Proposal: Fire DJ Smith

[Icelevel]

Bring back Jacques or bring in Claude Julien. Claude was rumored to be the favorite to coach the sens before the bruins got wind of it and decided not to fire him in 2016 (they proceeded to fire him at the start of the next season instead)

They’re kinda old no? Idk maybe they still got it.

 

[PlayersLtd]

I think they are trying to protect Mads, They’ve asked a lot of him already. I don’t think they want him starting 6 of 7 games like he did early this month. I would expect him to get 2 of every 3 games. They probably already have the start’s figured out for the rest of the season.

This would be fair if it wasn't a do or die game and if he wasn't coming off a win. But since it was both of those things my impression is that the team favoured the small chance that a loss for Mads would have a measurable impact on his development over our entire season.

We have a history of being conservative with the development of our prospects but I'm having a tough time getting behind that one.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

I don't think that DJ is a bad coach, and he will get another job in the NHL. He has some shortcomings, but I really don't know enough about the intricacies of coaching hockey to really point them out. I don't know if it's his fault that the team seems to struggle in it's own end, but I suspect he plays a part.

He's been the coach for years. It's time for a change. Come into next season with a healthy, loaded roster and a new voice to lead them.

If they don't have a month like they did in November, this team is a playoff team. They could have made it this year despite the injuries. They're close. And they'll get there next season.

 

[Cosmix]

I would rather ditch the GM than the coaching staff at this point. If I had to choose one, Dorion would be gone immediately.

 

[Icelevel]

I would rather ditch the GM than the coaching staff at this point. If I had to choose one, Dorion would be gone immediately.

Yeah I agree. He’s just too clownish and takes too many steps backwards for us to keep moving forward. Curious what the rest of the organization and players in particular think of him. Maybe they love the guy(?).

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

one of the better posts in this entire thread.

agree with pretty much everything

it would be a mistake to fire DJS, after he has met the stated goal the Organization set out for everyone to see, hear and read… meaningful games March.

new ownership would be wise to let things stay on track, as they are, until they, or their POHO gets a real feel for the organization, the team chemistry, for them/him selves.

PD and DJS will have to work themselves out of their respective jobs, to be fired before the next season

there is no logic for an outsider (ownership/POHO) to come into the organization and start swinging the axe before getting a lay of the land for themselves…… this would upset the tiny minority of the fan base that are out for both PD and DJSs blood asap.

You make it seem like prospective owners have no pulse on an organization they are ultimately bidding for.

 

[Loach]

You make it seem like prospective owners have no pulse on an organization they are ultimately bidding for.

No Sir. The new owners have done no homework. They have no idea what Hockey is, what league it's in, who runs the team and the track record of said person. Who is Pierre Dorion? Can't wait to meet him! They have no advisors about anything, from the team to building a new arena. They are just going to plonk down 1B, then take a couple years to figure it all out.

Is this how it's done? Lol

 

[Korpse]

This would be fair if it wasn't a do or die game and if he wasn't coming off a win. But since it was both of those things my impression is that the team favoured the small chance that a loss for Mads would have a measurable impact on his development over our entire season.

We have a history of being conservative with the development of our prospects but I'm having a tough time getting behind that one.

I like Sogaard but I don’t think he is at a level where you can absolutely say he would have given the team a better chance. He has been a mixed bag in terms of performances, the consistency hasn’t been there. I think not overplaying him is a good way to improve consistency.

 

[Norris4Norris]

Why fire a coach who has only ever had success over his NHL career?

What is it 4 years he has been head coach? They won the cup the first year didn't they? No I was thinking of Craig Berube.

Oh no, didn't they win the first two years DJ was a head coach? No that was Mike Sullivan and the penguins.

But at least they made the playoffs all four years, right? No that was the toronto maple leafs and bloody Sheldon Keefe.

But at least they are playing meaningful games this year in March right? Well statistically they are pretty much out of it and not playing well, so I must have been thinking about 20 other teams.

Shoot I guess all DJ Smith did was lose for the first 4 years of his coaching career. Here's to another losing year next year!

 

[Tuna99]

one of the better posts in this entire thread.

agree with pretty much everything

it would be a mistake to fire DJS, after he has met the stated goal the Organization set out for everyone to see, hear and read… meaningful games March.

new ownership would be wise to let things stay on track, as they are, until they, or their POHO gets a real feel for the organization, the team chemistry, for them/him selves.

PD and DJS will have to work themselves out of their respective jobs, to be fired before the next season

there is no logic for an outsider (ownership/POHO) to come into the organization and start swinging the axe before getting a lay of the land for themselves…… this would upset the tiny minority of the fan base that are out for both PD and DJSs blood asap.

Actually the goal was just meaningful games - you moved the goals post to “Meaningful games in March”

Why not meaningful games in April when they should be in the playoff hunt? Still have 7 games in April?

Was the plan to be out of it by March so the games in April were meaningless? Only wanting meaningful games in March seems like a stupid goal.

 

[Norris4Norris]

Bring back Jacques or bring in Claude Julien. Claude was rumored to be the favorite to coach the sens before the bruins got wind of it and decided not to fire him in 2016 (they proceeded to fire him at the start of the next season instead)

Jacques Martin!!!!!

Then maybe we would know how to play defense! Something DJ Smith seems to have forgotten is a part of the game.

 

[Norris4Norris]

too risky with not owning our own picks. Finish as close to the playoffs as possible. Dont give Zona a top 10 pick.

You could give Arizona Connor Bedard and they would still find a way to lose.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Why fire a coach who has only ever had success over his NHL career?

What is it 4 years he has been head coach? They won the cup the first year didn't they? No I was thinking of Craig Berube.

Oh no, didn't they win the first two years DJ was a head coach? No that was Mike Sullivan and the penguins.

But at least they made the playoffs all four years, right? No that was the toronto maple leafs and bloody Sheldon Keefe.

But at least they are playing meaningful games this year in March right? Well statistically they are pretty much out of it and not playing well, so I must have been thinking about 20 other teams.

Shoot I guess all DJ Smith did was lose for the first 4 years of his coaching career. Here's to another losing year next year!

Strange lol.

 

[Bileur]

Here we are playing meaningful games still in late March. Without Norris all year or any stability in the net. And yet people can still only see the bad, and expectations are still wildly out of line with the reality of this team.

If there wasn't an ownership change coming I would be positive that DJ is back next season based on what he did this year, and would be totally okay with giving him one more year to get the job done. But I think the whiners will inevitably get their way, because the loudest people with those thick heads of theirs usually get their own way when there's enough of them squawking together, and they have someone naive and eager please listening to them...

Painting the discontent with DJ with the “expectations wildly out of line” brush dismisses a lot of legitimate complaints about mistakes DJ has made as coach.

Deployment, accountability and lack of improvement defensively are legitimate issues which should have been addressed by the end of year 4.

There’s a reason very few coaches get to keep their jobs after 4 consecutive years of missing playoffs, sometimes teams need a new voice to take the next step.

The good far outweighs the bad though imo. Never in a million years would I have traded a getting a wildcard spot the last two seasons with a Tortorella or Sutter or Boucher type coach at the helm in exchange for potentially stunting the development of any member of our core. Or messing with the new culture and identity they have in the dressing room.

I wouldn’t want a Tortorella, Sutter or Boucher either. There are many other options. There can be a time and place for that kind of “win now” short shelf life coach but what the Sens need now IMO is a teacher who knows Xs and Os and how to teach them to a tee.

DJ seems to have done a good job with the room, sheltering them from the negativity and contributing to a tight room. Now there are other things the players could stand to learn.

It’s like a kindergarten teacher, their goal is not so much academics but to show kids how to behave in school and work together. They’ve got that down. Now it’s time to drill down on academics. That’s not a slight it’s a key part of development.

What if that hard ass coach made our players instead start to question if they really want to be in Ottawa. Imagine benching Brady or Stutzle for an entire 3rd period while they were still on their ELCs during and important game, and how that would have affected them in negotiations.

Thankfully our core is now mostly locked in and we don’t have to worry about that.

Ultimately I’d be very concerned about the character of a player who can’t be held to account for their mistakes. I don’t believe Tkachuk and Stutzle are those types. Their competitive drives to win are too strong.

. What if they knew they were sacrificing 10-20pts a year just because of how that coach wants them to play, and the Tom Pyatts of the world were consistently playing 17mins a night?

I could definitely entertain an argument that the sens did just that with the D. Playing guys like Josh Brown and Zaitsev to the detriment of Brannstrom and JBD.

DJ is a modern day coach who understands and can communicate with this new generation of players. He built a culture of hard work and developed this young core into a formidable group of NHL stars that are all proud to be an Ottawa Senator (and love and respect him dearly as a coach). You don't take a chance on messing that up.

Do you really perceive this team as having a culture of hard work? They definitely have some hard working players but the effort has been very inconsistent. It is one of the central problems with the team this season. With Batherson and Chabot in particular, two core members, you never know which version will show up and both have arguably regressed this season.

We’re getting into dear leader territory with the “love and respect dearly” comment. I have no doubt they like DJ but everyone understands this is a business and I’m not convinced they’d rather keep DJ than add someone with a ring like Q or Julien.

You don’t need to love your coach, you need to respect him and see results. Players weren’t huge fans of Jacques Martin, but they understood he was a good coach.

Guys like Barzal on NYI, a team that has some success and is consistently sneaking into the playoffs - he's still borderline unhappy playing a strict defensive brand of hockey there. He's a guy that's biting the bullet heavily because he knows that technically they can win that way (while having a lack of raw talent in the lineup). It's a way to win, but it's not the only way....

Point being its not fun for the players or the fans alike. And hiring an old school strict defensive-minded coach is just not the clear and obvious answer that so many seem to believe it is.....Be careful what you wish for is what I'm saying.

Strict defensive systems aren’t the only way to win, granted, but a significantly greater commitment to defense is unequivocally essential to winning.

This team will never become a contender unless there is significant improvement defensively, particularly on the part of the forwards. It doesn’t make sense for Tkachuk and Batherson to still be as weak as they are defending.

The Leafs forwards show that it’s possible to be committed to team D while still being very productive.

 

[SensHulk]

Keep in mind, the Mission Statement for the Senators for the 22/23 season was to “play meaningful games in March”, and by most measures they have achieved that (low bar) objective…. Is that enough for PD to fire DJS at the end of the season?
I don’t think so, keeping in mind that he also wants to keep the “fire the coach” card in his back pocket for anytime he can play it strategically, either to grab a better coach that comes available between the end of the season and the beginning of the next, or at anytime during next season if he’s looking over his shoulder at the new ownership/POHO and feels his job is on the line….. and can buy himself some more time by throwing DJS under the bus.

Well it’s another lame duck year coming up for DJ (yes there is an option but there’s going to be questions early on if he doesn’t get off to a good start)

He is playing meaningful games but in the end the inability to get the team off to good start is again going to hold the team back. Any one that wants to objectively look at the job done and how the playoff spot was theirs to be had and what consistently ails this team will easily see the team lacks structure and fails to get up or be ready for games they absolutely need. It’s not a good recipe for playoffs, Goal isn’t to just participate for 4 games, it’s to be competitive and win multiple rounds

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

DJ would make Chris Pronger look bad in his own zone.

Minnesota coach took over from Boudreau with an over the hill, .500 team, and has taken them to a record of 130-60-21, and they're not even at the cap because of 12 mil in dead space. Would be nice to have a good coach to implement some structure.

 

[R We A Team]

Do any of you read other teams boards? If you have there is probably a couple things you have noticed.

One, in most game threads as well as the local broadcasts, all the fans and media of the other teams mention how hard the Sens play, how good our young players are, how deadly our special teams are. As well they say our GM has done a fantastic job of drafting and developing our talent.

Point is if other fan bases and media see our team as improving to the point where they anticipate us to be in the mix next year chances are it will be Dorion and DJSmith leading the way.
Secondly, you will have noticed that almost every team has a fire the coach thread.... Toronto wants Keefe gone, Tampa wants Cooper gone, and the list goes on. If most teams fans want their coaches fired how many will be?

 

[guyzeur]

Do any of you read other teams boards? If you have there is probably a couple things you have noticed.

One, in most game threads as well as the local broadcasts, all the fans and media of the other teams mention how hard the Sens play, how good our young players are, how deadly our special teams are. As well they say our GM has done a fantastic job of drafting and developing our talent.

Point is if other fan bases and media see our team as improving to the point where they anticipate us to be in the mix next year chances are it will be Dorion and DJSmith leading the way.
Secondly, you will have noticed that almost every team has a fire the coach thread.... Toronto wants Keefe gone, Tampa wants Cooper gone, and the list goes on. If most teams fans want their coaches fired how many will be?

There should be a "trade your coach" thread, that would be funny... But this guy is a winner, a motivator; then advanced metrics to prove their points or lack of.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

You make it seem like prospective owners have no pulse on an organization they are ultimately bidding for.

there is no way they can possibly know the inner workings, the relationships between the players and the coaching staff, until they become the owners. To assume they know the management , the players and the coaching staff as well as the current ownership is delusional.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

Actually the goal was just meaningful games - you moved the goals post to “Meaningful games in March”

Why not meaningful games in April when they should be in the playoff hunt? Still have 7 games in April?

Was the plan to be out of it by March so the games in April were meaningless? Only wanting meaningful games in March seems like a stupid goal.

those are not my words, they are the words repeated by the local press.

• Ottawa Citizen
• 16 Feb 2023
• BRUCE GARRIOCH [email protected] Twitter: @Sungarrioch

The Ottawa Senators woke up Wednesday morning a little closer to the final wild card spot in the East than they were 72 hours ago.
The picture looked pretty bleak before the Senators started their back-to-back series with a 4-3 overtime win against the Calgary Flames on Monday at the Canadian Tire Centre and then wrapped it up Tuesday night with a 3-2 shootout win over the New York Islanders at UBS Arena.
Yes, the Senators remain seven points back of the Washington Capitals for the final wild-card spot in the East with 29 games left in the schedule and making the playoffs is still improbable, but Ottawa isn't ready to throw in the towel on trying to play meaningful games in March

 

[Golden_Jet]

those are not my words, they are the words repeated by the local press.

• Ottawa Citizen
• 16 Feb 2023
• BRUCE GARRIOCH [email protected] Twitter: @Sungarrioch

The Ottawa Senators woke up Wednesday morning a little closer to the final wild card spot in the East than they were 72 hours ago.
The picture looked pretty bleak before the Senators started their back-to-back series with a 4-3 overtime win against the Calgary Flames on Monday at the Canadian Tire Centre and then wrapped it up Tuesday night with a 3-2 shootout win over the New York Islanders at UBS Arena.
Yes, the Senators remain seven points back of the Washington Capitals for the final wild-card spot in the East with 29 games left in the schedule and making the playoffs is still improbable, but Ottawa isn't ready to throw in the towel on trying to play meaningful games in March

Yep agree with you on this.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Do any of you read other teams boards? If you have there is probably a couple things you have noticed.

One, in most game threads as well as the local broadcasts, all the fans and media of the other teams mention how hard the Sens play, how good our young players are, how deadly our special teams are. As well they say our GM has done a fantastic job of drafting and developing our talent.

Point is if other fan bases and media see our team as improving to the point where they anticipate us to be in the mix next year chances are it will be Dorion and DJSmith leading the way.
Secondly, you will have noticed that almost every team has a fire the coach thread.... Toronto wants Keefe gone, Tampa wants Cooper gone, and the list goes on. If most teams fans want their coaches fired how many will be?

Another thing you didn’t notice tho. They also rip their own teams when they lose. And we look at other teams and realize how well they’re doing when we lose lol.

Here’s the thing about fandoms… especially sports ones… they’re all the same.

 

[slamigo]

I'm coming around to the idea of bringing in a mentor style coach to work on DJ's team and help shore up the weaknesses. Someone like a Jacques Martin who has so much to offer but cannot take on full time head coaching anymore. If the Sens could get an addition like that, I think DJ should be given another year to see what he can do. The players love him and I guess that counts for something.

 

[Tuna99]

those are not my words, they are the words repeated by the local press.

• Ottawa Citizen
• 16 Feb 2023
• BRUCE GARRIOCH [email protected] Twitter: @Sungarrioch

The Ottawa Senators woke up Wednesday morning a little closer to the final wild card spot in the East than they were 72 hours ago.
The picture looked pretty bleak before the Senators started their back-to-back series with a 4-3 overtime win against the Calgary Flames on Monday at the Canadian Tire Centre and then wrapped it up Tuesday night with a 3-2 shootout win over the New York Islanders at UBS Arena.
Yes, the Senators remain seven points back of the Washington Capitals for the final wild-card spot in the East with 29 games left in the schedule and making the playoffs is still improbable, but Ottawa isn't ready to throw in the towel on trying to play meaningful games in March

Pierre Dorion end of season interview in 2022.

“We need to play meanginful games until the end”

Garrioch and you can try and move the goalposts but GM Dorion set the goals himself… Until the end

 

[Micklebot]

I'm coming around to the idea of bringing in a mentor style coach to work on DJ's team and help shore up the weaknesses. Someone like a Jacques Martin who has so much to offer but cannot take on full time head coaching anymore. If the Sens could get an addition like that, I think DJ should be given another year to see what he can do. The players love him and I guess that counts for something.

I'm of two minds on that,

On the one hand, that's something that should have been done from the very beginning, and arguably we very well may have felt that's why Capuano is there

On the other hand, it's my opinion that coaches should be bringing in their own assistants, idk that it's fair to DJ to have someone potentially second guessing him in the guise of being a mentor. I'd rather a coach being in the guys they trust, and ideally who fills the gaps in their skillset. That last but requires the coach to be self aware to know his own weaknesses, and humble enough to bring in people to help.