Confirmed with Link: DJ Smith fired, Jacques Martin in as interim, Alfie as assistant

[Adele Dazeem]

LMAO

You did have intel! Outted.

 

[bert]

The last strand of poo that needs to be wiped

View attachment 785784

For the love of god please let him go.

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Very Stable Genius]

"Okay guys, which is the best option to the airport? Uber, taxi, or public transit?"

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

Wow

If anyone can turn this team around it's these two

 

[Silky Johnson]

Capuano is really valued by this organization for some reason, considering they have consistently blocked other teams from trying to interview him for HC positions elsewhere.

By organisation do you mean Staios and Andlauer? Because that's all that matters now.

 

[PatrickEaves]

I will say if there's anyone I want as an interim it's Jacques. He will calm things down in general but also get to fixing this mess over the next weeks and months whether he stays or not long term. These players were in desperate need of an authoritative voice in the room with real NHL experience, and they've got it in spades with Martin.

Not expecting any big turnaround in the near future but I'm confident he'll at least get these kids back on track.

Honestly, the 1-1-3 trap we played under the Alfie-Hossa-Havlat days seems perfectly suited for this core of players. Not sure if it'll happen though, considering no one in the NHL runs that system anymore.

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Did they really let him run practice today before this came down?

Is that not unusually cruel?

 

[Sun God Nika]

what a thread title to load up hfboards too.

Also rando twitter insiders strike again

 

[TheNewEra]

Now let's see which forwards know how to backcheck

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

Isn't Martin too old to be doing this shit anymore

He'll still be more effective watching this game on TSN and walkie talkie'ing his instructions to the bench, even with the broadcasting delay.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Let’s go Jacques best of luck DJ, wish Cappy was going with you.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

They clearly were doing it for the players who wanted "stability".

You can make an argument that a coaching change was unlikely to turn things around enough to get playoffs, and there was more value in extending an olive branch to the current group of stars in order to improve or create positive relations between players and a new ownership staff.

We are talking about a core who have mostly sat through a 7 or so year rebuild. If they say we want stability and the team goes against that, it's like poking the bear. Players can ask for trades or not re-sign.

Add in that the Dorion/Dadonov and Pinto situations were a circus that already went against the idea of stability. While the current ownership group did not cause those situations, making them worse with a coaching change that went against the desire of the players could have been see as Andlauer and Staios not having the backs of the players.

At this point, nobody can argue that they did not give DJ a fair shot.

f*** that shit man. We pretty much wasted another season by insisting on giving DJ another 26 games before giving him his walking papers and the players' fee-fees should not have been the reason why. This isn't a therapy group, it's a business. winning is priority numero uno, and it was obvious that was not happening with DJ.

 

[bert]

Yup, all they did with this talk about stability and patience is waste another season when they could have potentially saved it by doing this merely 2/3 weeks ago.

Glad they finally did it but what a dumb move to let things go to hell first.

The time to do it was when they got back from Sweden. They won but they did not play well and hadnt played well for a while. Then they went on a for 5 games where they did unexpectedly played well then we have seen whats happened in the last 4 games. Been a roller coaster. I wonder what posters are going to think when Martin benches Stutzle. Wonder if he gets the Spezza treatment. Not sure if many have been around here since then but he did not play spezza in the playoffs and he had a 55 point season under his belt and was the same age as Stutzle is now.

 

[GCK]

The roster is on notice. I thought this would happen today as last night was unacceptable, not the loss but the way the players were reacting after goals and comments post game. This was not rock bottom but the team was accelerating towards it.

 

[PatrickEaves]

Did they really let him run practice today before this came down?

Is that not unusually cruel?

Yes. "Practice" is a good way to describe what they did today.

 

[bert]

f*** that shit man. We pretty much wasted another season by insisting on giving DJ another 26 games before giving him his walking papers and the players' fee-fees should not have been the reason why. This isn't a therapy group, it's a business. winning is priority numero uno, and it was obvious that was not happening with DJ.

They took the team over in pre season eh.

 

[TheNewEra]

The time to do it was when they got back from Sweden. They won but they did not play well and hadnt played well for a while. Then they went on a for 5 games where they did unexpectedly played well then we have seen whats happened in the last 4 games. Been a roller coaster. I wonder what posters are going to think when Martin benches Stutzle. Wonder if he gets the Spezza treatment. Not sure if many have been around here since then but he did not play spezza in the playoffs and he had a 55 point season under his belt and was the same age as Stutzle is now.

With how the season has gone, he can bench anyone that doesn't play defense

Full power to him

 

[GCK]

It would be so “Sens” to not get a new coach bounce.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Yes. "Practice" is a good way to describe what they did today.

Lol. I saw the tweet about him making it "fun", but nothing else.

Just seems unusual to run a practice and get canned right after.

 

[WORLDSTARHIPHOP]

Honestly, the 1-1-3 trap we played under the Alfie-Hossa-Havlat days seems perfectly suited for this core of players. Not sure if it'll happen though, considering no one in the NHL runs that system anymore.

Games too fast for 1-1-3 to work now, and they call all the penalties that you used to get away with slowing people down.

 

[Very Stable Genius]

If the players don't respond to this then they should be on notice as well.

 

[LatteLarrys]

The Emperor has dissolved the budget management staff permanently. The last remnants of the Melnyk Republic have been swept away.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

The time to do it was when they got back from Sweden. They won but they did not play well and hadnt played well for a while. Then they went on a for 5 games where they did unexpectedly played well then we have seen whats happened in the last 4 games. Been a roller coaster. I wonder what posters are going to think when Martin benches Stutzle. Wonder if he gets the Spezza treatment. Not sure if many have been around here since then but he did not play spezza in the playoffs and he had a 55 point season under his belt and was the same age as Stutzle is now.

Yeah I'll agree that the earlier the better but ten games ago was when it really became clear that there was ZERO chance that this group could ever turn things around playing within DJ's system.