Guy Boucher Named Senators Head Coach: Latest Comments and Reaction

The Ottawa Senators announced Sunday they agreed to a three-year deal with Guy Boucher to be the team's head coach. 

Senators owner Eugene Melnyk released a statement about the move:

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Over the past three weeks, [general manager] Pierre Dorion and our hockey operations staff have undertaken a thorough and comprehensive search for our next head coach. Following a detailed evaluation of all coaching candidates, there was overwhelming consensus that Guy was our top candidate. We wanted a great coach and this process yielded our top pick. I couldn't be happier. On behalf of the entire Senators organization, the great city of Ottawa and our fans, I want to welcome Guy, his wife Marsha and their three children, Vincent, Mila and Naomi.

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Boucher coached the Tampa Bay Lightning for two-and-a-half years from 2010 to 2013. He compiled a 97-78-20 record in 195 games. Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman offered an endorsement of his team's former coach, per ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun:

The Senators fired Dave Cameron in April after only a year-and-a-half with the team. Ottawa collected 14 fewer points compared to 2014-15 and missed out on the postseason for the second time in three years.

The team likely had Bruce Boudreau somewhere near the top of its wish list, but the Minnesota Wild announced Saturday they hired the former Anaheim Ducks coach. Puck Daddy's Greg Wyshynski assumed the Senators would shift their focus to Boucher but wasn't entirely convinced the 44-year-old was the best option:

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Boucher's a tough one to figure. He clearly lost the room at the end of his tenure. The Lightning were seventh in 5v5 Corsi in his first season (2010-11) but finished in the bottom 10 in the next two seasons. When his system works, his teams are damn hard to play against. It'd be interesting to see what he’s learned in his overseas sojourn.

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TSN 1200's Ian Mendes, on the other hand, believes Boucher can remedy some of Ottawa's issues on the ice:

There's no question Boucher's time with the Lightning ended poorly. The team wasn't playing well, and TSN's Bob McKenzie reported at the time some players were "shutting down/tuning out."

The Ottawa Citizen's Bruce Garrioch wrote Saturday that Boucher's sojourn away from the league might have given him a different perspective on coaching: "The belief is after spending part of last season with SC Bern in the Swiss Elite League that he's coming back refreshed, ready and humbled to be a better coach his second time around in the NHL."

Boucher took the Lightning to the postseason in his first season, and the expectation will be the same in Ottawa. The team already showed with Cameron that it has a quick hook for coaches who fail to meet their directives.

The same fate will likely befall Boucher should the same problems he experienced in his final year with Tampa Bay crop up again in Ottawa.