page_title: Frank Boucher
section_title: Hockey career
hierarchical_section_title: Frank Boucher / Hockey career
context_page_description: François Xavier "Raffles" Boucher was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and executive. Boucher played the forward position for the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers in the National Hockey League and the Vancouver Maroons in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Frank later became coach and the general manager of the New York Rangers.
context_section_description: While in Lethbridge working with the Mounties, Boucher played for the Lethbridge Vets along with Mountie teams he organized. After a year working in Banff, Alberta, Frank returned home to play for the Ottawa Senators for the 1921–22 season, where he would play with his brother George. Because he had played senior hockey out west, his playing rights belonged to the PCHA, but he was allowed to play the season for Ottawa on condition he then play for the Vancouver Maroons in following seasons. In a twist of fate, he joined the Stanley Cup champions but the Senators lost the NHL title that year to the Toronto St. Pats, who would defeat Vancouver in the Stanley Cup Final.
  Boucher played for the Maroons until 1926. The Maroons would play in the 1923 Stanley Cup Final against the Senators, losing 3-2. His brother George still played for the Senators. The Maroons played in the 1924 Stanley Cup playoffs against Montreal, who had the other Boucher brothers Billy and Bob, losing to the Canadiens in a best-of-three series 2–0. A highlight of the second game, a Maroons 2–1 loss, was that  all goals were scored by the Bouchers, two by Billy and one by Frank.
  In 1926, when the western league dissolved, his rights were sold to the Boston Bruins. He never played for the Bruins as Conn Smythe then paid the Bruins $1500 for Boucher, on the advice of Bill Cook, whom he'd played against out west, but would play with during his time with the Rangers. Boucher became a member of the original New York Rangers team.
  Boucher played for the Rangers until he retired in 1937–38. Boucher centered the famous Bread Line with the brothers Bill and Bun Cook, and together they helped the Rangers win the Stanley Cup in 1928 and 1933, also reaching the Finals in 1932.
  Frank was not only a brilliant forward, but was also one of the game's classiest.  Lady Byng, wife of Viscount Byng, the Governor-General of Canada, donated a trophy to be awarded to the NHL's "most gentlemanly player." While playing for the New York Rangers, Boucher won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy seven times in eight years. He was then given the trophy outright, and Lady Byng donated another trophy to the NHL.
  The Rangers hired him to coach the New York Rovers, a minor-league team that also played at Madison Square Garden, as his apprenticeship to coaching the Rangers.  When general manager Lester Patrick made the decision to retire from coaching prior to the 1939–40 season, he hired Boucher, who led his Ranger club to the last Stanley Cup.  The franchise would be in existence for 68 seasons before they won a Cup without Boucher being directly involved.
  After finishing first in the NHL's regular season in 1942, the Rangers lost in the playoffs to the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Soon they became victims of the military draft of World War II and went into a steep decline. In 1943–44 NHL season the New York Rangers were so bad that Boucher came out of retirement for 15 games to play where he recorded 14 points; at age 42, he was the oldest position player ever to play in the NHL, a record he held until surpassed by Doug Harvey in 1968. The Rangers finished the 50 game season with only 6 wins. Between appearances in 1940 and 1972 they reached the Stanley Cup Finals only once.
  Boucher and Ottawa District Hockey Association executive Cecil Duncan collaborated on experiments to change the ice hockey rules.  In January 1937, they tried a single blue-line at centre ice to cut down on the number of offside infractions in a game. During the 1943–44 NHL season, Boucher and Duncan introduced the centre ice red line to the hockey rink, in an effort to open up the game and allow the defending team to pass the puck out of their own zone and counter-attack quicker.
  When Patrick retired, Frank took over as general manager. He got the Rangers into the playoffs in 1947–48 with his trade to get Buddy O'Connor and Frank Eddolls.  He stepped down from coaching to concentrate on his manager's job and hired Lynn Patrick, Lester's son and an ex-teammate,  to coach the Rangers, and Lynn came very close to winning the Stanl
caption: Boucher helped introduce the centre red line to the ice hockey rink during the 1943–44 season.
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