Bolts’ head coach Boucher heading to Europe and Conacher an MVP

Posted Apr 13, 2012 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Apr 13, 2012 at 04:04 PM

Tampa Bay head coach Guy Boucher will head to the world championships while Cory Conacher is a most valuable player for the Norfolk Admirals.

Boucher was named as an assistant coach for Team Canada for the World Championships, which will take place in Sweden and Finland beginning May 4. Boucher has served as a coach for Canada on three other occasions, with the 2009 World Junior team that captured gold and twice for the Under-18 teams in 2008 and 2006. Boucher, along with Carolina coach Kirk Muller, will help head coach Brent Sutter, who accepted the invitation on Friday.

Boucher joins Lightning right wing Teddy Purcell on Team Canada. Tampa Bay will also be represented at the World Championships by forwards J.T Brown and Nate Thompson for USA and defenseman Victor Hedman for Sweden.

Conacher, meanwhile, was named MVP of the American Hockey League on Friday becoming just the fourth rookie in league history to be voted league MVP. On Thursday Conacher, a free agent signee out of Canisius College, was named the league’s most outstanding rookie. The 22-year-old was second in the league in scoring (75 points) and goals (35) heading into Friday’s game at Albany. The Admirals carried a league-record 25-game winning streak into the final weekend of the regular season.

The award is the fourth this week given to Norfolk following the announcement of Jon Cooper as the coach of the year, Mark Barberio as the AHL’s top defenseman and Conacher’s awards the past two days. The Admirals are the first team in league history to win all four league awards in the same season.