New Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher brings intensity on and off ice

The new coach of the Ottawa Senators says he'll bring some aggression, but onlywhen necessary.

The morningafter his hiring was announced, a bespectacled, soft-spoken Boucherwas asked by CBC RadioOttawa Morninghost Robyn Bresnahanabout his reputation for having a bit of a temper.

"Sometimes it's time to use it, sometimes it's not time to use it I've had teams where they didn't need much emotion and I've had other teams where it's the opposite. It's really what you have and where the guys are," he toldBresnahan on Monday.

"I've had some individuals where you have to start softer and you become harder as you go along and some other guys it's the opposite. Do I have a temper? I think all NHL coaches have a temper whether you see it or not and it's just something you manage."

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Boucher also used somein-your-facewords when talking about the changes he would make to the Senators, who went 38-35-9 last season to miss the playoffs under former coachDave Cameron.

"I think we want to have an aggressive penalty kill and the power play. I've taken care of power play now for 20 years, it's one of my fortes and I love working with it," he said.

"I see we have the personnel to play an 'accelerated power play,' I call it, a real 'immediate threat' mentality. I think we can certainly change that right away at the beginning of the year."

Watch the entire GuyBouchernews conference below.

Rapport with GM

The 44-year-old father of three most recently coachedSC Bern of Switzerland's top league and led Canada to gold at the 2015Spengler Cup tournament, made up of Canadians playing in European hockey leagues.

His NHL experience comes fromparts of three seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning, who he took to within a game of the Stanley Cup Finals before underachieving and ultimately being let go late in the 2013 season after a loss in Ottawa, of all places.

Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said they interviewed "just under 10" candidates to be their new coach.

"Through this process I had our assistant general manager Randy Lee with me and after we did the last interview I wrote down on a piece of paper, 'Who's your number one choice?' It was undoubtedlyGuy [that] was our number one choice," he said.

Dorion said he spent more than 12 hours interviewing Boucher over the course of two meetings and felt they were on the same page from the beginning.

"We both want to play an up-tempo style, we both want to have defensive structure," Dorion said.

"One thing that really impressed me about guy was his attention to detail. The interviews weren't always kind questions and whenever problem situations arose during the questions Guy was right there ready to answer right away."

Guy Boucher on hiring Marc Crawford

9 years ago

Duration 0:20

New Ottawa Senators head coach Guy Boucher discusses move to hire Crawford as associate coach.

Defensive structure

Boucher said he too felt a good fit with Dorion andsees a lot of upside in the team he's taking over.

"You have the players that represent your style and I think we have that: speed up front, transitioning defencemen, good goaltender, the possibility of improving the defensive side of it with structure, which I think I'm known for," he said.

"But I think the partnership with the GM is absolutely something that I wanted to convey to the organization because I thought Pierre was something I could fit with."

Current Senator Mike Hoffman played parts of two seasons under Boucher when they were both in junior hockey with the Drummondville Voltigeurs.

The Senators also announced at an afternoon news conference that former NHL coach Marc Crawford, who won a Stanley Cup with Colorado in 1996 and also recently coached in Switzerland, is joining the team as an associate coach.

Dorion said Crawford will work with coaches in their minor league team in Binghamton and help scout other NHL teams as part of his job.