The Vancouver Canucks made the worst-kept secret in hockey official on Sunday. Head coach Bruce Boudreau was fired, and Rick Tocchet was named as his replacement.

Boudreau wore his emotions on his sleeve in his final games. Canucks fans showed their support for their now-former head coach with chants of “Bruce There It Is!” in back-to-back home games.

On Monday, the veteran NHL head coach spoke about the situation publicly for the first time. Boudreau dealt with a lot in his time with the Canucks, but there was one thing he refused to do: quit.

“You want me out, get me out but I'm not going to quit and I'm not going to ever give up because if you do that, you're quitting on the players and my whole thing with the team all year was, we never quit,” Boudreau said on Monday.

News of Boudreau's firing goes back at least a few weeks. It became so widely known that even opposing players were commenting on the situation. Boudreau also name-dropped Tocchet in his final postgame press conference as head coach.

The worst part of this came about a week ago. President of hockey operations Jim Rutherford admitted the Canucks had sought out replacements for Boudreau while the veteran bench boss still held the job.

One certainly couldn't blame Boudreau for feeling some type of way toward the Canucks organization. However, he will address all of that some other time. For now, the veteran coach will remember the immense fan support he received while with the team.

“The fans were great. They're very, very passionate in Vancouver. If this team could ever get a winner, you'd want to be here because it's loud,” Boudreau said.