Nick Boucher Gets NHL Tryout

Penguins signed him to a 25 game tryout today according to ESPN.com. He was with Wheeling of the ECHL having tremendous success with a 19-4-1 record.

NOOOOOOO......I can't possibly have Boucher as a Penguin. As a huge Penguin fan and perhaps an even huger Boucher hater, it'd be so hard to cheer for him in goal. I'd be cheering for the Pens while yelling "Hey Nicky...you suck...I was part of the crowd that scored on you a few years ago!!!" (one of my highlights as a CU fan...I was in Sec A, and one of the most vocal taunters during the game, for the 'fan goal')

At the same time, the Pens can't get much lower right now, so if he can help them, I might have to swallow my pride and just go for the team.



Post Edited (01-30-04 19:10)

Please refresh my memory about the fan goal. It sounds only vaguely familiar.

Well, it was January of 2000, and the fans in section A and B were particularly viscious about taunting the young Nick Boucher (I believe he was a freshman at the time). The entire game, we managed to get inside his head. He was playing a good game, but you could tell that he'd get agitated when we constantly berated him. So, we were down 3-1 with a little over 2 minutes remaining in the game, and they pulled Underhill for the extra skater. As Underhill was leaving the net, CU turned the puck over to Dartmouth, and Matt went diving back towards the goal to block off the shot (he wasn't off the ice yet.) The diving threw off the timing of the Dartmouth shooter, and instead of scoring into a mostly empty net, he hit the corner where the post meets the crossbar, and it shot back out into play. From our end it looked vaguely like it went in, but there was no light, no signal from the ref, and no one at that end stopped playing.

Boucher, on the other hand, didn't wait to see...when the puck bounced off the post, he immediately skated over to Section A to taunt the fans, sick to death of us proclaiming him a sieve. As he was taunting the fans, Adler skated up through the defensive zone, and took an easy shot from the red line into a wide open net. Boucher turned around from the fans just in time to see the goal go in. We still lost the game 3-2, but it didn't matter. The fact that we got under his skin enough for him to stop playing to taunt us was just great. We had so much ammo for him for the rest of his career at Dartmouth.

There's a quick recap by Dartmouth folk at: [www.dartmouth.edu]

And, Age's media, including a video of the goal (it's the second CU goal, obviously): [elynah.com]

Oddly enough, Rutter and Moynihan got assists on the Adler goal, which I view as impossible, since in the video Adler is clearly the only CU skater who touches the puck after the missed shot by Dartmouth. Both Rutter and Moynihan were around Adler when he picked up the puck, but neither touched it...wonder how that scoring held up.



Post Edited (01-31-04 04:30)

Jordan Steele '01 wrote:
Oddly enough, Rutter and Moynihan got assists on the Adler goal, which I view as impossible, since in the video Adler is clearly the only CU skater who touches the puck after the missed shot by Dartmouth. Both Rutter and Moynihan were around Adler when he picked up the puck, but neither touched it...wonder how that scoring held up.

Clearly, the assist should have gone to the empty net, which had a lower GAA that season than several Clarkson goalies.

calgARI '07 wrote:

Penguins signed him to a 25 game tryout today according to ESPN.com. He was with Wheeling of the ECHL having tremendous success with a 19-4-1 record.

Actually there should be two assists. One for the right post and one for the left.

I miss Age's video highlights.

(But I was always amazed that he could take the time to do the videos.)

Jordan Steele '01 wrote:
We had so much ammo for him for the rest of his career at Dartmouth.

It's just too bad it took us most of that career to beat him.

Yeah...he certainly was (is) a good goalie. He really played his best hockey against us, which is a shame, but he's still one of the only netminders I've seen visibly shaken by our fans.

Long time lurker, first time poster...USCHO folk may recognize me, though.

I hate to break the news, but Boucher isn't in the NHL. Instead, he's the backup for the free-falling Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL.

While the Lynah Faithful were slipping and sliding all over upstate New York last night, I was in the cozy confines of the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton to watch the Binghamton Senators host the aforementioned baby Pens. As luck would have it, I had access to corporate season tickets in the front row, right behind the Pens bench.

Cornell and Brown fans may not agree on much, but I think the collective disdain for Boucher is felt ECAC-wide.

Since I knew Boucher wouldn't get the start, I made sure to get in my seat well before the warm up. And when Nick took the ice, I made sure to give him hell.

He looked sieve-a-licious when he faced his obligatory handful of shots in the warm up.

Unfortunately, the bench configuration at the BCVMA forces the backup netminder to a solitary chair near the player entrance (kind of like at Nassau Coliseum) so I didn't get much more chance to chat with Nick as he watched the Pens lose yet again, 4-1.

The kicker? Boucher was still wearing his Dartmouth mask, which clashed horribly with his black, yellow, and red uniform colors. You've been in the pros for half a year, Nick - time to get a new helmet.

AJF
Brown '01



Post Edited (02-01-04 21:23)

wrote:

The kicker? Boucher was still wearing his Dartmouth mask, which clashed horribly with his black, yellow, and red uniform colors. You've been in the pros for half a year, Nick - time to get a new helmet.

Our own 'new' goalie this year, Dave McKee, was stuck with his old Texas Tornado mask for a few games because his new Cornell mask hadn't yet been made/arrived. I don't know how masks are generally made, but if it was the same people doing Boucher's mask as McKee's mask, this delay/backup might be a more common problem than I thought. I'm more willing to forgive something like that, since that's probably totally out of his control. Nevertheless, I'll still call Boucher a sieve for his own skills, or rather, lack thereof.

If I'm not mistaken, former Merrimack goaltender Joe Exter plays in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins organization as well (in the ECHL, possibly?)

Avash '05 wrote:
If I'm not mistaken, former Merrimack goaltender Joe Exter plays in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins organization as well (in the ECHL, possibly?)

Really? I've seen X as a studio commentator on one of the New England RSNs, but I thought his playing days were over.

Joe Exter and Nick Boucher were on the same ECHL team in the Penguins farm system.