Hockey expert and commentator Vitaly Magranov evaluated the nomination Guy Boucher head coach of Omsk “Avant-garde”.
On Wednesday, Avangard announced the appointment of a Canadian to this position. The agreement with the 53-year-old specialist runs until the end of the 2025/26 season. He will arrive in Omsk and take over the team in the first half of December; until then, Sergei Zvyagin will be the head coach of Avangard. Boucher previously led the Tampa Bay Lightning (2010-2013) and Ottawa Senators (2016-2019) in the NHL.
— Guy Boucher was a long-time NHL head coach. Last season, of course, he worked as an assistant in Toronto. But this is a team where it’s hard to say anything specifically about Bush. In 2017, under his leadership, Ottawa had a very stellar playoff run, and over the past 16 years, this is the team’s best season. In general, critics describe him as a fairly structured coach, even with a defensive bias, who pays great attention to nuances. And I think Avangard will need time for the team to get used to all these requirements, nuances and details. And at the same time, we talk about him as a coach who knows very well how to establish contact with managers. On that 2017 Ottawa team, some guys had the best season of their careers. At Avangard he will have a wide choice of players and I think he can show something interesting.
— Is your opinion of Bush’s defensive hockey more of a stereotype?
“The fact is that compliance with all tactical details regarding defense is strictly required. But I wouldn’t say that this is to the detriment of offensive actions. If we talk about the periods of his work in the NHL, then this is a very competitive league. And I think every coach looks at who they have at their disposal to give the best results. It is not a fact that Avangard will become a closed team.
— When signing Boucher, did Avangard focus on the positive experience with Bob Hartley?
– Here, we can no longer even draw parallels with Hartley, but with Benoit Grou. Because he is also a North American specialist from Quebec, who has built a fairly structured team, but at the same time we still see individual progress in almost all Traktor players and brilliant play in attack. I think this is a certain model that Avangard is also focusing on. Although, to my knowledge, they communicated with Boucher there a long time ago, even under the previous management of the club. And of course, Hartley will always be a reference for Omsk,” Magranov told RB Sport.
Avangard scored 28 points in 30 matches and is in ninth place in the KHL Eastern Conference standings.
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I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
