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

[Xspyrit]

We let in a tying goal with 8 minutes left in the game. Better, but not anything to write home about

Kubalik messed up twice on that play. He was brought in by super Dorion, never liked the acquisition, been very vocal about it. Staios has an opportunity to fix Dorion mess too

We also played a D down the vast majority of the game. It was a pretty solid effort start to finish all things considered.

Not just a D down, literally our best player.

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

As the last 4 seasons, we were out of of the playoff race in November. The turnaround is pretty recent and has started on January 11th

It's easy to see that this team is playing much better NHL hockey since January. Of course, nobody should have expected a quicker turnaround since the coaching change happened on December 18th. Its actually going much faster than I expected.

You're conversing with someone who
- gives credit to DJ for wins in February after he's the reason we're out of the playoff picture but not a new coach for January wins
- excuses DJ for not having enough practice time with a team after 4 years because of injuries, but doesn't give a new coach a month, despite taking over mid-season during a jam packed part of the schedule where he's relying on video and not on-ice practice
- believes DJ should already have an NHL job in place.

Don't waste your time

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

We let in a tying goal with 8 minutes left in the game. Better, but not anything to write home about

Then the Sens came back and pretty much controlled the 3rd and owned OT.

 

[Xspyrit]

You're conversing with someone who
- gives credit to DJ for wins in February after he's the reason we're out of the playoff picture but not a new coach for January wins
- excuses DJ for not having enough practice time with a team after 4 years because of injuries, but doesn't give a new coach a month, despite taking over mid-season during a jam packed part of the schedule where he's relying on video and not on-ice practice
- believes DJ should already have an NHL job in place.

Don't waste your time

I mean, DJ seemed like a great guy and obviously players loved him but the NHL is a tough league where you can't just coast with talent, at some point you need to be able to play a tight structured game. From a post I made recently :


From my notes in a college psychology class :

RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED LEADER
Leader with good motivator and communicator qualities, capable of building warm relationships with group members.

TASK-ORIENTED LEADER
Leader capable of detaching himself from emotions related to interpersonal relationships to focus primarily on the success of the group.


It seemed that DJ was a pure relationship-oriented leader, which is not enough to lead a NHL team to success. DJ would have been great as an assistant coach (but not in charge of team defense lol)

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

I mean, DJ seemed like a great guy and obviously players loved him but the NHL is a tough league where you can't just coast with talent, at some point you need to be able to play a tight structured game. From a post I made recently :


From my notes in a college psychology class :

RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED LEADER
Leader with good motivator and communicator qualities, capable of building warm relationships with group members.

TASK-ORIENTED LEADER
Leader capable of detaching himself from emotions related to interpersonal relationships to focus primarily on the success of the group.


It seemed that DJ was a pure relationship-oriented leader, which is not enough to lead a NHL team to success. DJ would have been great as an assistant coach (but not in charge of team defense lol)

Sounds like someone you'd want in a rec league or playing Gordon Bombay in a movie, not as the HC of a professional hockey team.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Another encouraging game and result. OT win after blowing the lead is fine by me with everything we've seen here. Still looking much more organized imo and these loser points and OT wins are like example A of JM hockey.

Beyond the assessment of poor performances from coaching and management, the budget bush league bs, and JM/Alfie being bosses, it's just the natural progression of things that should have always been expected. It should have been done this summer (or even earlier imo). Even if you believed in them, PD and DJ were long tenured compared to their peers, and had gotten middling results, at best. It's a results oriented league. Results weren't there. Move on. They didn't exactly grab the bull by the horns. And really, if we're blaming goaltending as a whole, who signed/acquired, managed, and coached them?

From the day he was hired, I always assumed DJ was basically an interim through the ugly rebuilding years guy. I never really even considered the idea he could still be with the team when they were looking to turn the corner.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

DJ's team would have folded after that.

Sure

 

[JD1]

Man the bitterness is strong in some

The goaltending this team has received in the past couple of years has been terrible. I've watched hockey for over 50 years and I've never seen such sustained poor goaltending. The ill timed weak goals against have been awful. Even last night's first Detroit goal was a stoppable puck.

Dorion acquired all those goalies so he certainly deserves some blame

Coaching wise, we weren't going to win with that level of goaltending.

There's a whole lot of chicken and egg debate that can go on here, but if you can't see that our situation in net wasn't good enough for us to consistently do anything, then there's not much to debate.

 

[Bileur]

Man the bitterness is strong in some

The goaltending this team has received in the past couple of years has been terrible. I've watched hockey for over 50 years and I've never seen such sustained poor goaltending. The ill timed weak goals against have been awful. Even last night's first Detroit goal was a stoppable puck.

Dorion acquired all those goalies so he certainly deserves some blame

Coaching wise, we weren't going to win with that level of goaltending.

There's a whole lot of chicken and egg debate that can go on here, but if you can't see that our situation in net wasn't good enough for us to consistently do anything, then there's not much to debate.

I think it’s pretty clearly not a « chicken or the egg » debate but rather a « chicken and the egg » debate. We’re not getting anywhere placing all the blame on one part but we’re also not getting anywhere if we absolve one part because other parts also sucked.

I’m glad we’ve thrown them both out and started over with a superior protein.

 

[umma gumma]

I think it’s pretty clearly not a « chicken or the egg » debate but rather a « chicken and the egg » debate. We’re not getting anywhere placing all the blame on one part but we’re also not getting anywhere if we absolve one part because other parts also sucked.

I’m glad we’ve thrown them both out and started over with a superior protein.

f*** ya.

 

[Bileur]

DJ's team would have folded after that.

Gord- Safe to say it’s hard to win when you lose your best defenseman to injury?

DJ - Well that’s just it Gord, this is a tough league and it’s hard to win when you don’t have your best players like we’ve had for five years. I still think we played well enough to win, the effort was there, if we get another bounce or two the result might be different.

 

[Knave]

We were getting outshot and outchanced badly most nights under DJ. This was not a purely goaltending issue.

Now that Jacques Martin has had some time we're the ones getting more shots and more chances on most nights.

DJ did one important thing for this team. He did not destroy our young players and their development which while it sounds like a low bar.... tons of coaches in all different types of sports routinely harm the development of young players. I don't hate the guy. I don't think he should never get another head coaching job. But we have to be realistic here. It's not just goaltending, it's his systems where one night we give up almost 40 shots, the next night we give up 25. We were all over the place. And even on those nights we gave up less shots we were still usually the ones getting outshot.

 

[BankStreetParade]

Man the bitterness is strong in some

The goaltending this team has received in the past couple of years has been terrible. I've watched hockey for over 50 years and I've never seen such sustained poor goaltending. The ill timed weak goals against have been awful. Even last night's first Detroit goal was a stoppable puck.

Dorion acquired all those goalies so he certainly deserves some blame

Coaching wise, we weren't going to win with that level of goaltending.

There's a whole lot of chicken and egg debate that can go on here, but if you can't see that our situation in net wasn't good enough for us to consistently do anything, then there's not much to debate.

Objectively, the worst run of goaltending I've ever seen as a fan of this team. Forget the high-danger scoring chances for a minute...what about the low-danger floaters that go in? What about the bizarre miscues by the goalie that end up in the net? What about some of the worst sv% we've ever seen in Ottawa? What about the volume of relatively easy to save long-range shots that go in?

I talked about this at the beginning of the season, regarding the mentality of the group and the way that the poor goaltending has eviscerated their confidence. The other day I'm listening to Bobby Ryan and Jason York talking about how that kind of goaltending destroys teams. It was almost verbatim to what I wrote about mindset, confidence, being afraid of making mistakes, etc.

I don't know how the goaltending problem snow-balled to such an extraordinary extent but there's just no team in the league that can overcome that kind of performance. It can be done for a small amount of time but it's impossible to overcome for an entire season.

Anyway, the season is a wash so none of this matters too much at this point. Hopefully a fresh start next year (where have we heard that before?) gets things back on track.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

In 2006, data gathered by Nasa's Wilkinson satellite suggested that the Universe itself may be an ellipsoid - an oval. Egg shaped.

We have now learned that the egg shaped universe is actually inside another universe shaped like a chicken.

DJ and Dorion both were both trying to punch above their weight class. Also worth repeating ; What Jacques is trying to instill would be very similar to any available NHL coach that would have come in to replace Smith e.g. Roy, Julien, Evason. If you can't defend in this league you can't win. Sens still make mistakes in their end but their play has improved but a few players are finding the adjustment harder than they should. Their play in the neutral zone and counter play off it has improved. The coach the Sens management are waiting on or taking their time on will resume stressing the same fundamentals Jacques is. People did not start pointing out lack of fundamentals when JM came on board. They have been glaringly obvious, particularly for the past 2 years when this team tried to get past the toddler stage. The coaching change was long over due. The management change was way past due.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

We let in a tying goal with 8 minutes left in the game. Better, but not anything to write home about

It’s hockey. Sometimes teams score to tie the game. Kind of a hazard of playing the game

Martin has improved the team but it also coincides with korpisalo not being the worst goalie in the league in those games. The greatest defensive coach ever can’t cover for a goalie who’s gonna let in everything

 

[Relapsing]

We were getting outshot and outchanced badly most nights under DJ. This was not a purely goaltending issue.

This. There's been some wild revisionist history, or looking back with rose tinted glasses, from some people round these parts. We were outshot and outchanced regularly. Everyone knew our defensive structure sucked absolute ass. How can you look fondly back on that?

 

[Burrowsaurus]

This. There's been some wild revisionist history, or looking back with rose tinted glasses, from some people round these parts. We were outshot and outchanced regularly. Everyone knew our defensive structure sucked absolute ass. How can you look fondly back on that?

Remember that coach was interviewed on the bench and he was like “yeah they don’t really play with any structure” (paraphrasing

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Any chance Chris Kelly as head coach might be considered or too soon?

 

[Xspyrit]

Man the bitterness is strong in some

The goaltending this team has received in the past couple of years has been terrible. I've watched hockey for over 50 years and I've never seen such sustained poor goaltending. The ill timed weak goals against have been awful. Even last night's first Detroit goal was a stoppable puck.

Dorion acquired all those goalies so he certainly deserves some blame

Coaching wise, we weren't going to win with that level of goaltending.

There's a whole lot of chicken and egg debate that can go on here, but if you can't see that our situation in net wasn't good enough for us to consistently do anything, then there's not much to debate.

And you don't see a VAST difference in the way they play?

Before January 11th : 3.13 xGA/60 (19th best in the league)

Since January 11th : 2.38 xGA/60 (2nd best in the league)

We are giving a much better chance to the goalies to do the work... and it would have been better if Forsberg was not injured because I think he'd thrive in the new reinvented "team defense"

We have cut back the "goals on a silver platter" significantly

 

[HSF]

I hope so…

But still too late, and these kids need to learn from a new coach next season, so all the interim JM hoopla is not too interesting to me.

What they are learning now will be crucial for the next coach as he builds on their play.

These guys are learning fundamentals of playing a two way game which DJ could not do

What a waste it was keeping DJ for this long

 

[UglyPuckling]

And you don't see a VAST difference in the way they play?

Before January 11th : 3.13 xGA/60 (19th best in the league)

Since January 11th : 2.38 xGA/60 (2nd best in the league)

We are giving a much better chance to the goalies to do the work... and it would have been better if Forsberg was not injured because I think he'd thrive in the new reinvented "team defense"

We have cut back the "goals on a silver platter" significantly

It could be just a coincidence that our goaltending is improving at the same time team D is improving. If so, we're just lucky. And, coincidentally, we are also winning more, so we are doubly lucky.

If we want to get rid of Korpisalo, it should be a little easier if his stats are improved as well.

It's nice to be lucky.

 

[thinkwild]

In 2006, data gathered by Nasa's Wilkinson satellite suggested that the Universe itself may be an ellipsoid - an oval. Egg shaped.

We have now learned that the egg shaped universe is actually inside another universe shaped like a chicken.

Ahh that must explain why so many things taste like chicken

 

[Tuna99]

Any chance Chris Kelly as head coach might be considered or too soon?

how can you not cheer for Chris Kelly. I’d love it, he seems to be a super nice guy but so does Jacques Martin so it could work personality wise and hockey and work ethic wise Kelly is a genius - would be a popular choice in the city.

only , played 4 games for Jacques Martin in Ottawa

 

[PlayersLtd]

This. There's been some wild revisionist history, or looking back with rose tinted glasses, from some people round these parts. We were outshot and outchanced regularly. Everyone knew our defensive structure sucked absolute ass. How can you look fondly back on that?

We were not outshot the last two seasons under DJ. +2.0 positive shot differential last year, neutral the year before, only slightly below league average the year before that.

Not defending DJ but be careful about calling others revisionists when in fact DJ eventually produced decent numbers in that regard.

 

[Relapsing]

We were not outshot the last two seasons under DJ. +2.0 positive shot differential last year, neutral the year before, only slightly below league average the year before that.

Not defending DJ but be careful about calling others revisionists when in fact DJ eventually produced decent numbers in that regard.

They had 1 full season of DJ with a positive shot per game differential, last season:

You could also look at the Corsi stats per game by year. Here's last year:

Compared to this year (I don't like comparing two graphs that aren't scaled together but it's late and I have to work tomorrow):

Don't sleep on that 11 game stretch to finish out before the ASG!

Their Fenwick stats have been good over the same period this year too. Eye test is showing it with how they're dominating long stretches of play.

Who knows though - Vegas won the cup last year and their Corsi chart looked like a dogs breakfast. So I suppose it's not necessarily indicative of eventual success. OK. Bedtime.