Boudreau: Rutherford's critical comments should motivate Canucks

Vancouver Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau defended his team, and himself, on Tuesday after president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford made some highly critical comments Monday.

Rutherford took aim at the team's structure, stating that its run-and-gun style isn't sustainable long term. Rutherford added he didn't like the Canucks' training camp and thinks they "have to play with a stronger system."

Boudreau plans to use Rutherford's comments as motivation.

"We play as hard as we can, we play as well as we can and lay it all out on the line every night," Boudreau said, according to The Province's Ben Kuzma. "It is what it is. I try to keep the noise out of the room as much as I can. I'm not in the players' mind, but if we take the positive effect, it angers them to show that everybody is wrong.

"This is my 47th year in the business and I've seen a lot of things. ... I think every person wants to prove people wrong when they say things. I'm a pretty competitive guy at heart and maybe that's the message: Prove that it's not a true statement."

Boudreau is not under contract beyond this season, so he may be essentially coaching for his job.

The 67-year-old took over for Travis Green 25 games into last season and led the Canucks to a 32-15-10 record. Things haven't gone quite as well this year. Vancouver went 0-5-2 to start the campaign but is attempting to dig itself out of the hole with three wins in its last five games.