Taking charge ahead of the 2006–07 season, Rychel as GM and Boughner as coach set about remaking the team in something other than their own image. Rychel believed he had a head start on the learning curve from his time scouting for Phoenix. “I was lucky that I had a chance to learn from guys like Cliff Fletcher and Dave Draper, hockey lifers,” he says. “And I learned how to organize things from my father and his accounting work.”

Boughner walked into his role cold. “I was lucky to play for some really good coaches but most of all Ted Nolan [in the Soo in junior and Buffalo in the NHL],” Boughner says. “Ted might not have been the best with Xs and Os, but you wanted to play your best for him. If you lost, you really felt like you had let him down.”



There was surely a temptation to underestimate Rychel. No one gives tough guys credit when it comes to understanding the game — people think the Rychels of hockey must lack a certain self-awareness just to do the ugly job they sign on for. That may be true in some cases, but more often they know the job and the price better than those gifted first-liners. Then, there’s the nickname. Back when Rychel was having a bit of an issue with his beltline in the minors, his coach, Archie Henderson, dubbed him “Bundy,” a reference to wrestling legend King Kong Bundy. It has stuck and will stick until they carve a memorial stone for him. Boughner is referred to by one and all as “Boogie.” Again, it doesn’t matter how expensive your suit is if people still call you Bundy and Boogie. The two could have moved away but they came back to their roots where everyone calls them by their time-tested nicknames and they don’t feel obliged to put on airs.