The Washington Capitals lost faith in him earlier this year deal.
Boudreau will make his debut behind the bench tonight for the Ducks, who will resume a six-game homestand versus the Philadelphia Flyers at the Honda Center. Boudreau was fired by the Capitals on Monday and quickly hired by Anaheim early Thursday morning.
"We've got a lot of work to do and a hill to climb. This group has faced adversity before and we'll do it again," said Ducks general manager Bob Murray. "I truly believe this group can do it. I feel we have the gentleman here who can lead us in that direction."
Boudreau replaced Randy Carlyle, who was fired shortly after Wednesday's 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Boudreau guided the Caps to the 2009-10 Presidents' Trophy as the top club in the regular season and compiled a record of 201-88-40, winning the Southeast Division four times. He will now take over an Anaheim club that has only three wins in its last 19 games and is 1-2 so far on the current homestand.
The Ducks improved to 7-13-4 on the season and 5-8-0 as the host with the convincing win over the Habs, as Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry each had a goal and two assists to lead the way. Devante Smith-Pelly and Niklas Hagman also scored, while Jonas Hiller made 19 saves for Anaheim, which went a paltry 2-8-3 in the month of November.
"We did a lot of things to a higher level than we have in the past few games we have played," Carlyle said before his dismissal. "Our power play and penalty kill was the difference in the hockey game. Our goaltender made some big stops for us in some critical situations. That is what it takes to win."
Anaheim, which is last in the Pacific Division, was able to snap a five-game home losing streak and will also host Minnesota and Los Angeles on the residency.
Philadelphia had plenty of time to think about its last loss, a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the rival New York Rangers on Saturday, and will continue a four- game road trip Friday night.
The Flyers had won back-to-back games but lost for the third time in five tries against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist stopped 29 shots to post his second shutout of the season. Sergei Bobrovsky allowed two goals on 32 shots for the Flyers, who are 7-3-1 away from Wells Fargo Center this season.
"There's lots of teams that play good defense in this league," said Philadelphia head coach Peter Laviolette. "That hasn't stopped us before, but it just seemed today that the puck wasn't where it needed to be."
The Flyers will also visit Phoenix and Buffalo on the swing before returning to the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia has dropped two of three road games.
Center Claude Giroux owns two goals and five assists in his last four road contests. Team captain and defenseman Chris Pronger is still out after undergoing knee surgery and won't have a chance to play against his former Anaheim club. Pronger underwent surgery on Tuesday and discussed his possible timetable for a return.
"Gauging off of when I had my other knee done a couple of years ago, a month sounds about right, but again, it may be three weeks, it may be six weeks, I don't know," Pronger told the team's website. "We just kind of gave a ballpark number because we don't really know."
The Flyers lost both meetings with Anaheim a season ago and three straight overall. Their last win in this series was a 5-4 shootout victory on Jan. 2, 2009 at the Honda Center.
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