Remparts bench boss Boucher puts league brass on blast; says attendance down due to lack of “robustness”

Quebec Remparts head coach and GM Philippe Bouchercame out firing (NSFW – language warning) against the QMJHL establishment Saturday night after a game where he felt he was robbed by the officials.

Boucher had a bad night at the office Saturday, a 7-3 loss to the Saint John Sea Dogs where his team gave up three power play goals in the final frame, including two on a 5-on-3 from three Rempart penalties called on the same play, a slashing call on Massimo Carozza and two unsportsmanlike conduct calls, with one going to the man behind the bench.

Boucher fired back hard, saying that the call on Carozza was bogus, and that he can’t question referees anymore.

“I’ve coached 181 games in the league before the season started,” he started, building up steam. “I know if I want things to improve I have to improve too. I have spent time improving [myself]. In 181 games, I didn’t have a single warning.

“So far this year, I’ve had 7 warnings, 3 bench penalties and an ejection,” Boucher said. “[Saturday night], Carozza’s penalty wasn’t a penalty. He [got] two minutes of unsportsmanlike conduct, and the cameras didn’t pick up on anything he said. I said: ‘are you [expletive] kidding me, Marc-André [Lavoie, referee from Saturday’s game]?’ from 150 feet away and I get a two minute penalty.

“That’s six minutes of penalties in a game in front of 17,000 people in the Centre Vidéotron, which was still a good game. We had both our legs [cut off].”

Boucher feels he’s being targeted by the league’s officials.

It’s depressing because it’s during key moments in games. If it’s personal, my team doesn’t deserve to pay for that, and they have a couple times.

5-on-3s? We can’t get them. Not happening this year. And we’ve had them this year, like against Rouyn-Noranda, our legs are cut from under us, a couple more times, tonight too. ‘Well, everyone is doing their part, it’s nothing against you.’ Well I believe in human nature, there’s good guys and bad guys, it’s human nature.

Everyone has a clean slate for every game, but I’m not getting a clean slate each game. I don’t know why that is.

What’s going on night after night? I don’t accept it, I’ve had enough. I don’t know what to say anymore. Have you seen our games this year?

This isn’t the first time Boucher has had problems with officials. He was fined $10,000 for comments against referees Olivier Gouin and Jonathan Alarie at the Memorial Cup last season.

Boucher maintains his relationship with Gouin and Alarie, both QMJHL officials, has been rebuilt and they have no issues on either side anymore.

“I wanted to protect my team; that’s what I did at the Memorial Cup, and I went too far,” Boucher said. “No problem, paid $10,000, which is pretty steep. The two referees were put in an impossible situation.

“The game after that, I had no problem with them. I saw them later, during training camp, in Chicoutimi, talked to them, had no problem after that. So I don’t know where [the targeting] comes from."

Boucher added that he knows he can be hard to deal with behind the bench.

“I know I’m arrogant behind the bench, I tell them that, I know I am,” he continued.

“I know many others on the ice – players, goalies and referees – who are as well. It’s part of the sport, it’s a passionate sport, it’s an emotional sport. I would have a very hard time changing that.

“It does nothing to do that. It’s therapeutic, honestly, because nothing changes.”

League’s “lack of robustness” is leading to lower attendance

He also riffed against the league’s clean-cut image, saying that the league wants well-behaved players as opposed to “robustness”, which leads to less fans in the seats.

There’s plenty of players who are quality people who are part of this league. Jérôme Mésonero, Patrick Roy, André Tourigny, we were all with the executive committee and we said we have to keep a certain robustness in our sport. [It’s] a thing [we feel] our fans appreciate.

It’s a sensitive subject because these are teens. My son isn’t 18 years old [yet] and he was fighting; if his mom wanted him [to fight], she’d tell me but I don’t think she does. It’s a part of the game, and you know what you’re getting into if you play hockey.

I think [the lack of robustness is] why we have a problem with attendance [this year].

Boucher was adding his own comments to a point made Friday by Jérôme Mésonero, former GM of the Victoriaville Tigres, who said that the coaches are getting “muzzled” and it’s one of the reasons attendance is down.

Boucher added that a governor on the executive has noticed a lack of edge to the play in the league and he’s had enough too.

“One governor I talked to said the polite, smart students we have, [he’s] had enough of it,” Boucher said. “It’s emptying our arenas. It’s not me who said it; it’s a governor on the executive of the league.”

League attendance usually sits around 3,500 per game, though it has dropped to 3,370 in 2013-14 and 3,275 last year. The league doesn’t have numbers so far this season, but HockeyDB is reporting that the league has an average attendance around 3,118 this season.

Also, while some will point out that attendance picks up after Christmas, six teams are averaging 2,001 fans per game or less. Only three teams were below that amount last season.

The median average attendance so far this season is 2,141 fans, while the median last season was 2,489, a drop of around 350.

Taking out Quebec’s new arena, the massive and beautiful Centre Vidéotron with a capacity of 18,259 and 13,230 fans per game, the average of the other 17 teams in the league is 2,522 this season, while last season’s average without Quebec is 2,897.

Boucher wants QMJHL to make contact with him

Boucher also put the league on blast, saying he hasn’t been in contact with them since the season began, and that his contact before that was less than pleasant.

“This is my mandate with the Quebec Remparts; not many would want to take it,” he ranted.

“My first year, everyone knew the expectations. My second year, we had an impossible year because we had to build a Memorial Cup level team. We all worked extremely hard and we put together an excellent event in Quebec.

“I’ve had not one contact with the league this year, in a hard situation. I understand protecting the small markets, but the big markets, you should be in touch every once in a while.”

Last season, Boucher said the league wasn’t supportive of the work he did last season, bringing the Remparts to one goal of a President’s Cup win and putting in a good showing at the Memorial Cup tournament.

“They asked me last year what I would do with a team that is going nowhere,” he said. “They said that I didn’t have enough of a base for a Memorial Cup team. They asked me not to embarrass the league. Did we embarrass the league last year? Best final in the history of the league. That’s what happened last year. Two tired teams that went to the Memorial Cup that gave everything they had to their league.

“That’s what happened last year. Not a message to congratulate the players or anything. Nothing. They better call and explain things.”

Boucher said that the league isn’t going to help him.

“I’m used to being all alone, and solving my problems on my own,” he continued. “[Remparts president] Jacques [Tanguay] probably won’t be happy with what I’ve said. I’m a[n emotional] guy and when I have had enough, I’ve had enough. If Jacques can help me, even better.

“The only reason I’m saying it is because it’s been a long time that I’ve thought it. I’m marked as a target so nothing will happen. It doesn’t matter what I say or don’t say.“

The league released a statement Sunday saying that commissioner Gilles Courteau is looking into Boucher’s comments, and will have a response to them soon, so Boucher will be getting his wish; he will be contacted by the league.

“I imagine this will cost me something Monday, but it is what it is,” he said.