Ennis Drives Swedes To Tears (murray)

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Ennis Drives Swedes To Tears

By GARTH'S CORNER

May 20, 2015 • 7:57 pm

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Team Canada has been the talk of the IIHF World Championships in Prague.

Their squad looks and plays a lot like the 1976 Montreal Canadians and are laying waste to the tournament field.

The swashbuckling Canadians dodged a huge bullet and erased an uncharacteristic 4-3 deficit by scoring three third period goals.

Buffalo Sabres water bug Tyler Ennis scored the GW PPG, which gave Canada its first lead of the game. Taylor Hall fed Ennis who banged the puck top shelf at the 6:29 mark of the third period. Tyler Seguin added an empty netter with 1:50 left to play in end the game.

Watch as a young Swede breaks down and cries after the Ennis goal. That's the way that Enzo rolls. Slaying trolls. Breaking hearts all over the world.

Enzomatic for the people.

Canada tied the game at 10:24 of the third period courtesy of a sick strip by Sidney Crosby behind the Sweden net.Crosby picked the pocket of Oscar Klefbom, moved the puck to it to Jordan Eberle in the slot who tipped it to Patrick Wiercioch, who went high cheese.

Canada is now 4-0 in the tournament.

In four games played, Ennis now has two goals and an assist while playing alongside Tyler Seguin and Claude Giroux.

Canada is idle until Saturday when they will play Denmark.

****

Former Tampa Lightning coach Guy Boucher and his family have been chilling in the Swiss Alps for the past two years. Boucher, 45, has been coaching the legendary SC Bern club team in the Swiss League. Boucher was fired by the Lightning in March 2013. Boucher has followed the template of what former NHL coaches Ted Nolan, Mike Keenan, Marc Crawford, Paul Maurice and others have done in recent years: he has been coaching in Europe to keep himself spry and nimble for when an NHL head coaching job opportunity opens up. Right now, the Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, and San Jose Sharks are looking for their next head coach. In his sabbatical from the NHL, Boucher hasn’t been golfing and riding his jet skis at the cottage. He simply packed his 97-78-20 NHL coaching record into his hockey bag and boarded an air bus to Switzerland to work on his coaching acumen. It wasn’t that long ago that Boucher coached his Bolts to the 2011 Eastern Conference final in which it lost 1-0 to the Bruins in Game 7.

In his three seasons in Tampa, Boucher's teams finished second, third and fourth, respectively.

He had a .546 win percentage in the regular season. However, a .611 winning percentage in the playoffs where his record is 11-7.

Many of the aforementioned teams are waiting for June 30 to come so that they can pounce on pending UFA Mike Babcock. In the next six weeks, Boucher will be a man in high demand. He has an out-clause in his SC Bern contract and he is eager to work in the NHL again.

Boucher gets a bad rap in NHl circles because of his use of the 1-3-1 trap strategy. His critics are misinformed when they call him a “trap-only guy…. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. Boucher is a power play and penalty kill tactician whose special teams units were at the top of the NHL in his short stint in Tampa. He was an offensive and defensive innovator when he was hired from the AHL Hamilton Bull Dogs (Montreal Canadiens) in June 2010. Boucher is responsible for coaching and preparing P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty, and David Desharnais for the NHL game. He also had a direct influence on the development of generation talents Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman. Boucher had great success with Hamilton and Tampa. In the end of his tenure in Tampa, he and GM Steve Yzerman experienced "philosophical differences".

During the lockout-shortened season, Yzerman canned Boucher, who was in his third year in Tampa Bay. He has been behind the bench with SC Bern in the Swiss League since January of 2014.

On Tuesday, an energetic Boucher told TSN 1050’s Dave Naylor that he is ready to return to the NHL. He said that he is looking for the “right situation…:

“I’ve never hid the fact that I definitely do want to go back. I have another year on my contract here. Family’s happy, had a terrific year, saw a lot of good things, learned and grew. I’ve got no problem staying here. Last year I couldn’t accept it because I didn’t have an out-clause. This year I do have an out-clause.

Boucher could not pursue an NHL gig last summer because his SC Bern contract was devoid of an out-clause. Now, he is free to roam about the NHL.

“But it would certainly be in the right situation, with the right people. And if I fit, it would certainly interest me, but like I said, it has to be in the right situation because I have a very good situation right now. But I’ve been approached, so I mean it’s a possibility. We’ll see what happens.…

Mum’s the word. Boucher knows that in the NHL, loose lips sink ships.

“But you won’t get anything else out of me,… he said emphatically.

I’ve been telling you for two months that Tim Murray of the Buffalo Sabres has been interested in Boucher’s career. It’s not known yet if Murray and Boucher have a great personal relationship like Murray and Luke Richardson do. What is known is that Murray is well aware of Boucher’s AHL Hamilton successes and he admires Boucher’s approach to coaching. Murray has said that he is looking to interview five candidates to arrive at the one man who will take Ted Nolan’s job behind the Buffalo bench.

Here’s my list of five:

Mike Babcock Todd McLellan Luke Richardson Guy Boucher Peter DeBoer

Keep this nugget in your jeans pocket:

there is only one Mike Babcock. Many suitors will be throwing millions of dollars and hockey power at him should he hit the UFA market. The Red Wings will not lose the Babcock sweepstakes without a fight. Meaning, Ken Holland has already said that he is not allowing Babcock to speak with rival teams leading up to the June 30 deadline. Holland has also said the the Ilitch family will not lose Babcock due to money. They are willing to match the best offers, dollar for dollar. Holland will also use Ilitich's millions to recruit top UFAs to D-Town in order to get Babs to stay in Motown.

In the event that Babcock stays in Detroit and McLellan takes the Edmonton job (he interviewed for it Sunday in Prague), then Murray has to have an austerity plan in place. Murray will not be caught flat-footed.

Murray may end up hiring Richardson AND Boucher. Richardson as the head coach and Boucher as the assistant/PP-PK specialist. I’m told that Boucher will be open to all NHL coaching opportunities, not just the bench boss job.

Boucher knows a thing or two about getting maximum effort out of all of the players on his roster. Especially the generational ones like Stamkos, Subban, and Hedman.

My guess is that Boucher is salivating about the opportunity to mentor and coach young guns Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, Evander Kane, Zemgus Girgensons, Zach Bogosian, Tyler Ennis, Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov, Marcus Foligno, Nic Deslauriers, Mark Pysyk, Jake McCabe, and the rest of the Sabres.

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