I told him that since he became our coach, he has not respected me one bit. You never put me on ice when we play 5-on-3 or 4-on-4 or when we are one goal behind in the end of the game. Be honest for one time and answer.
He just stammered that decisions were not his alone and it was a group decision. I asked which group and he said GM and scouts. I yelled at him ‘Whoa, what kind of a coach are you if you don’t even decide the lineup?’ He tried to skate away but I just yelled that I wasn't finished.
I told Boudreau if you ever want to win something in a playoffs, you’re going to need me. Nobody else wants to win as much as me.
Johnston further notes that when Anaheim trailed the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 during the first intermission in Game 7, Selanne, in what would be his final NHL game, took out his phone and texted his wife two words:
"F--ing joke."