The Guy From Central Casting

At its best, the NHL can’t be beat for debuting a new coach. It’s more than a local event. There’s nothing provincial about French-speaking media cell-phoning back to the Canadian mother ship. Who can’t use a touch of élan?

And where else would you hear the new guy in charge, in this case the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Guy Boucher (GEE boo-SHAY), giving an extended shout-out of gratitude–in French–to fellow Quebecers and Montreal influentials.  (In contrast, you can bet nobody had to include phonetic-pronunciation guides for Raheem Morris or Joe Maddon.)

Sharing the dais with Hall of Fame General Manager Steve Yzerman, who oozes class, Boucher looked and sounded like the hockey gods’ response to Bolts’ entreaties after three years in the playoff-less wilderness. A deus ex machina to finally erase the Barry Melrose reign of ridicule. 

Boucher, 38, has a Central Casting look, stare, smile, scar and back story. He recovered from a life-threatening virus that ended his playing career in his 20’s.

And he’s not sound-bite challenged on most subjects. When asked about his illness and frustrating, nearly five-year recovery, he mixed a sports metaphor to make his point. “Life threw me a curve ball,” he explained. “But it doesn’t mean you can’t hit it. There’s always a way out. I tend to believe when no one does.”

When asked about the prominent scar on his right cheek, he was coy. Only that it’s not hockey-related and even his three kids, 8-year-old Vincent and 6-year-old twin girls Mila and Naomi, don’t know. Presumably, his wife Marsha is privy.  For now, it’s part of his mystique. Johnny Depp on one side; Al Pacino on the other.

He’s also well-educated–as in bachelor degrees in history and biosystems engineering from McGill University and a master’s in sports psychology from the University of Montreal. Boucher is not only the NHL’s youngest coach, but an early favorite for resident renaissance man. No surprise, he’s an avid chess player.

The Canadian media have already dubbed the fast-tracking native of Notre-Dame-du-Lac in Quebec a coup for the Lightning. Boucher rapidly built a record of success in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, impressed insiders with his work for Hockey Canada and then last season earned coach of the year honors for the American Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs, the Montreal Canadiens’ top minor league affiliate. He was considered the Canadiens’ coach in waiting. Jimbo Fisher on skates.

He was also tantamount to a natural resource in a country–and a province–that follows hockey with religious fervor. His hiring in Tampa Bay, hardly a hockey hotbed, is seen as incongruous, if not sacrilegious.  It’s not quite like Tony Dungy agreeing to coach the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes, but close enough.

Boucher begs to differ with those taken aback by his seemingly meteoric rise to the big time. “It looks fast to people, but it doesn’t seem fast to me,” he noted. “To me, it’s been a long process. A lot of work. A lot of adversity.”

And while his rookie year at the Lightning helm will be a well scrutinized one, Boucher said “pressure” is a non-factor. “Now, singing at a concert.  That would be pressure,” he reflected. “I’m being asked to do what I do best.”

His aggressive, innovative, up-tempo system has been well-touted, as is his handling of players. He’s been called “new age,” an “outside-the-box” thinker and the prototype for the “new generation coach.”

“I’m not coaching a ‘system,'” explained Boucher. “I’m coaching individuals. I adapt myself. I will prepare for the type of players we have.” And, yes, that means the “great building blocks” he’s inheriting named St. Louis, Stamkos and Lecavalier.

Actually, Boucher sounds like a hybrid of old school and new age, albeit one who liberally sprinkles in references to “values” and “culture” in any discussion of his coaching methodology. “We want relentless guys,” he stressed. “I’m relentless. I never quit. I’m extremely demanding. There are consequences.

“As to what we call the ‘Y Generation,’ to me that means ‘Why this and why that?'” said Boucher. “They need to know. They need to know what’s in it for them. If you care about the players, the players care about what you have to say.”

There were no players at the press conference. But the observations of GM Yzerman spoke volumes.

“He’s 38, not 21,” said Yzerman in addressing the issue of bringing in the league’s youngest coach.

“He’s a strong, charismatic leader with tremendous work ethic and passion for the game, and an extremely knowledgeable hockey person. He’s a very confident, very strong leader…He can create a culture of a winning environment, much like he’s done at every stop of his coaching career…He’ll have no trouble with these players earning their trust. But he’ll also have no trouble letting them know he’s in charge and this is the way we’ll be doing things.”

Boucher certainly sounded ready for the considerable, if not daunting, challenge.

“I want to learn quick,” he pointed out. “I want to dare. I want to do things that sometimes I might regret. But the thing is, I don’t want to regret not trying. I’m a student of the game, and the day I stop learning is the day I want to be buried.

“It never ends for me,” he added. “This quest to find an edge. I enjoy that.”

The Lightning, who finished out of the playoffs and a disappointing 12th in the Eastern Conference last season, obviously needed more than a change. More like a renaissance.

Arguably, they have their Guy.

Win-Win Scenarios For Downtown Tampa

No, they won’t transform downtown Tampa overnight.  But, yes, they are key catalytic developments with classic win-win upsides.  Plans for USF’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation and more progress on the Encore mixed-use project are a welcome tandem of good news, one that more than offsets the sobering reality of the upcoming Maas Bros. parking lot.

For too long the Tampa Convention Center sat diagonally across from a nightclub better know for mayhem than music. Franklin Street booty calls and police calls — not exactly the highest and best use of prime, downtown real estate. And a convention-visitor juxtaposition to cringe at: Welcome to Tampa.

Now, thanks to a $3.5 million deal between the city and USF, the raised lot at 102 S. Franklin will become a  high-tech training facility for surgeons from around the world. The $20 million, 60,000-square-foot CAMLS should break ground by January. It’s expected to bring in as many as 40 jobs and attract other businesses to downtown.

It also puts Tampa squarely on the international map when it comes to cutting-edge, robotic surgical training. CAMLS will include an advanced surgical skills laboratory, a simulation center and virtual hospital, an auditorium and a research lab. The surrounding hotels and other amenities are convenient, complementary pieces.

And when the GOP convention rolls into town in two years, the media can reference that Tampa is the international hub of something other than lap-dancing.  

As for Encore, the public-private project planned for the 28 acres that previously housed the demolished Central Park Village, it received an important nod in the approval process from Tampa City Council. (The Council still needs to formally sign the development agreement among the city, the Tampa Housing Authority and Bank of America.) Earlier in the year Encore scored a $38 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay for infrastructure needs.

Plans for the area between downtown and Ybor City include building as many as 1,500 affordable- and -market-rate housing units plus shops, offices, a hotel, a middle school, a museum and a renovated park. Proponents estimate it could mean as many as 4,000 short-term construction jobs and 1,000 permanent ones.

But the long-term benefits are the real priority.  For too long downtown Tampa has been residentially challenged. And that included the unsightly, public-housing complex that was CPV.  Encore is a legacy project and an urban reset-button opportunity. One that can connect downtown and Ybor while providing homes — not just housing — to those who want to be part of a viable, vibrant, inner-city community.

St. Pete Bounces Reality Check

In some quarters, the Tampa Bay Rays are being criticized for not publicly responding to that high-profile, stadium-agenda letter the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce sent to Mayor Bill Foster. Well, this isn’t one of those quarters.

The Chamber advised that the construction of a new (retractable-roof) Rays’ facility could (conceivably) begin by 2017 — with the provision that the Rays remain within city limits.  But should the Rays want to position themselves somewhere else in St. Pete other than downtown, the Chamber would understand — but would then want the Rays to bring back spring training from its current venue in Charlotte County.

Just a guess, but here’s a reason why the Rays’ haven’t immediately responded to this stadium-negotiations “kick start” missive, as it was termed by Chamber President John Long.

A much nicer, potentially more revenue-stream friendly facility in a geographically and demographically bad part of this non-traditional, asymmetrical market is still nothing to write home about.

And as for spring training, the Rays signed a 20-year agreement with Charlotte County two years ago. That was the quid-pro-quo for Rays-wooing Charlotte spending about $20 million in public money on a renovated stadium.

How ironic that St. Pete has often taken umbrage at any intimation that the Rays won’t be around for the entirety of their Trop lease, one that expires in 2027. But it has the civic chutzpah to suggest a bail-out scenario with Charlotte County.

The Rays no comment to these self-serving, parochial overtures speaks volumes.

Challenging Times

Plaudits to the St. Petersburg Times for doing more than retrenching during tough times. Its well-regarded, Web-harnessing Truth-O-Meter (PolitiFact.com) has now added Georgia to its previous expansion to Texas and Florida markets. Moreover, the Times continues to not pull any punches in its high-profile coverage of Scientology, coverage that can court a retaliatory response.

On the flip side, that was a pretty disingenuous approach the Times took on St. Pete City Council’s ban of solicitations on major city streets.  The city said the ordinance was aimed at improving public safety. Something about the inherent conflict of solicitors and traffic and busy intersections and lights that go from red to green.

The Times, which sells about 7,000 papers via street vendors each Sunday, filed a federal lawsuit against the city saying the ban was a violation of its constitutional right of free speech. A federal judge, presumably with a straight face, upheld the ban prohibiting pedestrian-motorist transactions which ranged from charity soliciting  to panhandling to newspaper hawking. (And, yes, Media General, the publisher of the Tampa Tribune, later filed a motion in support of the Times.)

Of course, St. Pete wanted a two-fer. This was a legitimately legal way of getting panhandlers–and others–out of traffic. Certainly better than ignoring the safety issue or masking it with day-glow vests. As for that free-speech, free-press gambit, 80 percent of St. Pete’s streets plus private property remain venues for paper-pitching. No one, presumably, will go uninformed because they couldn’t buy a St. Pete Times–or a Tampa Trib–on U.S. 19.

Run, Don’t Walk

Sorry, Bud, there are viable political gimmicks–and then there are, well, gimmicks.

When U.S. Senate candidate Lawton Chiles walked the state in 1970–from the Panhandle to the Keys–he captivated the media and the electorate and defeated the favorite, Farris Bryant. And he was meeting folks other than the usual suspects.

Now his son, Lawton “Bud” Chiles III, is trying to walk in his father’s formidable footsteps by ambling across Florida in his independent campaign for governor.

But the walk is now a retread strategy, a pure gimmick. He needs to give it the boot. It’s also a reminder that junior is not his father. That hardly helps. “This Bud’s For You” would be more original.

Quoteworthy

* “She has to manage her wardrobe so these men can manage their libidos?”–Jack Tuckner, attorney for plaintiff  Debralee  Lorenzana, who has filed a sexual discrimination suit against Citigroup, claiming she was fired for looking too sexy.

* “Why do people come to Florida? The ocean, the coasts, the beaches. This is the lifeline of our state. We’re not going to have any offshore drilling in Florida.”–Jeff  Greene, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

* “Let’s pass a real emigration bill: Unless you can prove you’re a Cherokee…”–Florida poet Steve Kronen.

* “You could always find reasons for why you shouldn’t do something, but I’ve always been of a mind to find a reason why we should do it.”–Sandy MacKinnon, Florida State Fair Authority chairman, on looking into possible development scenarios at the Fairgrounds.

* “One way or another, if people care about baseball, collectively the region will figure something out. If they don’t care about baseball, it will work itself out in another way.”–Tampa Bay Rays’ owner Stu Sternberg.

Free Press Still Lives In St. Pete

Despite the official, legalistic  misgivings of some print media, no one is likely to go uninformed in St. Petersburg because they can’t buy a Sunday newspaper on U.S. 19. Via its new ordinance that bans transactions along — and amid — busy streets, the city of St. Petersburg is acknowledging the obvious: There’s an inherent public-safety conflict when you combine solicitors, busy intersections and traffic lights that go from red to green.

Berkeley’s Best Nationally Recognized

Congratulations to Berkeley Prep’s Bryane Heaberlin. The 16-year-old junior-to-be was named a Parade Magazine Soccer All-American. And not just an All-American, but the “top player” at her position, goalkeeper. She is the starting goalie for the Under-17 U.S. Women’s National team and recently allowed zero goals in the 2010 Under-17 World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Costa Rica. She also transcended sports at that tourney with a moving, empathetic embrace of a Haitian goalie, an emotional hug that made the global media rounds via wire photo.

When not performing as the best high school goalie in the country, Heaberlin finds time to help out at a nursing home and a kids’ summer camp.