HockeyBoucher right fit for Lightning, plus 30 thoughts

Beginning of Story Content

Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson forced Guy Boucher into a decision. Boucher said, "OK, I'll take Tampa."

But Columbus fans should remember this: The Colorado Avalanche were ready to do everything shy of renaming the state to get Patrick Roy behind the bench last summer. In the end, he declined. So the Avalanche turned to their second choice, Joe Sacco.

That move was either mocked or ignored. Funny how things turn out: If it wasn't for Dave Tippett, Sacco would be Coach of the Year. Maybe Scott Arniel is that guy in 2010-11.

Why did Boucher choose the Lightning? Hint: it's not just the sun and sand.

Without actually hearing from the man (I finished this early Tuesday morning), word is the biggest reason was time. As in, he's got more of it in Tampa.

When Steve Yzerman took over, he preached patience. "It's going to take some time" was his mantra, repeating it often and to everyone. It's the right path for that organization, attempting to recover from Brian Lawton's Reign of Error. Clearly, Jeff Vinik understands Yzerman's path is the right one.

Things are different in Columbus. After a (brief) taste of the playoffs in 2009, the Blue Jackets crumbled in 2010. Ken Hitchcock was fired. Steve Mason imploded. Suddenly, there are more questions than answers.

Columbus's draft pick up for grabs?

But the most relevant fact is this: Word around the NHL is the team's fourth overall pick is available. Ownership, tired of hearing about the future, wants success - now.  There is going to be a very good player - Connolly? Fowler? Gudbranson? - available in that spot, and Columbus is going to try and leverage it into some immediate help.

Sometimes, that works. In 2002, Tampa Bay traded the fourth overall selection to Philadelphia for Ruslan Fedotenko. The Flyers took Joni Pitkanen. Like the Blue Jackets, Tampa missed the playoffs the season before they made this trade. In 2003, they won their first-ever playoff series. One year later, Fedotenko scored the Stanley Cup winner. However, the Lightning had guys named Lecavalier, St. Louis, Richards and Khabibulin on the roster.

Can Columbus match that? Well, there's Rick Nash and whatever you get for that high pick. And, the job is going to be much harder without bounceback seasons from Mason, Derick Brassard and Rostislav Klesla, limited to 26 games because of injury. If you're Guy Boucher, and you have options, the first choice probably isn't going to be an owner lacking patience.

What if John P. McConnell doesn't like next year's results? 

For all of the offensive talent in Tampa, serious upgrades are needed on the blue-line and in goal. A playoff charge certainly would be welcomed. But a miss isn't necessarily the end of the world. In Columbus, it might be. Boucher couldn't take the chance.

30 THOUGHTS

1. If Columbus is going to deal that fourth pick, it's got to address the number one thing missing from the roster - a centre to play with Nash. I'm just spitballing here (Howson makes it tough because he's so tight-lipped), but I wonder what the Blue Jackets think of Jason Spezza. This is a perfect place for Spezza, tired of being the Ottawa fans' whipping boy. In theory, the framework makes sense for both teams. But, would McConnell rather eat nails than commit to $35 million US over the next five years?

2. If you're curious about Boucher, read this story by Aaron Portzline on him. Really good work.

3. Remember one thing, Chicago fans: Game 3, Eastern Conference Final. Montreal 5, Philadelphia 1. Chris Pronger: minus-3. Privately, the Canadiens were saying he looked tired and injured. Next two games, he was dominant.

4. This won't help, either. After Game 1, Peter Laviolette showed his players this one - which was a great motivator. Wonder if he'll pull the same trick with the new one?

5. Blackhawks assistant John Torchetti explained the Game 5 Chicago shuffle this way: They wanted to put Jonathan Toews with Marian Hossa because both are puck possessors. The team felt that line would be in control of the action. Patrick Kane was put with Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd for speed.

6. Apparently, Slovakian teammates jokingly called Hossa "the jinx," because of his Stanley Cup/Olympic disappointments. He's one win from ending that.

7. The league was furious at the Flyers for showing replays of the Game 3 Scott Hartnell goal while it was being reviewed. That's a no-no. You're not allowed to show overhead looks nor slo-mos during the process. No one would confirm a fine, but there was a warning.

8. For those who asked via Twitter, there will be no further supplementary discipline for Scott Hartnell's Game 5 elbow to the head on Tomas Kopecky.

9. Tough decisions for Paul Holmgren and Stan Bowman: How much do you offer Michael Leighton and Antti Niemi? Both teams are cap-crunched. Leighton is a UFA, and there's word a three-year offer is coming. But I can't imagine it would be any more than $1.5 million a season.

10. Niemi is an RFA with a higher upside. He's a battler in the Grant Fuhr mode. But the Flyers are exploiting his weakness: Shoot low and aggressively pursue rebounds, because after making the first save, he's usually stuck in splits or on his tush. That, however, can be corrected.

11. New experience for me: Player delays pre-game interview because "he has to finish his grilled cheese."

12. Never, ever leave your cell phone unattended around a Blackhawk. Example: teammates grabbed one guy's and changed his girlfriend's number in the contacts to that of another player. Then, they texted him, saying she thought they were spending too much time together and should break up. Moments later, everyone was howling as the victim called demanding an explanation.

13. Troy Brouwer told Scott Oake a great story about his atom hockey temper tantrums. He got a few misconducts, so his father quietly removed half his hockey equipment from the bag. When Brouwer got to the rink, he said he couldn't play without the missing gear. His father told him he wouldn't need it, because he "was going to be sitting next to me in the crowd." His behaviour improved after a three-game family imposed suspension. Get well, Mr. Brouwer.

14. Chicago assistant Mike Haviland told Oake another sensational one about Dustin Byfuglien. Haviland coached Byfuglien at AHL Norfolk. In one of the player's first games, he tried to carry the puck through three or four opponents, and was stripped - leading to the tying goal. Byfuglien gets to the bench and is furious. Haviland tries to reassure him, telling him to shrug it off, it happens, etc. Next time Byfuglien hops over the boards, he tries to do it again and Norfolk gives up the winner. Oops!

15. Really incredible how, three years ago, Blackhawks players were told to hand out business cards to anyone in Chicago. On the back was a website address that would get you two free tickets to any game you wanted. (Jim Hughson got that story, and should charge Oake a fee considering he's now used it on-air about 500 times.)

16. Dustin Brown is going to throw out the first pitch at a Cubs/Dodgers game in July. That's pretty impressive.

17. Asked Darryl Sutter about rumblings that he's going to hire Kelly Kisio as assistant GM, and he said, "No."

19. Flyers assistant Kevin McCarthy, who really knows defencemen, says he watched Duncan Keith in the AHL and had no idea Keith would turn out this good. Now, McCarthy calls him "The Next Niedermayer."

19. One similarity the Flyers say both Keith and Scott Niedermayer have: Impossible to hit.

20. Darren Dreger got a good one out of Patrick Sharp. After Sharp was penalized for a retaliatory slash at Mike Richards, Dreger asked what he'd do different next time. The reply: "Not get caught."

21. Dale Tallon just got hired, so it's tough to tell what his interest would be, but don't discount the possibility of Florida being a player in the Tomas Kaberle sweepstakes. The Panthers were very interested a year ago, and willing to go there. Nathan Horton has underachieved, and he's the kind of player Burke is chasing.

22. If I was a Canadian team's GM, I'd take a long look at Adam Burish. He's a UFA making $712,500, so he won't be ridiculously expensive. One day during the Cup Final, he must have done a 30-minute scrum. I asked him if he saw that as important, and he said yes. "I know (Jonathan) Toews doesn't really like doing it, so if I can go an extra 10 minutes to lighten his load, it helps." It's tougher on a daily basis in Canada, but this country's teams need players like that.

23. John Madden: "I learned more about how to play hockey in the post-lockout era this season than I did in four years in New Jersey."

24. If Michel Therrien really wants the New Jersey job, and surely he does, he shouldn't say anything else. Any other approach won't work with Lou Lamoriello.

25. Ville Leino has talked a few times about how he was a bad fit in Detroit because he needs the puck to be successful. (He claims Mike Babcock wanted him to play the Cleary, Franzen, Holmstrom role of crashing the net.) However, Vesa Rantanen of the Finnish magazine Veikkaaja says the winger had to overcome a lot of maturity issues to get here. For example, Leino actually wore white skates one year, just for the attention.

26. Rantanen did say, though, that in Leino's last Finnish season (2007-08), he dominated the league like no one in the last 20 years.

27. Brent Sopel has played enough to qualify for a single room on the road, but even before, he didn't have a roommate. Why not? "I never sleep. No one wanted to be with me." Does he know anyone else like that? "Nope. No one."

28. Asked how many times he'd turned down Claude Giroux trade offers, Paul Holmgren joked, "I can't count that high. I don't remember how many." It's believed a Jay Bouwmeester deal fell apart at last year's deadline because Holmgren wouldn't include Giroux.

29. Islanders owner Charles Wang blames the NHLPA for the cancellation of the team's pre-season China trip. The association claims Wang did it because he wants to sell and didn't like the $750,000 tab. Whatever the case, not going is a loss for everyone, including the league.

30. Congratulations to RDS reporter Luc Gelinas, whose son Guillaume was taken by Rimouski in the fourth round of the QMJHL Draft. Renaud Lavoie, another RDS yakker, said the younger Gelinas is so dedicated to fitness "that he hasn't eaten a chocolate bar in the three years." Clearly, he follows my diet plan.

CLARIFICATION FROM LAST 30 THOUGHTS

Sometimes I write these late at night, so my syntax is warped. A few of you were unsure about this note:

"(Sidney) Crosby gets ripped for not moving out of Mario Lemieux's place until now (Joffrey Lupul, for example, did it on Twitter). When the Canadiens were imploding off-ice last season, he talked privately about how nothing similar happened to him for that reason."

In English, here's what it meant: Crosby announced a few weeks ago he was moving out of the Lemieux home and into his own place. Lupul made fun of it on Twitter. When the Canadiens were imploding off-ice in February 2009, Crosby and I had a conversation about it. He said that staying at Lemieux's home for so long was the major reason nothing similar happened to him. He had a Fortress of Solitude, and it protected him from what was occurring with some of Montreal's players.

 

End of Story Content

Back to accessibility links