Reply To: Boucher DZ

[hockeygod]

Didn't know where to put this one… "Articles" or "Art of Coaching" but since the title of this one bears his name… I will put it here!

Boucher enjoys whirlwind ride with Tampa Bay

Busy year for coach; 'It's been a great start for me, personally'

By Randy Phillips, Postmedia News November 18, 2010

Guy Boucher…innovator?

"I'm just trying to be myself," the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning said. "I'm not trying to be an innovator. I'm not trying to be different than anybody else. I'm not trying to be the cocky new guy who thinks he knows it better.

"I just feel I've developed a way of doing things that suits my personality and suits my qualities. I focus on my strengths, and it's turned out well for me over my career."

Call it what you may, Boucher has taken the National Hockey League somewhat by storm in his first year as a head coach and, at age 39, as the youngest bench boss in the league. His Lightning are 9-7-2 after a 4-2 win Wednesday against the New York Islanders.

After spending only one season in the American Hockey League, guiding the Hamilton Bulldogs, Boucher has brought a high level of intensity with him — just look at his eyes during a game — and a unique fore-checking style. In technical terms, it's a 1-3-1, where the first forechecker's responsibility is to angle the puck carrier to one side of the rink or the other, while three middle forecheckers line up behind in support, looking to force a turnover. One defenceman backs up the rear.

The Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Que., native has long maintained he doesn't coach systems, but coaches players, and that "managing people comes first on my list."

He added: "If I have 24 players on my team, I need 24 ways to coach … I found out that if you care about the players, they will care about what you have to say after that."

In a telephone interview on Tuesday while waiting for a flight to New York, Boucher was asked if he was "a players coach" and if his age was a complement to an obvious ability to reach out to them as a teacher and motivator?

"The thing is, I don't have any reference points because I'm not an older coach," the McGill University graduate and former all-star centre with the Redmen said. "I'm not somebody else. I haven't lived this [NHL experience] before. The only reference points I've got are what I'm living now. But the one thing I feel with our team is that we've got guys who really care. Guys who play hard and want to do better."

"They're extremely receptive, and so for me as a coach it's been quite a treat to have players like that," he added. "At the same time, I'm surrounded by quality people at all levels in the organization and on our staff. So I feel very fortunate.

"I feel that it's a great growing process for me and, at the same time, we're doing pretty good, so it's been a great start for me, personally. But as a whole, I wouldn't say it's better than expectations, because I always expect extremely high standards of my teams."

With Hamilton last season, Boucher posted an impressive 52-17-11 record despite several players being in and out of the lineup after being called up by the Canadiens.

"Yes and no," Boucher said when asked if he has had time to digest how fast everything has happened over the past year. "It's been a whirlwind. I've just been so engulfed in what I've had to do and what I've still got to do.

"From the moment I did the interviews for the job, got named, and then coming here with wife [Marsha] to find a house. After that, interviewing people for the assistant coaches and the rest of the staff, and going over the team and our plans with [general manager Steve Yzerman]. Planning everything for the year and making sure we start the culture that we want and how to do it … it's all been crazy.

"I really didn't have any summer at all, which is all positive, though. But I haven't had time to sit down. At home, I barely had time to sit down and feel like I'm home, but it's been great."

Boucher and his wife have three children, son Vincent and twin daughters Mila and Naomi. He estimated he and Marsha, his longtime girlfriend before they were married, moved 13 times in his first nine years in coaching.

"I've stopped counting, so I don't know where I'm at now," he said. "My wife certainly deserves a medal. She takes a lot of the load."

The Lightning went into Long Island on Wednesday night mired in a three-game losing streak and having lost six of their previous seven games. That after starting the season 5-0 and posting a 9-3 record in October.

Boucher's club is facing adversity for the first time, especially with injuries to forwards Vincent Lecavalier (broken hand) and Simon Gagne (neck), and defenceman Victor Hedman (foot).

"It's funny, because we're playing just as good as before and even in some games we're playing better than at the times before," Boucher said.

"The reality … what's getting to us now is our [lack of ] scoring. We're creating and getting a lot of chances. We're just not burying the thing.

"So it's a struggle right now for us, but it's not because our guys aren't working hard. They are working hard. If they weren't, I'd be the first to know. I just tell him to keep working. We're going to get through it."
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Dean
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