The Fire Boucher Movement

[DaveMatthew]

The team was fairly consistent all year, March was a little all over the place and thats also when injuries were starting to pile up. They were top 10 in point percentage all season until about mid February. They really weren't very up and down. You mention the shootout as if 3on3 has some legitimacy. It doesn't, its as big of a gimmick as the shootout. Ottawa finished 12th in the final standings, 13th in regulation wins and if games ended in tie's they were T-13th. I think they were a little better than you are giving them credit for.

How did Boucher double down on his system?

12th in the standings is a low end playoff team. And how did he double down?

We signed Thompson because he knew how to play the system. We picked up Dumont early in the year because he knew how to play the system. We played our best prospect on his off side in training camp because of the system. We continue to play passively, our powerplay tries to do the same thing over and over again, and we still don't believe in running too many practices.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

While I agree, I am trying to be somewhat realistic. A new owner would be fantastic but Melnyk doesn't seem to be willing to trade the team. As for getting a new GM/management staff, getting a new coach and maybe moving some players. All are possible and probably given the inexcusable poor performance of the team.

I really think we're setting ourselves up for disappointment if we expect Dorion to be fired before next season. Right or wrong, Eugene was impressed with last years results, emphatically on board with the trades Dorion made (Including Duchene this year), and Eugene himself is quite likely the reason extra assets have been given away to save some money making some trades look worse than they are.

I would not be at all surprised is Eugene is making demands of things he wants Dorion to do (like firing Boucher or trading specific people), but I highly doubt Dorion gets axed yet, especially considering how patient he was with Murray.

 

[Tuna99]

Boucher changed his message today, it wasn’t about what it takes to win a game it was about what the coach and organization were looking for from his players. He said his forwards okay perimeter hockey, soft hockey. He talked about players to build around and he cited Pageau & Stone.

Change of tune to me means bey-bey Hoffman, Ryan. Way to soft

 

[bert]

I really think we're setting ourselves up for disappointment if we expect Dorion to be fired before next season. Right or wrong, Eugene was impressed with last years results, emphatically on board with the trades Dorion made (Including Duchene this year), and Eugene himself is quite likely the reason extra assets have been given away to save some money making some trades look worse than they are.

I would not be at all surprised is Eugene is making demands of things he wants Dorion to do (like firing Boucher or trading specific people), but I highly doubt Dorion gets axed yet, especially considering how patient he was with Murray.

Good point Eugene isnt going to fire himself for all his success.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Boucher changed his message today, it wasn’t about what it takes to win a game it was about what the coach and organization were looking for from his players. He said his forwards okay perimeter hockey, soft hockey. He talked about players to build around and he cited Pageau & Stone.

Change of tune to me means bey-bey Hoffman, Ryan. Way to soft

Hopefully Boucher is not included much in the discussion of who stays or goes, enough of his favorites already.

 

[Korpse]

12th in the standings is a low end playoff team. And how did he double down?

We signed Thompson because he knew how to play the system. We picked up Dumont early in the year because he knew how to play the system. We played our best prospect on his off side in training camp because of the system. We continue to play passively, our powerplay tries to do the same thing over and over again, and we still don't believe in running too many practices.

I wasn’t trying to suggest they were a top team but it felt like you were downplaying their performance.

I wouldn’t call filling holes with players a coach knows doubling down. Coaches like players that they know what to expect with. I don’t think it boiled down to them knowing the system, I mean Dumont played for him 9 years ago in junior. The Chabot stuff was ridiculous but I think it was also influenced by the lack of depth on the right side, not that I ever agreed with it.

Boucher gets a lot of heat for not changing things and I’d say a lot of it is misplaced. While the DZ coverage remains very passive, I can’t say the rest of their game is. Looking over the past two months or so it’s rare that Ottawa goes into that shell that they used to. Now they haven’t been leading much late in games, there’s still a noticeable difference in approach in close games.

As for practices, the schedule has made it tougher, it seems just about any break they’ve had it’s been an extended break. Not many times where you have two days off, so you can give the guys a rest after a game and be back on the ice the next day. It’s been a lot of back to backs and 3in4 situations. I know I’ve seen coaches talk about it in the past where after games, it’s tough to have a practice the next day because there’s so many guys that can’t go on the ice because they are sore and beat up. With the research done in sports science your seeing more and more of an emphasis on rest and the importance of rest which seems to be lost on a lot of people who aren’t around the teams. Things haven’t been great lately so I guess every little thing gets talked about.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Interesting headline; The Bruins have done a good job of mixing in their young guys with their vets

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Interesting headline; The Bruins have done a good job of mixing in their young guys with their vets

Ironic

 

[pepty]

No point in firing him before the season is over..

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Ironic

Cassidy the Bruins coach interviewed after the game was asked about his young players and he said

Its not a developmental league but there is a lot of development going on

 

[WadeRedden]

Boucher changed his message today, it wasn’t about what it takes to win a game it was about what the coach and organization were looking for from his players. He said his forwards okay perimeter hockey, soft hockey. He talked about players to build around and he cited Pageau & Stone.

Change of tune to me means bey-bey Hoffman, Ryan. Way to soft

Maybe you haven't heard bu Ryan has a full no-trade clause.

It's called a $7.25 million cap hit.

 

[DrunkUncleDenis]

No point in firing him before the season is over..

Yup, at this point I'm more concerned with Guy getting fired in February in some misguided effort to put the team on a miracle run.

 

[otown]

How can it go south so badly from one year to the next? Really respected the run last year and Boucher was instrumental in getting the Sens there.
However the times are a changing and it looks like the players aren't drinking the kool-aid anymore. I would suspect losing Turris, Methot, and Neil has impacted leadership- obviously!
Before you know it there will be more guys shipped out in an effort to get the ship back on course. A career defining moment for Dorion!
How can you escape from the ball and chain of ridiculous long term contracts and at the same time, raise the team's compete level?
Should be an interesting month leading up to the deadline.

 

[justafan22]

I'd be stunned if he's the coach next fall. That would be what, coach 9 since the lockout?

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

How can it go south so badly from one year to the next? Really respected the run last year and Boucher was instrumental in getting the Sens there.
However the times are a changing and it looks like the players aren't drinking the kool-aid anymore. I would suspect losing Turris, Methot, and Neil has impacted leadership- obviously!
Before you know it there will be more guys shipped out in an effort to get the ship back on course. A career defining moment for Dorion!
How can you escape from the ball and chain of ridiculous long term contracts and at the same time, raise the team's compete level?
Should be an interesting month leading up to the deadline.

Goaltending has probably been the most glaring issue that led to this collapse.

 

[Micklebot]

Goaltending has probably been the most glaring issue that led to this collapse.

I'm not so sure. I posted this in another thread, but it's relevant here:

Metric	Pre slump	Post Sweden
FA/60	42.74 (10th)	46.49 (27th)
FF%	50.29% (11th)	46.75% (27th)
GA/60	2.72 (23rd)	3.02 (30th)
GF%	52.17% (11th)	39.17% (30th)
SCA/60	26.85 (7th)	31.26 (28th)
SCF%	50% (14th)	44.36% (31st)
HDCA/60	9.31 (3rd)	11.8 (25th)
HDCF%	51.08% (13th)	42.89% (31st)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Add in SV: 90.68 pre slump, and 91.31 post Sweden at ES, it's actually improved. All situations, we are 89.81 pre-Slump and post Sweden 89.55, so not really a big difference.

Goaltending has been bad throughout, but it's not the cause of the collapse, unless you attribute the team losing faith in the system or tuning out the coach to poor goaltending (which could be a fair argument).

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I'm not so sure. I posted this in another thread, but it's relevant here:

Metric	Pre slump	Post Sweden
FA/60	42.74 (10th)	46.49 (27th)
FF%	50.29% (11th)	46.75% (27th)
GA/60	2.72 (23rd)	3.02 (30th)
GF%	52.17% (11th)	39.17% (30th)
SCA/60	26.85 (7th)	31.26 (28th)
SCF%	50% (14th)	44.36% (31st)
HDCA/60	9.31 (3rd)	11.8 (25th)
HDCF%	51.08% (13th)	42.89% (31st)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Add in SV: 90.68 pre slump, and 91.31 post Sweden at ES, it's actually improved. All situations, we are 89.81 pre-Slump and post Sweden 89.55, so not really a big difference.

Goaltending has been bad throughout, but it's not the cause of the collapse, unless you attribute the team losing faith in the system or tuning out the coach to poor goaltending (which could be a fair argument).

The bolded was exactly what I was thinking. Early on the numbers were bad as well, but even as the numbers improved, they still let in bad morale killing goals frequently.

Don't get me wrong, there are other factors like Boucher being stubborn, terrible special teams, Karlsson sucking, etc. I just felt like we haven't been able to get on a roll because the goalies have not been consistent and similar to other years, the team starts playing differently knowing they don't have their back. If we have the same level of goaltending as we did last year, we're fighting for a playoff spot imo.

 

[DrakeAndJosh]

I'm not so sure. I posted this in another thread, but it's relevant here:

Metric	Pre slump	Post Sweden
FA/60	42.74 (10th)	46.49 (27th)
FF%	50.29% (11th)	46.75% (27th)
GA/60	2.72 (23rd)	3.02 (30th)
GF%	52.17% (11th)	39.17% (30th)
SCA/60	26.85 (7th)	31.26 (28th)
SCF%	50% (14th)	44.36% (31st)
HDCA/60	9.31 (3rd)	11.8 (25th)
HDCF%	51.08% (13th)	42.89% (31st)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Add in SV: 90.68 pre slump, and 91.31 post Sweden at ES, it's actually improved. All situations, we are 89.81 pre-Slump and post Sweden 89.55, so not really a big difference.

Goaltending has been bad throughout, but it's not the cause of the collapse, unless you attribute the team losing faith in the system or tuning out the coach to poor goaltending (which could be a fair argument).

That really puts it into perspective. This has to be one of the biggest nose dives I've ever seen.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

The that was then, this is now nightmare of Senators head coach Guy Boucher
Warren draws a comparison to Tampa

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

Eh, no point in firing Boucher this season, it's not exactly like he has a lot to work with, and Karlsson's and Anderson's seasons are something that are out of Boucher's hands. I still think he could be a good coach for next season, but if they start the season the same way they're playing this year, then fire him quickly.

 

[The Lewler]

How long is his contract?

In fantasy land, maybe the Hawks fire Coach Q and he comes to Ottawa.

LOL

 

[philb613]

This coaching staff all needs to go, terrible with coaching up young talent, don't hold the stars accountable, goes insane on the bench every game, and then in post game press conferences tells us they just aren't getting bounces like we're all idiots.

 

[DylanSensFan]

Boucher changed his message today, it wasn’t about what it takes to win a game it was about what the coach and organization were looking for from his players. He said his forwards okay perimeter hockey, soft hockey. He talked about players to build around and he cited Pageau & Stone.

Change of tune to me means bey-bey Hoffman, Ryan. Way to soft

Five Thoughts for Friday

Bye bye Boucher. To replace him I would hire Daryl Sutter.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

How long is his contract?

In fantasy land, maybe the Hawks fire Coach Q and he comes to Ottawa.

LOL

Does Coach Q walk on water?

 

[The Lewler]

Does Coach Q walk on water?

Yeah, usually it's frozen tho.