SENATORS’ NEXT BIG DECISION: WHAT TO DO WITH BOUCHER
Future of head coach up in the air after team drops from playoff contender to 30th in NHL
Guy Boucher’s future with the Ottawa Senators is to be determined.
After a season during which no NHL coaches lost their jobs, it didn’t take long for the first domino to fall when the Rangers showed longtime coach Alain Vigneault the door Saturday night, only hours after New York closed out their season with a 5-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
He is only the first coach that will lose his job this spring. There’s no question he won’t be the last because there’s disappointment in 15 cities that missed the playoffs and eight more will be upset in a couple of weeks once they get an early exit card in the first round.
The Senators will gather Monday at the Canadian Tire Centre for one final meeting before their exit sessions with general manager Pierre Dorion, assistant Randy Lee and Boucher. The reality of missing the playoffs will then really set in for the Senators and their faithful.
While the thinking has always been Boucher would return next season to fulfil the final year of his contract, that scenario took a turn when Dorion said during a conference call with fans with nine games left that he’d be looking at the coaching staff.
“When it comes to our coach and our coaching staff, we all feel that Guy’s still a very good coach,” Dorion said on the call. “But, in saying that, we didn’t meet expectations, so, when the end of the year comes, I think we’ll have to re-evaluate what we’re doing with our coaching staff.
“I think right now to give a vote of confidence, or do the opposite, isn’t the right thing.”
A good sign for Boucher is he has been invited by Dorion to take part in the exit meetings, which means the team values his assessments and wants him to play a role in sending the message the organization wants conveyed before the players head out for the summer.
In his first act after taking over as general manager in April 2016, Dorion asked coach Dave Cameron and his staff to stay away from the rink on locker-cleanout day. The next day, after missing the playoffs with a 38-55-9 record, Cameron and his staff were fired.
People will point out Boucher’s tenure has gone pretty much the way people would have scripted it when he was hired in May 2016. He took the club to the East final last spring against the Pittsburgh Penguins and then the club bottomed out in his second season.
That’s what happened when he coached in Tampa Bay, too.
One of the concerns about Boucher is his stubbornness.
He marched out the “rest is a weapon” phrase while giving the team too many days off in the first half of the year and some of the Senators’ struggles can be attributed to limited practice time.
After a 5-0 loss in Winnipeg on Dec. 3, he noted he shouldn’t have cancelled practice the day before.
There’s also concern over the reduced opportunity Boucher gave to young players. But when the Senators decided to start transitioning out veterans before the Feb. 26 trade deadline, he did buy into the program to give the likes of Thomas Chabot and Colin White the chance to play more often.
Make no mistake, the Senators don’t want to make a change even after finishing with a lousy 28-43-11 record, but the way they’ve played defensively and the fact their special teams were among the worst in the league may necessitate a review of the coaching staff.
It was one thing to give Boucher a vote of confidence in December, when the situation was getting messy and people were looking for a change. But it was right for Dorion to say a few weeks ago he needed time to reflect before determining what’s next for the head coach.
The Senators have cycled through seven coaches in the past 11 years They did an extensive search when they hired Boucher and there has to be accountability, so part of the decisions to be made on this staff may depend on the feedback management gets in the exit meetings.
The jobs done by associate coach Marc Crawford — along with assistants Martin Raymond, Rob Cookson, Pierre Groulx (goaltending coach) and Kris Young (video) — will be reviewed as well.
Boucher is the one who has to ultimately accept the responsibility because the buck stops with him, but his staff played roles in the season, too.
A month ago, it looked as if bringing Boucher back would be automatic. His future is now less certain, but expect a quick answer from Dorion on which route the organization is going to take. There’s no point in letting the situation linger.
So, will Boucher return? We’ll wait to hear the final answer, but based on a season that didn’t go as planned, the odds are no better than 50/50.
Based on a season that didn’t go as planned for the Senators, the odds are no better than 50/50 that Guy Boucher will be back in Ottawa for another year.