Former Ottawa Senators Head Coach Guy Boucher One and Done in Toronto

Boucher is the last head coach to lead the Ottawa Senators to a playoff spot.

Former Ottawa Senators head coach Guy Boucher will not return to the Toronto Maple Leafs next season. The club made the announcement on social media on Saturday afternoon. Boucher was an assistant coach for one season under Sheldon Keefe, overseeing the club's skill-filled power play. 

The Leafs' PP was good in the regular season, with a 24% success rate, but then hit a huge speed bump, with only one goal in 21 tries in the playoffs.

Coaching staff turnover is generally the norm when a new head coach arrives. After six and a half years in St. Louis, Craig Berube replaced Keefe on May 17th. One of Berube's first hires was former Islanders head coach Lane Lambert. Lambert will be an associate coach in Toronto this fall.

It will be interesting to see now what Boucher's future holds. This was his first NHL coaching job since the 2018-19 season. It was his first assistant coaching job in the game since Rimouski in 2005-06.

As a head coach, the 52-year-old led Tampa Bay (2011) and Ottawa (2017) to within one victory of an Eastern Conference title in his first season with both clubs. Those deep playoff runs were just six years apart, and his fall from grace was remarkably similar in both markets. By year two, his club followed up the conference final appearance by missing the playoffs. By year three, he was dismissed in mid-season.

Whether it's Boucher's record as a head coach or guiding the power play as an assistant, there almost seems to be a feast-or-famine effect that follows him around. Boucher is still the last coach to lead the Sens to a playoff spot, so Ottawa fans are hoping the playoff famine ends soon.