Lightning strikes as McGill grad Boucher appointed head coach of NHL squad

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Lightning strikes as McGill grad Boucher appointed head coach of NHL squad

Published: 10 June 2010

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(PHOTO COURTESY OF CLUB DE HOCKEY CANADIENS)

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MONTREAL - Guy Boucher, a former team captain of the 香蕉视频 Redmen, was appointed head coach of the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. The 38-year-old native of Roxboro, Que., is the fifth former Redmen player to serve as a coach in the NHL and becomes the youngest current bench boss in the league.

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He joins previous McGillians Mike Babcock (Detroit, Anaheim), George Burnett (Edmonton, Anaheim) and Lester Patrick (New York), along with Jamie Kompon, currently an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings.

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Boucher's meteoric rise through the coaching ranks began in 1996 as an apprentice to Martin Raymond with the Redmen, followed by a stint in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and last year, he landed the head coaching berth in Hamilton, the AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, where he was named AHL coach of the year after guiding the Bulldogs to a 52-17-11 record.

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His success stems not as much from his system of play as his style of dealing with players, a philosophy shaped by two McGill degrees followed by a year of course work in sports psychology at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al.

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"I'm not coaching systems, I'm coaching individuals," Boucher said to the media in Tampa. "Managing people comes first on my list. 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."

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Boucher, who was born at Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Que., and raised in the Montreal suburb of Roxboro, turns 39 on Aug. 3. He possesses arts (history & environmental biology; 1995) and science (agricultural engineering; 1996) degrees from McGill, where he played four seasons at centre for the Redmen, from 1991 to 1995, recording 71 goals and 183 points in 141 games. A two-time league all-star, he won the Guy Lafleur trophy in 1993, was voted team MVP in 1993-94 and served as captain in 1994-95. After graduating from McGill, he played pro in France for one season where he led Viry-Chatillon to a 1996 championship in the French Elite League. He also had a brief stint with the Quebec Rafales of the International Hockey League but his playing career was cut short by a bout with chronic fatigue syndrome.

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"I wanted to bring in a strong leader, someone who's been successful," said Steve Yzerman, Tampa's recently appointed general manager. "He's a strong, charismatic leader with tremendous work ethic and passion for the game, and an extremely knowledgeable hockey person. He's a very confident, very strong leader. I am very confident that he is the right person to lead our team on the ice and off the ice. He can create a culture of a winning environment, much like he's done at every stop of his coaching career."

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Before joining the pro ranks in Hamilton, Boucher, spent the better part of the past decade in the QMJHL, including the three seasons as head coach at Drummondville, where he led the Voltigeurs to the 2008-09 regular season and playoff championships, as well as a berth in the Memorial Cup tournament. He also guided the Voltigeurs to their best season in franchise history (54-10-4), an improvement of almost 400% over the previous season (14-51-5). He was awarded the Paul Dumont Trophy as the QMJHL's Personality of the Year in 2008-09.

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Prior to his tenure in Drummondville, Boucher was an assistant coach with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (1997-2000) under Jean Pronovost and was with the Rimouski Oceanic (2003-2006), where he served under Donald Dufresne and Doris Labonte, and coached then future NHL star Sydney Crosby. He left the QMJHL for two seasons (2000-02), to be at the helm of the Lac St. Louis Lions in the Midget AAA league.

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Boucher also enjoyed success at the international level working as an assistant coach with Canada's national under-18 team on three separate occasions, most recently at the 2008 IIHF U-18 world championship where the squad struck gold. He was also behind the bench at the 2007 Ivan Hlinka Memorial summer tournament and the 2006 U-18 world championship. More recently, at the 2009 U-20 world championship, he served as an assistant to Pat Quinn with the Canadian team that won gold at the world junior championships in Ottawa.

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He and wife Marsha have three children, son Vincent and twin daughters Mila and Naomi.

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PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO:

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FORMER McGILL HOCKEY PLAYERS WHO HAVE COACHED IN THE NHL

Lester Patrick (New York, head coach, 1926-39)

George Burnett (Edmonton, head coach, 1994-95; Anaheim, asst., coach, 1998-99)

Mike Babcock (Anaheim, head coach, 2000-02; Detroit, head coach, 2002-present)

Jamie Kompon (St. Louis, asst. coach, 1998-05; Los Angeles, head coach, 2005-present)

Guy Boucher (Tampa Bay, head coach, 2010-present)

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