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TWO SPIRAL-BOUND BOOKS COULD SHAPE PANTHERS’ AND NEW COACH BOB BOUGHNER’S FUTURE
New coach, new players, new season. Can the Panthers bounce back?
Bob Boughner reached to his right for two white spiral-bound books and thumbed through them, flashes of the Florida Panthers’ future flipping into a training camp afternoon. Inside the books resided the keys to Boughner’s kingdom.
The two volumes contain the PowerPoint presentations Boughner made to Florida this summer when he was vying to become the Panthers’ next coach. One is the technical package — or game plan, as Boughner described it — flush with forecheck, defensive zone and neutral zone systems. The other contained an organizational depth chart and line combinations, plus Boughner’s criteria for becoming an NHL head coach.
To build the books, Boughner watched some of Florida’s games — both under the fired Gerard Gallant and then interim coach Tom Rowe — to diagnose the Panthers’ issues that led to an 81-point season. He presented himself as a players’ coach and a communicator, a blend of old-school hockey and new-age analytics. He explained that he wanted to push the pace to match the style the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins were playing.
“I basically backed up my presentation with the numbers that I thought were going to reflect the style,” Boughner said.
Boughner, 46, described his preparation as the most extensive he’d ever done for a job interview. It impressed Florida’s officials, including general manager Dale Tallon, who officially hired him in June.
Boughner is charged with sterilizing the stench of a sixth-place division finish last season, replacing four departed forwards and stabilizing a defensive corps that returns five of six defensemen. He’ll be asked to lead the Panthers back to prominence after they won the Atlantic Division two years ago.
Part of it will be with his coaching style. Several Panthers described Boughner as a players’ coach who is demanding on the ice but approachable off it. They describe an organized practice that harps on structure and simplicity. It’s different than it was before under Rowe.
“He’s more structured,” defenseman Alex Petrovic said. “It’s very detailed. He doesn’t move on from anything until everyone understands what they’re doing. He’s never negative.”
Boughner understands what the players are going through. He’s only a decade removed from a 10-year NHL career earned by being a tough defenseman unafraid to drop the gloves. The Canadian earned the nickname “The Boogieman” for his physical style that resulted in nearly 1,400 penalty minutes and eight broken noses.
Boughner laughed about his crooked nose that bends to the right, saying that “it’s one of my main features.” He first broke it during a fight as a teenager on his junior team in Sault Ste. Marie.
“I thought I was doing well, and I had his shirt over his head,” Boughner said. “All of sudden, a punch came up and hit me from nowhere. I remember, I think I was 17, I laid on the couch for three or four days, didn’t go to school. My eyes were both black, my nose was crooked and it’s been like that ever since.”
In the time since his playing days, he’s been an assistant coach with San Jose and Columbus, and the head coach of the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires for eight seasons.
His temperament is evenkeeled, his responses to questions generally straightforward. He speaks confidently and locks eyes. Boughner said his transparency is essential to his management of a roster anchored by 20-somethings.
“I make sure that the players are held accountable but not in a fashion where I’m going to be screaming and yelling,” Boughner said. “If there’s things that need to be corrected, it’s got to be done head on, face-to-face. The players respect that.”
There was a time about 10 years ago when Boughner would have yelled and gotten in players’ faces. But experience dulled his edge and forced him further on the spectrum toward patience.
“There’s times to make adjustments and times to teach, and there’s also times to let guys play,” he said. “I think I found that balance.”
Boughner’s balancing act comes in the wake of Rowe’s bumpy tenure atop the Panthers. Rowe was tabbed as Florida’s general manager in the summer of 2016, bumping Tallon from a perch he used to build a division winner. Then Florida fired Gallant after just 22 games and installed Rowe behind the bench.
The team struggled under Rowe and only had two winning streaks longer than two games. It had six losing streaks of at least two games.
Does Boughner feel pressure to be different based on who filled his office a season prior?
“I’ve heard the stories, and I
“I am who I am. I’m myself. I think the players see that. … I can’t worry about anybody that’s been here before me. I got to do my own thing.” —Bob Boughner
don’t really concern myself,” Boughner said. “I am who I am. I’m myself. I think the players see that. … I can’t worry about anybody that’s been here before me. I got to do my own thing.”
Boughner also has to straddle the line between traditionalists and analytics experts. Nearly every coach in major modern sports has to navigate this issue, but it may be magnified in Florida. The Panthers front office earned both ridicule and the nickname “Computer Boys” for an approach that strayed from the status quo.
Boughner said he embraces analytics in the sport, but maintains that he doesn’t need to be inundated with statistics.
“Where are we giving shots up from on the ice?” Boughner said. “What are the high percentage scoring areas we’re giving? I want to talk about entry denials, things that give me the gauge on our general five-on-five and special teams. I don’t need to get into every category, busted down into 10 subcategories.”
But for Boughner and the Panthers, everything returns to the two spiraled books tucked into an office in Coral Springs. They are the guides to a ship getting back on track and the compass to a potential return to the playoffs.
“Every day, I’m going to hammer on the details and the structure,” Boughner said.