The Florida Panthers officially named Bob Boughner head coach this past Monday. He has been congratulated significantly, since earning his new job.
Dale Tallon was the first one with high praise for the new bench boss. He made sure everyone knew just how impressed he was with Boughner’s preparation. It was quite a statement considering that this isn’t his first, second or… Well you get it, Dale has done this quite a few times now.
Most of the appreciation and praise came from his fellow coach Peter DeBoer and some players he coached in San Jose. The former Panthers coach said Boughner was a great hire and also preceded by saying, “The best compliment I can give him is that if I was hiring a new coach for a team, he would be a guy I would hire.”
"“When you work together day in and day out, you get to know their strengths and weaknesses. Coming through that process and working relationship, I have great respect for him and that shows how great a coach he is and the kind of coach the Florida Panthers are getting.”"
As an assistant with the Sharks, Boughner worked primarily with the defense and the penalty kill. He was given a lot of credit for the dominance of Brent Burns and his past two Norris-worthy seasons. In that time, he was also responsible for running a defense that allowed the 2nd fewest shots against and 4th fewest goals against in the NHL.
Burns took to Twitter to congratulate his former coach and thanked him for his impact as a mentor.
Congrats boogs on @FlaPanthers job! Tough to see him go, learned a lot on and off the ice. Just a great mentor & they are lucky to have him
— Brent Burns (@Burnzie88) June 13, 2017
Logan Couture would also express his gratitude, letting Boughner know he’ll be missed in San Jose.
After hiring a new coach, it’s good to get reassurance from his fellow coaches and players alike. If there’s anything that this provides the Panthers with their “players coach” that they were looking for, I personally am excited for his systems he plans to run.
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I’m not the only one, even defenseman Aaron Ekblad is confident in the new coach and is ready to get to work.
"“Obviously, we have a great relationship and have known each other for a very long time, so we’ve been talking a lot of the subject,” Ekblad said. “His ideas and thoughts on how to make our team better are lining up with our philosophy and the winning attitude we want to bring to this team.”"
Let’s hope that translates to him regaining some confidence and getting back to true form. Last year was merely a hiccup for Ekblad, the message and communication within the locker room will be a lot clearer in 2017-18.