Confirmed with Link: Boucher: to return or not to return, that is the question

[BatherSeason]

Oh man. Boucher's fam really took over this thread last night.

Boucher is a terrible coach and has been for 3 seasons now. If this was any other org GB would have been canned in December last year.

His player deployment is atrocious, he plays favorites and his favorites are terrible hockey players. Special teams have not been good and half the time the players look lost defensively.

We can go on and on here but there is no universe where Boucher should still be coaching here next season. Sad thing is that he will probably walk instead of getting fired. I am sure he wants out of this s***show as fast as most of the players

 

[JD1]

His player deployment is atrocious

meanwhile.....Thomas Chabot is continually talked about in the context of "its been XX years since someone...."

White is a rookie and looks to be slotting very well

Tkachuk is a ppg rookie

most points from rookies in league
most points from D in league (or at least they did a few days ago)

personally I am not a huge Boucher fan but to say he hasn't developed players ....

the problem with being angry all the time is that you lose the ability to objectively assess things

whether you agree with what I posted don't matter...what's there is accurate

that said. .. can you imagine how f***ing awesome we'd be if Boucher could develop players ? Chabot would probably have 60 points by now if it weren't for Guy holding him back

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I'm not a Boucher fan...if it were up to me, we would've kept Paulrus.

But, we don't exactly have a great roster here. No coach will be able to come in here and turn this team into a legit contender.

 

[JD1]

I'm not a Boucher fan...if it were up to me, we would've kept Paulrus.

But, we don't exactly have a great roster here. No coach will be able to come in here and turn this team into a legit contender.

I always liked Paulrus. his press conferences were awesome

 

[swiftwin]

Oh man. Boucher's fam really took over this thread last night.

Boucher is a terrible coach and has been for 3 seasons now. If this was any other org GB would have been canned in December last year.

His player deployment is atrocious, he plays favorites and his favorites are terrible hockey players. Special teams have not been good and half the time the players look lost defensively.

We can go on and on here but there is no universe where Boucher should still be coaching here next season. Sad thing is that he will probably walk instead of getting fired. I am sure he wants out of this s***show as fast as most of the players

Thank god people like you have no power over this situation.

If we ever let Boucher go, we will regret it badly. He's a young up and coming coach. If we let him go, someone will scoop him in a heartbeat, and he will become one of the longest tenured coaches in the league.

 

[swiftwin]

Scanning through the posts for the "Boucher out" posters there is a common thread...you all want him gone, and insist he's doing a horrible job...but not one person has actually taken the time to break it down in terms of what it is that he's actually doing wrong.
Just what are these "Massive coaching errors" that you speak of? I've been watching hockey for over 40 years and I can say with certainty that the majority of the mistakes this team makes are on the players for doing stupid things...pretty sure the coach isn't telling them to make those plays.
I'm not saying Boucher is perfect or without his faults...but with what he's been given to work with I really don't think any other coach out there would be doing much better....and in fact, with this team currently sitting at pretty much .500 hockey...to me, that's basically nothing short of a miracle considering the team they iced this year...and Boucher deserves credit for that.

Exactly.

I'm getting the impression that these people are emotionally immature and are incapable of handling our team not going 82-0. These are the types of people who need to find a scapegoat in everything. Considering the team is full of rookies they've been clamoring for, the only option left is to scapegoat Boucher. There's no rational reasoning behind it. Just emotional bashing. It's not just hfsens though. Every fan base has people like this.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Every time someone looks back fondly on Maclean I just remember this board during a lot of Macleans tenure.

GSN
and Phillips slotting in for 22 minutes a night.

 

[swiftwin]

Every time someone looks back fondly on Maclean I just remember this board during a lot of Macleans tenure.

GSN
and Phillips slotting in for 22 minutes a night.

Was Boro on the 1st line a Maclean thing or a Cameron thing? I don't remember.

Imagine the collective aneurysm this board would have if Boro was actually put on the first line.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Was Boro on the 1st line a Maclean thing or a Cameron thing? I don't remember.

Imagine the collective aneurysm this board would have if Boro was actually put on the first line.

Almost positive it was Cameron.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

Every time someone looks back fondly on Maclean I just remember this board during a lot of Macleans tenure.

GSN
and Phillips slotting in for 22 minutes a night.

Maclean was good. Remember the defense he had to work with? He had it somewhat decent the first year with Karlsson, gonchar and kuba, then it became just Karlsson and methot. The rest of the defense was done combination of Phillips, Cowen, weircioch, ceci, runblad, widemen, gryba, Benoit, carkner, lee, lundin and corvo. Then up front our depth was daugavins, greening, condra, lattendresse, butler, Winchester, O'Brien, konopka, conacher, da Costa, kassian.

He had a weak roster in a lot of areas. He was also right before Hoffman, stone and zibanejad fully emerged as legit ro six forwards. They were just breaking out right around the time he got let go

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Maclean was good. Remember the defense he had to work with? He had it somewhat decent the first year with Karlsson, gonchar and kuba, then it became just Karlsson and methot. The rest of the defense was done combination of Phillips, Cowen, weircioch, ceci, runblad, widemen, gryba, Benoit, carkner, lee, lundin and corvo. Then up front our depth was daugavins, greening, condra, lattendresse, butler, Winchester, O'Brien, konopka, conacher, da Costa, kassian.

He had a weak roster in a lot of areas. He was also right before Hoffman, stone and zibanejad fully emerged as legit ro six forwards. They were just breaking out right around the time he got let go

Well...he never head coached again? And he was also let go by the Ducks. He wasn't all that great IMO.

In the words of our lost poster John Holmes...he was Mr. Potatohead.

 

[stempniaksen]

Almost positive it was Cameron.

'Twas

 

[stempniaksen]

Well...he never head coached again? And he was also let go by the Ducks. He wasn't all that great IMO.

In the words of our lost poster John Holmes...he was Mr. Potatohead.

So just like every head coach since Martin? Bit of a theme with this franchise

 

[stempniaksen]

Exactly.

I'm getting the impression that these people are emotionally immature and are incapable of handling our team not going 82-0. These are the types of people who need to find a scapegoat in everything. Considering the team is full of rookies they've been clamoring for, the only option left is to scapegoat Boucher. There's no rational reasoning behind it. Just emotional bashing. It's not just hfsens though. Every fan base has people like this.

He led us to one of our worst (and probably most disappointing) season in a looooooong time.

I'm well aware their were others factors, but of course the head coach is gonna take some of (a lot of) the blame for that.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

Exactly.

I'm getting the impression that these people are emotionally immature and are incapable of handling our team not going 82-0. These are the types of people who need to find a scapegoat in everything. Considering the team is full of rookies they've been clamoring for, the only option left is to scapegoat Boucher. There's no rational reasoning behind it. Just emotional bashing. It's not just hfsens though. Every fan base has people like this.

Or Boucher is a bad coach and only a few posters like yourself can't see that. Boucher has shown flaws in his previous seasons as a coach for Ottawa with last season displaying all of his faults. You would have to be a complete Boucher apologist to write off last season as having nothing to do with his flaws as a coach. No one is expecting the team to be highly successful this year. We all know it is a rebuild and we all expect there to be struggles. Everyone here is being rational not emotional. We look at how the team is performing this season and we remember all of Boucher failings from last season and see a repeating set of patterns. It is all about context. If Boucher was in his first season no one would be suggesting firing him. But he is in his 3rd season where he should have been fired many times last season. No competent NHL gm would have kept him after last season. He got very lucky that we have a cheap owner and an inexperienced and questionably competent GM. The rational fans all assumed that given the circumstances that Boucher would be on very thin ice. Using the 9 lives analogy he used 8 up last season and somehow managed to have 1 left. Given those conditions the first sign of his poor coachng tactics coming back is justification to fire him.

Boucher makes a lot of excuses for his poor performance. He did the same thing in Tampa. When asked last year about him having a similar bad year to the one he had in Tampa he had a laundry list of reasons why he wasn't the problem. He is having nearly the same performance this year as his third year in Tampa. There is a trend and the common factor is Jon as a coach. He is part of the problem. Maybe you and the 2 other Bouxher supporters wiped the skate clean and gave him another 9 lives and found a bunch of reasons why he was my the issue at all last year and that somehow he wasn't the issue in Tampa as well. That he is this great hockey coach who has just had bad luck in both teams he has coached for and that he is the victim of circumstances and not flawed as a coach. As for the rest of us his 9 lives are up. We know what we have with him as a coach. We have seen enough and what we see we don't like. He simply isn't a very good coach and his performance in both of his stints in the NHL clearly indicate that.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

For fun, if people want to read the Maclean firing thread. The fanbase seemed pretty divided on him on this board. I totally forgot about press conference lady too.

@NyQuil you commented about getting those shots against down several years ago...we're still working on it.
Paul MacLean Exit Conference

 

[topshelf15]

For fun, if people want to read the Maclean firing thread. The fanbase seemed pretty divided on him on this board. I totally forgot about press conference lady too.

Paul MacLean Exit Conference

We are kinda a coaching graveyard,seeing as we are a team that is either a bubble team or is rebuilding its not too hard to see why that is....Man we need someone to actually start putting money into this team

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

After 28 games, last season, the Sens had, 9 Wins, 12 Loses & 7 OT?SO Loses.
After 28 games this season, the Sens have 12 Wins, 13 Loses & 3 OT/SO Loses.

 

[swiftwin]

Or Boucher is a bad coach and only a few posters like yourself can't see that. Boucher has shown flaws in his previous seasons as a coach for Ottawa with last season displaying all of his faults. You would have to be a complete Boucher apologist to write off last season as having nothing to do with his flaws as a coach. No one is expecting the team to be highly successful this year. We all know it is a rebuild and we all expect there to be struggles. Everyone here is being rational not emotional. We look at how the team is performing this season and we remember all of Boucher failings from last season and see a repeating set of patterns. It is all about context. If Boucher was in his first season no one would be suggesting firing him. But he is in his 3rd season where he should have been fired many times last season. No competent NHL gm would have kept him after last season. He got very lucky that we have a cheap owner and an inexperienced and questionably competent GM. The rational fans all assumed that given the circumstances that Boucher would be on very thin ice. Using the 9 lives analogy he used 8 up last season and somehow managed to have 1 left. Given those conditions the first sign of his poor coachng tactics coming back is justification to fire him.

Boucher makes a lot of excuses for his poor performance. He did the same thing in Tampa. When asked last year about him having a similar bad year to the one he had in Tampa he had a laundry list of reasons why he wasn't the problem. He is having nearly the same performance this year as his third year in Tampa. There is a trend and the common factor is Jon as a coach. He is part of the problem. Maybe you and the 2 other Bouxher supporters wiped the skate clean and gave him another 9 lives and found a bunch of reasons why he was my the issue at all last year and that somehow he wasn't the issue in Tampa as well. That he is this great hockey coach who has just had bad luck in both teams he has coached for and that he is the victim of circumstances and not flawed as a coach. As for the rest of us his 9 lives are up. We know what we have with him as a coach. We have seen enough and what we see we don't like. He simply isn't a very good coach and his performance in both of his stints in the NHL clearly indicate that.

Still no explanation as to what his "laundry list of problems" are.

If you're gonna write two long ass paragraphs just repeating "Boucher = Bad" in many different ways. At least explain why you think he's bad.

 

[JD1]

Or Boucher is a bad coach and only a few posters like yourself can't see that. Boucher has shown flaws in his previous seasons as a coach for Ottawa with last season displaying all of his faults. You would have to be a complete Boucher apologist to write off last season as having nothing to do with his flaws as a coach. No one is expecting the team to be highly successful this year. We all know it is a rebuild and we all expect there to be struggles. Everyone here is being rational not emotional. We look at how the team is performing this season and we remember all of Boucher failings from last season and see a repeating set of patterns. It is all about context. If Boucher was in his first season no one would be suggesting firing him. But he is in his 3rd season where he should have been fired many times last season. No competent NHL gm would have kept him after last season. He got very lucky that we have a cheap owner and an inexperienced and questionably competent GM. The rational fans all assumed that given the circumstances that Boucher would be on very thin ice. Using the 9 lives analogy he used 8 up last season and somehow managed to have 1 left. Given those conditions the first sign of his poor coachng tactics coming back is justification to fire him.

Boucher makes a lot of excuses for his poor performance. He did the same thing in Tampa. When asked last year about him having a similar bad year to the one he had in Tampa he had a laundry list of reasons why he wasn't the problem. He is having nearly the same performance this year as his third year in Tampa. There is a trend and the common factor is Jon as a coach. He is part of the problem. Maybe you and the 2 other Bouxher supporters wiped the skate clean and gave him another 9 lives and found a bunch of reasons why he was my the issue at all last year and that somehow he wasn't the issue in Tampa as well. That he is this great hockey coach who has just had bad luck in both teams he has coached for and that he is the victim of circumstances and not flawed as a coach. As for the rest of us his 9 lives are up. We know what we have with him as a coach. We have seen enough and what we see we don't like. He simply isn't a very good coach and his performance in both of his stints in the NHL clearly indicate that.

well that was a whole he'll of a lot of nothing

you use words like failings,rationale and tactics. Fine words. All 3 of them.

another word you used is context. it's all about context I think you said.

so how about you use the 3 words and provide some context.

what failings?

I'm not trying to be an ass but if you want to have a point of view and debate then you'd need to get into some specifics.

personally I thought he overplayed the 2Ps. Smith came along and settled in there nicely so thats working better lately

 

[JD1]

Still no explanation as to what his "laundry list of problems" are.

If you're gonna write two long ass paragraphs just repeating "Boucher = Bad" in many different ways. At least explain why you think he's bad.

you beat me to it

 

[Sun God Nika]

I'm not a Boucher fan...if it were up to me, we would've kept Paulrus.

But, we don't exactly have a great roster here. No coach will be able to come in here and turn this team into a legit contender.

Macleans teams didnt kno how to break out I'm surprised he made the playoffs twice it was literally the team playing in it's own end for 2 third of the game but they just scored on power plays and rushes.

 

[aragorn]

Boucher Coaching Staff Errors:
- bringing in non-NHL players like Pyatt,Dumont & DiDo & playing them too much
- left side lock
- 1-3-1
- forcing complicated systems that are not conducive to the players he has
- playing Hoffman on the 3rd line
- PP sucked all of last yr (special team's expert he is not)
- PK sucks this yr
- how did he not know the situation in the room & let it get out of hand.
- how many yrs now has the defence had problems getting the puck out of their end?
- assistant coaches suck, goalie coach sucks
- most shots against in the league
- most goals against in the league
- from conference final to one of the worse teams in the league
- has had nothing to do with developing our prospects, they are playing well despite him, our prospects are developed in Belleville not Ottawa
- gets out coached a lot
- too many men penalties last yr
- trying to turn Ceci into a shutdown D
- rest is a weapon
- can't feed steak to a baby, who has turned into a superstar in his 2nd yr
- didn't like to play his rookie prospects, until he was forced to this yr.
- wouldn't play Neil & Neil is exactly the kind of player they need now on 4th line RW

 

[Mathieu]

I too loved Paulrus when he was here.

His timeout with 5 seconds left in a 6-1 game in the playoffs against Montreal is legendary.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

Boucher Coaching Staff Errors:
- bringing in non-NHL players like Pyatt,Dumont & DiDo & playing them too much
- left side lock
- 1-3-1
- forcing complicated systems that are not conducive to the players he has
- playing Hoffman on the 3rd line
- PP sucked all of last yr (special team's expert he is not)
- PK sucks this yr
- how did he not know the situation in the room & let it get out of hand.
- how many yrs now has the defence had problems getting the puck out of their end?
- assistant coaches suck, goalie coach sucks
- most shots against in the league
- most goals against in the league
- from conference final to one of the worse teams in the league
- has had nothing to do with developing our prospects, they are playing well despite him, our prospects are developed in Belleville not Ottawa
- gets out coached a lot
- too many men penalties last yr
- trying to turn Ceci into a shutdown D
- rest is a weapon
- can't feed steak to a baby, who has turned into a superstar in his 2nd yr
- didn't like to play his rookie prospects, until he was forced to this yr.
- wouldn't play Neil & Neil is exactly the kind of player they need now on 4th line RW

Also:

• overuse of 11-7 earlier in the year
• constantly line juggling not allowing players to develop chemistry
• benching skilled prospects for large stretches of time such as white and batherson
• keeping two borderline AHL players in the lineup in Pyatt and Pajaarvi and playing them excessive minutes
• favoritism towards plugs (pyatt, paajarvi) just like last year (Dumont, Oduya, Pyatt)
• Giving up way too much space in the defensive zone by getting players to collapse
• overemphasis on stick checking as opposed to checking, defense rarely takes the body to impede zone entry
• dumb line combinations such as pyatt on the first line
• sitting back on leads and playing passively instead of maintaining offensive pressure
• not holding players accountable (blames rookies for mistakes and losses but when veterans do the same mistake they don't see limited ice time, are scratched or called out by coaches)
• not dressing the best roster he can (paul and Chlapik down in belleville when they should be taking Pyatt ad Paajarvi's spots)
• other than that three games there were no trends suggesting improvements in defensive zone coverage or that shot against would decline
• restricting playing time of key prospects and potentially preventing their ability to grow by doing so
• passing is still somewhat weak, the team can still struggle at times to put three or more passes together leading to turnovers and lost possession time
• team can struggle to sustain possession in the offensive zone
• shot attempts are in the bottom ten in the league so offensive success is contingent on unsustainable shooting percentages
• Poor defensive coverage by defensive players (multiple times where Ceci, Boro, and Harpur make really poor reads of defensive plays and take them selves out of the play. Also poor defensive play by so called defensive forwards such as pyatt and paajarvi leading to bad turnovers in the defensive zone)