McGill grad Boucher to coach with Team Canada at world championships

(Photo of Tampa Bay coaches Guy Boucher and Martin Raymond by Andrew Dobrowolskyj)

MONTREAL -- Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Guy Boucher has accepted an offer to serve as an assistant coach with Team Canada at the IIHF men's hockey world championship, slated to be held in both Helsinki and Stockholm, May 4-20.

Rounding out the coaching staff is head bench boss Brent Sutter, who parted ways with the Calgary Flames this week and assistant Kirk Muller of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Boucher, a former star forward and team captain at McGill, who also served as an assistant coach with the Redmen, has plenty of experience with Hockey Canada. The 40-year-old native of Notre Dame du Lac, Que., who lived in Roxboro, Que., during his McGill years, was an assistant to Pat Quinn at the 2009 world junior championship at which Canada won gold. He also was an assistant three times for Canada's under-18 national team, winning gold in 2008.

Before his coaching years, Boucher played right wing with the Redmen between 1991 and 1995. He graduated with an arts degree (history and environmental biology) in 1995 and a science degree (agricultural engineering) in 1996. He also studied sports psychology at the University of Montreal.

Boucher began his coaching career as assistant coach at McGill under head coach Martin Raymond in 1996–97, then moved on to serve as an assistant coach to Jean Pronovost with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (1997–2000) and then with the Rimouski Océanic from 2003 to 2006 with whom he won the Jean-Rougeau trophy (regular season champions) and President's Cup. He also had coaching stints with the Lac-Saint-Louis Lions of the AAA Midget Hockey League and wasnamed as bench boss of the QMJHL's Drummondville Voltigeurs in 2006 and won the Paul-Dumont Trophy in 2008-09, awarded to QMJHL's personality of the year.

On June 29, 2009, he was named head coach of the Montreal Canadiens affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs in the AHL. He led the team to an impressive 52–17–11 record for 115 points and won the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as coach of the year. He was then appointed as head coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning, signing a four-year contract in 2010.

SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman

McGill Athletics & Recreation

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