Tampa Bay Lightning coach Guy Boucher to stay in place says GM Steve Yzerman -NHL Update
While many thought that this was most probably Guy Boucher’s last season with Tampa Bay Lightning as their head coach, General Manager Steve Yzerman came to the rescue and downed all rumours to confirm his presence for the 2012-2013 National Hockey League
(NHL) regular season.
Rumours could not be denied as the NHL saw many shake-ups this season, some earlier and some later but with the Boucher case, it was expected that the team would wait till the hockey year came to an end before any changing in the coaching staff was to happen.
"He's the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning," Yzerman said Wednesday, April 4, 2012. "He's not going anywhere."
The reason for not firing their young coach could be due to the team performance rather than coaching being the motive behind an extremely disappointing season.
According to Yzerman, Boucher has performed beyond expectations and sometimes, the team does not always play the way they expect but that does not mean firing the coach is the solution.
"Our team plays hard," Yzerman said. "They stayed united. They stick together. The atmosphere in the locker room is a positive atmosphere. Our players continue to improve individually, and throughout the course of the season the coaches have had to make
adjustments and tried different things. It's made them better coaches, so I think they have done a real good job."
Another aspect of the story was that Boucher was being offered a deal by the baffled Montreal Canadiens team, which does not have a head coach at the moment, but he simply denied that.
Boucher termed it as him being under contract with Tampa Bay Lightning along with focusing on the future with the same team. The world knows that Boucher has been an excellent coach that led the Lightning to reach the Eastern Conference Finals in the playoffs
for two seasons straight and keeping him would be the best way to go.
What a game changer for Tampa Bay could be is whether they end up like this or even worse in the upcoming season, then and only then could such a move be taken by the team’s higher-ups.
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