Swiss side SC Bern fires head coach Guy Boucher
One week after Guy Boucher announced he wouldn’t return to Swiss side SC Bern next season, the team fired him following four straight defeats and a ninth-place standing in the National League A table.
Boucher said last week that the reason he chose not to seek an extension was so he could return home to Canada and care for his ailing mother who’s currently battling cancer.
The team claims the decision to fire Boucher has nothing to do with last week's announcement.
Boucher is meanwhile reportedly set to lead Team Canada again at next month’s Spengler Cup.
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"I knew when I made decision [to chose not to sign extension] I was opening the door to this possibility," Boucher said via TSN's Bob McKenzie. "Once I indicated I wanted to move on at the end of the year I knew the team here could decide to move on before that. I want to coach in NHL again. That's my goal."
The 44-year old head coach had an out-clause in his contract this past summer, and while he came close to landing the Toronto Maple Leafs job no other NHL opportunities arose.
In his first full season with Bern, Boucher helped improve the side by 26 points and led them to the league semifinals. Prior to arriving in Switzerland, he led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the 2011 Eastern Conference Final before losing in seven games. The following season the team missed the playoffs and he was fired 31 games into the 2013 campaign, replaced by Jon Cooper.
If another NHL head coach gets fired this season, we can expect to hear the usual names of Luke Richardson, Paul MacLean, Ron Wilson, Adam Oates, Marc Crawford, and Mike Keenan, among others, pop up, but now we can add Boucher’s name to that list sooner than we thought.
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
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