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“Honestly, I’ve lost a little (bit of his) voice, I’ve got more grey hair and I wear glasses now, but it’s great to be hands-on,” Boucher said. “I’ve been hands-on with meetings, hands-on with players individually but to get the group that is legitimately, not the just the vets, but the guys trying to make the team, on the ice, it gives me another look also.

“You see small things. From up top, you see things that you don’t see when you’re on the ice, but when you’re on ice you see things that you don’t see from up top. It has value. At his moment, I feel I’ve had the best mix. Coaching the first (two) games and being on the ice with them feels great.”

Make no mistake, the Senators noticed a difference.

“He’s a demanding guy and a demanding coach and I think he’s always going to be that way,” defenceman Mark Borowiecki said. “Today was very instructional, but not in the sense that we were sitting back doing nothing — instructional but very, very demanding so that you know the details and play by his details.

“It’s been a demanding camp right from Day 1 and that’s what we expected.”

The Senators have enjoyed the pace.

“Our practices are extremely up-tempo. There’s not, if any, sitting or standing around,” Borowiecki said. “When you’re out there, you’re expected to do it at 100%. There’s nobody taking any drills off in practice.”

The other 16 skaters with the ‘B’ group, which is essentially Binghamton, that was on the ice at the same time at the Bell Sensplex. The Senators sent 2016 No. 1 pick Logan Brown back to Windsor (OHL) along with Max Lajoie to Swift Current (WHL) and Filip Chlapik to Charlottetown (QMJHL).