Bolts Q&A: Guy Boucher

Year one for the Tampa Bay Lightning under head coach Guy Boucher exceeded all expectations, falling one victory short of reaching the Stanley Cup Final.

Year two of the Boucher era kicks off on Friday when players officially report for the start of training camp at the Ice Sports Forum in preparation for the start of the regular season on Oct. 7 at Carolina.

With many of the same players returning this year, Boucher sat down with The Tampa Tribune to discuss some of his thoughts heading into his second NHL training camp for a question and answer session.

TRIBUNE: Your first training camp involved a lot of teaching a new system, what will be different about your approach to camp this season?

BOUCHER: "I want to raise the bar, but the first thing is we have to make sure we have the right perception and the right angle to look at it. So our attitude has to be in synch right off the bat. And what I mean by that is we still have players replaying that seventh game, everybody is still playing that seventh game and thinking we were this close, and they are right. Then you have other people thinking, "You know what, we did great, we overachieved and did really great so we feel proud of ourselves and so on.''

But I think all of it's true, but none of the two is going to help us start the season. "What is helping us is that we've built culture, we've raised standards, we've had some success, it's good and we've created some momentum. But what we were at the end of the year is not what we are going to be at the beginning of this year. I think that's the common misconception that teams, organizations and fans usually have is that they think it just continues and it's an on-going process, which it's not. There is a break in between, there's a change of players, there's chemistry that is going to be a little different to start.

It doesn't mean it's negative, it just means we start a process. The team we had at the end of last year was the end of that process. What we want is compare our team at the start of this year to the team we had at the beginning of last year, that's comparing apples to apples and at the end of the year, we'll see, that's a long process to get there.''

TRIBUNE: So how do you approach the teaching in this camp, is it just reinforcement of the ideas or do you begin integrating new wrinkles?

BOUCHER: "We'll integrate, but we won't integrate quickly at the beginning. I think right now it would be stupid to do that because it would slow down our progression. I think right now we need to solidify what most of the players know and learned last year.

We always think people know, but they don't, they think they know because they did learn it before, but I went to university for nine years and you can ask me tons of questions I knew before but now can't remember. I know I knew them, I have a feeling I know them, so I think it's the same for them and that's the mistake I don't want to make.

We start back at zero, but I just go faster to solidify right away with, this is what we were and this is want we want to be and now let's take this a step further once we re-master what we mastered before and start back at zero and not presume that the players remember, they don't remember the details because there are too many details to remember and that's why it's a long process. It's a year long process.''

TRIBUNE: What were the offseason situations you wanted to see addressed, and have they been addressed heading into camp?

BOUCHER: "I think over the span of the summer, I like what we've done. We kept our leadership core, which is hard to do, everything rises and falls from the leadership. For me as a coach, that's huge.

"I think we improved three areas we wanted to improve – one we wanted to improve consistency in nets compared to before Christmas (last year) and by signing (Dwayne) Roloson again with his experience along with Mathieu Garon, who is one of the top backups in the league. I think the other big word for me right now is depth. There is a depth there with the forwards that I like because last year I felt that when we brought some guys up, it was tough because I felt they were a long way away.

"The third thing we wanted to improve is shape, and we pushed our players to come in in better shape than what they came in last year. So I think those three areas – consistency in net, depth and shape of the players to be able to maintain a relentlessness, and we are relentless because that's the culture that we've created, but to be able to maintain it until you are able to hold that trophy I think right now is a big part of what we need to do next.''

TRIBUNE: What's the latest on the status of assistant coach Wayne Fleming and is there a chance we could see him rejoin the team after undergoing surgery for a brain tumor in April?

BOUCHER: "To me there is always a chance, his office is his office and nobody is going to be in that spot. We are all pulling for him, he's pushing hard, but right now he'll be looking from a distance and doing what he was doing in the playoffs before he had his operation and then we'll take it from there. We saw him off to Calgary the other day so he'll be around family and help and we'll take it day by day. In the playoffs we managed it and we'll manage it now until Wayne gets back.''