Friday marks the NHL’s trade deadline day, which is annually a huge deal in Canada. As usual, both TSN and Sportsnet are doing deadline shows for most of the day, involving their regular NHL figures and some new ones. The deadline is getting some attention in the U.S. as well, with ESPN+ streaming TSN’s TradeCentre from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern (and ESPN personalities taking part in that) and then doing their own The Point show on ESPN2 and ESPN+ after that.
However, many trades this year happened earlier this week, before the actual deadline. That led to some air-filling on those shows Friday. It also led to a very funny behind-the-scenes video TSN tweeted, of new guest panelist (and long-time NHL head coach) Bruce Boudreau giving an incredible profane (but bleeped) coaching rant to the rest of the team:
Bruce Boudreau saw that the #TradeCentre crew needed a pep talk… and he delivered. pic.twitter.com/FYlo0ihlKX
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) March 3, 2023
“Hey guys, listen up for a minute here. I’ve never seen a group of people who look so ****ing down. What are you, prima donna perfect? Where you can’t ****ing handle a little bit of adversity? This is the NHL! You guys are too ****ing good to be doing nothing! Pounder [former Canadian women’s team player turned analyst Cheryl Pounder], you’ve let that ****ing nomination [for a 2023 Canadian Screen Award for Best Sports Analyst for her work on a USA-Canada IIHF Women’s World Championship broadcast] go to your head. Button [TSN director of scouting Craig Button], this isn’t junior. Let’s get this **** going here. This is the NHL, we need you! Duthie [host James Duthie], let’s get our *** in gear here. You haven’t done a thing for two weeks, you sit on your *** and you pretend to make phone calls. You’re better than this!”
“LeBrun [insider Pierre LeBrun], Johnston [insider Chris Johnston], crack some ****ing trades here for a second, eh? We’re sitting here on our ***** doing nothing. We need information! Gino [host Gino Reda]! What are you doing? You’re sitting down, you don’t even have a chair! Get the **** up and do some work around here! I know ****ing Duthie’s hosting, I know you’re not working with much. But we can do it! That’s how good we are! Surely the **** we can do better than this. Let’s get ‘er going.”
That’s an amazing display of a coaching rant, and it’s fun to see one modified specifically for a media thing like this. Boudreau’s participation here and willingness to reference some of the absurdity of coaching rants also helps to show his sense of humor and how he doesn’t take himself too seriously, especially given the timing. He just went through a humiliating situation with the Vancouver Canucks, where it was quite clear he was going to be fired (and likely to be replaced with then-TNT analyst Rick Tocchet) weeks before they actually made that move, a situation that saw many Canucks’ fans chime in to support him and criticize the organization for their treatment of him.
But Boudreau’s seemed to be in good spirits despite that, and he’s continued to show off his (long–praised) personality. And this was just the latest example of that. (If only the panel had given him a “Bruce, There It Is” to end it.)
This was also a fun addition to the extensive canon of TSN having fun with sports and not taking themselves too seriously. This might be their best hockey video since “Puck Over Glass.” And that’s high praise indeed.
[TSN on Twitter]
