Guy Boucher, current coach for SC Bern in the Swiss National League A, has been named the head coach for Team Canada in the 2014 Spengler Cup Tournament. The tournament is held in Davos, Switzerland every December, starting on Christmas Day and ending on New Years Day. The Spengler Cup is the oldest invitational hockey tournament in the world, while Boucher takes the reins away from last year’s head coach Doug Shedden. The 2013 team lost in the Semifinal to HC Geneve-Servette in a back and forth 6-5 game.
Boucher brings some knowledgeable experience to the bench, despite only lasting two and a half seasons behind the Tampa Bay Lightning bench. He has a Gold Medal from the 2009 World Junior Championship with Team Canada as an assistant coach, and has also coached three other U-18 tournaments with Team Canada, including one Ivan Hlinka tournament and two U-18 Championship.
Boucher has worked well with younger players in his day and is able to get the most out of them. He has a degree in sports pyschology, engineering, and history, and you can tell he uses his education to implement it into his coaching style. Some call his 1-3-1 strategy boring or frustrating hockey, but at the end of the day, that coaching strategy was one ingredient that got his Lightning team to the Eastern Conference Finals in just his first year as an NHL coach. Having Steven Stamkos, Marty St. Louis, Simon Gagne, and Vincent Lecavalier didn’t hurt either, but he executed nonetheless. The year and a half after that though, Boucher was unable to recapture that success. After going 13-17 in the 2012-13 season, Steve Yzerman fired Boucher. Since then, Boucher hasn’t taken an NHL job. He instead flew back to Europe to coach in the Swiss league.
Boucher will be depended upon to bring the gold back to Canada since the 2012 tournament. Canada has taken home gold twelve times since 1984 (Canada’s debut year in the tournament). But the question still remains: is he the right man for the job? Will he revert to his 1-3-1 strategy? And will it still be successful on the international ice, which is significantly larger than the NHL? Looking on paper, with his recent success in the juniors, he sure does look like the ideal selection behind the bench. Having coached in Europe just another accolade to Boucher’s storied resume.
Time will tell if he can bring back the gold, despite his prior accomplishments. My personal opinion is this: Boucher is a great coach who is certainly capable of getting the most out of his players. Sometimes he does rely too much on players who can not do what he wants them to do and relies too heavily on his strategy. Boucher needs to be able to adapt if his system is not successful, an aspect that can get any coach terminated quickly. If Team Canada can put together a good team in Europe, then I think Boucher will be successful. Although, he will need work hard with his players, as the competition is getting tougher each year. Go Team Canada Go!
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