Proposal: Fire DJ Smith

[Golden_Jet]

Sure but thats a shit depth issue not a mans game lost to injury.

The fact the rest of our top 6 was completely healthy for the year (outside of Stu for 4 games) it really mitigates the loss of Norris to an extent.
Nobody else outside of top 6 and Brass sniffed 10 goals, this is a pro scouting depth guy issue, tons of guys are available for cheap, heck we may have even got better production from Soko or Crookshank but all DJ wants to do is keep plugging Gambrell back in and all PD wants to do is let cost controlled guys like Tolvanen slip by him on waiver wire, not an injury issue, pro scouting, coaching and managing issue.

Who are these tons of guys available for cheap you talk about.

Last years cup champ had 7 - 20 goal scorers. Ottawa has 6, with no Norris. Boston has 4.

You can only have so many guys in a cap world. Brass was a PTO for injuries. Worked out well.

Boston has eleven 10 goal scorers this year, Ottawa has 8, and Watson a goal short.
Colorado cup champs had 10.

 

[dmarc]

Who are these tons of guys available for cheap you talk about.

Last years cup champ had 7 - 20 goal scorers. Ottawa has 6, with no Norris. Boston has 4.

You can only have so many guys in a cap world. Brass was a PTO for injuries. Worked out well.

Boston has eleven 10 goal scorers this year, Ottawa has 8, and Watson a goal short.
Colorado cup champs had 10.

We're not a cap team this season, so not sure how that applies.

We're bottom half for goal scoring so if top6 isnt the issue its clearly the depth or coaching. Our top 6 has been getting it done without Norris, and I love Norris, just bought his jersey. Just think his injury is overstated considering the top 6 made it happen esp on PP, its everyone else outside of them that shit the bed, which is both a coaching issue (we suck at evens) and a pro depth scouting issue.

Guys that have been acquired by teams for low costs that have produced
Sprong, Bjugstad, MoJo, F Gaudreau, Sheary, Rodrigues, Acciari, Nieto, Donato, Milano, Malgin, Vesey, Kostin, Tolvanen, Steel the list goes on but I think its safe to say pretty much all fans would take any of those guys ahead of Gambrell, Kelly, MJ at this current cost, Watson for me.

If you can't pace 20-25pts in this league as a forward you need to bring something quite special to have a regular roster spot and I think the only guy on our team this year outside of Brass who did that in bottom 6 at reasonable cost was Kasty.

 

[Golden_Jet]

We're not a cap team this season, so not sure how that applies.

3 million under the cap, lol.
I’d always prefer to start the year 2 million under. Unless you want to rely LTIR all year if you need to make a move.

We're bottom half for goal scoring so if top6 isnt the issue its clearly the depth or coaching. Our top 6 has been getting it done without Norris, and I love Norris, just bought his jersey. Just think his injury is overstated considering the top 6 made it happen esp on PP, its everyone else outside of them that shit the bed, which is both a coaching issue (we suck at evens) and a pro depth scouting issue.

Guys that have been acquired by teams for low costs that have produced
Sprong, Bjugstad, MoJo, F Gaudreau, Sheary, Rodrigues, Acciari, Nieto, Donato, Milano, Malgin, Vesey, Kostin, Tolvanen, Steel the list goes on but I think its safe to say pretty much all fans would take any of those guys ahead of Gambrell, Kelly, MJ at this current cost, Watson for me.

Acciari and ROR cost 1,2,3 and a fourth a prospect and gaudette. Picked a player from down the road, 3 points in 17 games.
Not interested in giving up much more picks, so either trade or UFA.

If you can't pace 20-25pts in this league as a forward you need to bring something quite special to have a regular roster spot and I think the only guy on our team this year outside of Brass who did that in bottom 6 at reasonable cost was Kasty.

Joseph, Brassard, Motte, Greig, Gauthier all have paced at that, and Formenton will if he’s back.
I would say injuries to goalies, defence and Norris and no Formenton have had a huge effect.

You didn’t comment on the 10 and 20 goal lists.

 

[JD1]

Sure but thats a shit depth issue not a mans game lost to injury.

The fact the rest of our top 6 was completely healthy for the year (outside of Stu for 4 games) it really mitigates the loss of Norris to an extent.
Nobody else outside of top 6 and Brass sniffed 10 goals, this is a pro scouting depth guy issue, tons of guys are available for cheap, heck we may have even got better production from Soko or Crookshank but all DJ wants to do is keep plugging Gambrell back in and all PD wants to do is let cost controlled guys like Tolvanen slip by him on waiver wire, not an injury issue, pro scouting, coaching and managing issue.

Ok then. Run thru the league and show me other teams that have lost 2 of their top 7 for the year.

It's hard to mitigate Norris's loss given how young the centre group is but it's not just Norris. It's the loss of both.

Pinto has 20. He's not supposed to be in the top 6. How many you figure Formenton would have?

Pinto's 20 versus Gambrell's 3. Formenton's 20 versus someone else. Norris with 35 versus Pinto with 20. And again the 4th line contributes fine. It's a 3rd line black hole offence issue caused my missing 2/3rds of the line.

And I really don't buy Sokolov. We sit on the internet and say what about Sokolov? There's been two coaches in Belleville and he's led the team in scoring. I'm pretty inclined to think that both coaches fed up to the big team that he doesn't have the pace for the NHL. What other reason could there be for him not getting a shot?

 

[GCK]

We're not a cap team this season, so not sure how that applies.

We're bottom half for goal scoring so if top6 isnt the issue its clearly the depth or coaching. Our top 6 has been getting it done without Norris, and I love Norris, just bought his jersey. Just think his injury is overstated considering the top 6 made it happen esp on PP, its everyone else outside of them that shit the bed, which is both a coaching issue (we suck at evens) and a pro depth scouting issue.

Guys that have been acquired by teams for low costs that have produced
Sprong, Bjugstad, MoJo, F Gaudreau, Sheary, Rodrigues, Acciari, Nieto, Donato, Milano, Malgin, Vesey, Kostin, Tolvanen, Steel the list goes on but I think its safe to say pretty much all fans would take any of those guys ahead of Gambrell, Kelly, MJ at this current cost, Watson for me.

If you can't pace 20-25pts in this league as a forward you need to bring something quite special to have a regular roster spot and I think the only guy on our team this year outside of Brass who did that in bottom 6 at reasonable cost was Kasty.

The Norris injury is definitely not overstated. Replace Pinto with Norris and Debrincat with Greig and I’m willing to bet we get the same even strength production out of that line with better +/-

A 3rd line of Pinto Joseph Brassard would likely produce more than we got this year.

DJ plays Gambrell because the bottom 6 needs speed and he brings that far more than other options in the AHL, it’s not a love affair with Gambrell.

 

[JD1]

DJ should be fired because of Stuetzle's f*** up in OT on Sunday. I mean clearly that was DJ's fault

 

[Tuna99]

Love how Garrioche throws Talbot under the bus for the loss to CLB - DJ throws his goalie under his saying they need a save - they come out with a horrible effort vs the worst team in the NHL (after getting shut out the night before) and the goalie is to blame.

Okay - DJ has never had his team in a playoff position in his 5 years here and the Ottawasun is pretending the playoff dream is over. Ottawa has never been above a bottom 12 NHL team this year - all Talbots fault

The ship to the NHL playoffs has sailed for the Ottawa Senators

The picture isn’t pretty for the Ottawa Senators.

ottawasun.com

DJ should be fired because of Stuetzle's f*** up in OT on Sunday. I mean clearly that was DJ's fault

They lost 4-3 to CLB and didn’t look good all night - got shut out the night before.

 

[DueDiligence]

Love how Garrioche throws Talbot under the bus for the loss to CLB - DJ throws his goalie under his saying they need a save - they come out with a horrible effort vs the worst team in the NHL (after getting shut out the night before) and the goalie is to blame.

Okay - DJ has never had his team in a playoff position in his 5 years here and the Ottawasun is pretending the playoff dream is over. Ottawa has never been above a bottom 12 NHL team this year - all Talbots fault

The ship to the NHL playoffs has sailed for the Ottawa Senators

The picture isn’t pretty for the Ottawa Senators.

ottawasun.com

They lost 4-3 to CLB and didn’t look good all night - got shut out the night before.

Against the Leafs the Senators were missing 2 of their top 3 defensemen. ( 3 of their top 5) It showed.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Strict defensive systems are unequivocally essential to winning?

Read this. It was written 5 days ago

'No one fears a defensive team': What's driving hockey's offensive boom

'No one fears a defensive team': What's driving hockey's offensive boom

Steve Yzerman, the Hall of Fame center turned mastermind general manager, rarely partakes in media interviews. When he does, the Detroit Red Wings executive tends to play his cards close to his chest.That said, if the topic is right, he may share a pearl of wisdom with the world.Take his...

www.thescore.com

Okay but there’s a difference between what he’s saying and “team has good offense but is an utter disaster defensively” you need to be able to play better defence than what DJ has got us playing.

(Someone is gonna mention our game against the flyers, yes. That game we played quite well)

Love how Garrioche throws Talbot under the bus for the loss to CLB - DJ throws his goalie under his saying they need a save - they come out with a horrible effort vs the worst team in the NHL (after getting shut out the night before) and the goalie is to blame.

Okay - DJ has never had his team in a playoff position in his 5 years here and the Ottawasun is pretending the playoff dream is over. Ottawa has never been above a bottom 12 NHL team this year - all Talbots fault

The ship to the NHL playoffs has sailed for the Ottawa Senators

The picture isn’t pretty for the Ottawa Senators.

ottawasun.com

They lost 4-3 to CLB and didn’t look good all night - got shut out the night before.

We looked completely fine against Columbus. Not great. Fine. Good enough to win. If Talbot is even half ass we would be calling that a strong professional road win.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Love how Garrioche throws Talbot under the bus for the loss to CLB - DJ throws his goalie under his saying they need a save - they come out with a horrible effort vs the worst team in the NHL (after getting shut out the night before) and the goalie is to blame.

Okay - DJ has never had his team in a playoff position in his 5 years here and the Ottawasun is pretending the playoff dream is over. Ottawa has never been above a bottom 12 NHL team this year - all Talbots fault

The ship to the NHL playoffs has sailed for the Ottawa Senators

The picture isn’t pretty for the Ottawa Senators.

ottawasun.com

They lost 4-3 to CLB and didn’t look good all night - got shut out the night before.

DJ is right.
2 goals against on first 2 shots.
Team has given up about 50 shots in last 3 games.

 

[aragorn]

DJ Smith doesn't play in net & you can't let in two goals on two shots to start a game in the NHL. Of course, DJ also didn't lose the puck in overtime in his own zone with nobody back, that was Stutzle, you can't blame the coach for that either. This is the NHL any team on any given night can beat any other team, you never know how an opposing team will play on any given night & who will get the bounces that night & who will not. The Sens out shot them & have outshot numerous teams lately & at times dominated parts of games, they are playing well, but need a goaltender who can make some saves at key times, every team does. Acquring a #1 goalie for next season seems to have become their #1 priority, IMO goaltending injuries & poor play at times is the main reason they are not in the playoffs this yr.

 

[Sens Vader]

DJ Smith needs to be let go

If he stays he would be under such a hot seat in the first 10 games it wouldn’t be healthy

4 years is a long ass time. He developed players and created a fun culture. Change it up! Time to take this to the next level

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

DJ Smith needs to be let go

No real reason to.

Successful year if you exclude injuries and goaltending

 

[Sens Vader]

No real reason to.

Successful year if you exclude injuries and goaltending

The reason would be to improve, simple as that

DJ doesn’t need to be a bad coach to change it up, happens all the the time

 

[aragorn]

The reason would be to improve, simple as that

DJ doesn’t need to be a bad coach to change it up, happens all the the time

They have improved, everyone in the hockey world is talking about their improvement, but the injuries & goaltending is what has kept them out of a playoff spot this yr.

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

Improved from last year, sure. The talent to do well next year, absolutely. But how can anyone co-sign keeping DJ Smith with the complete lack of killer instinct in games that mattered down the stretch?

 

[Sens Vader]

They have improved, everyone in the hockey world is talking about their improvement, but the injuries & goaltending is what has kept them out of a playoff spot this yr.

Going from terrible to mediocre is not the same as going from mediocre to elite.

DJ can't take us to where we need to go. Our roster has significantly improved year over year, that has to be a major part of the improvement

"Get great goaltending" "Fix the defense & bottom 6" "Be Injury Free"

People are asking for a picture-perfect roster in order for DJ to have success, a guy who has not proven a damn thing in this league.

5 more games baby, cut him loose!

 

[Tuna99]

DJ is right.
2 goals against on first 2 shots.
Team has given up about 50 shots in last 3 games.

Just more don’t like the hit piece on Talbot - has he been great NO - but I if we are laying blame DJ should be at the top of the list, Nikita Zaitsev was still a thing 3 weeks ago. His team collapses when they need to show up the most.

I know this sounds far fetched but losing game 1 to Buffalo was a sont of a team without a winning plan. When so many players have looked bad this season (Chabot, Joseph, the goalies, ADB, Batherson) is it all on Talbot or is the man in charge not getting the most out of his group?

 

[aragorn]

Going from terrible to mediocre is not the same as going from mediocre to elite.

DJ can't take us to where we need to go. Our roster has significantly improved year over year, that has to be a major part of the improvement

"Get great goaltending" "Fix the defense & bottom 6" "Be Injury Free"

People are asking for a picture-perfect roster in order for DJ to have success, a guy who has not proven a damn thing in this league.

5 more games baby, cut him loose!

How many NHL teams have gone from terrible to elite in one season? The previous yrs doesn't count because they were rebuilding with a very young roster that clearly needs to go through the maturation process. It's not about making the roster perfect for DJ it's about the players going through the process to become elite. It will be interesting whether the new ownership brings in their own people or whether they stick with these guys. What happened to the summer of Pierre?

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

How many NHL teams have gone from terrible to elite in one season? The previous yrs doesn't count because they were rebuilding with a very young roster that clearly needs to go through the maturation process. It's not about making the roster perfect for DJ it's about the players going through the process to become elite. It will be interesting whether the new ownership brings in their own people or whether they stick with these guys. What happened to the summer of Pierre?

The Devils may qualify for that.

 

[Sens Vader]

How many NHL teams have gone from terrible to elite in one season? The previous yrs doesn't count because they were rebuilding with a very young roster that clearly needs to go through the maturation process. It's not about making the roster perfect for DJ it's about the players going through the process to become elite. It will be interesting whether the new ownership brings in their own people or whether they stick with these guys. What happened to the summer of Pierre?

Depends on how good your GM and coach are, both first-timers in their roles and have made countless mistakes.

I am just saying, IMO, DJ does not have the ability to take us to the next step. I don't believe he can take us to contending status over the next few seasons, I have seen him coach for 4 years here and be a horrible d coach for Toronto before us.

Goodbye DJ! 80% of fans want him gone, and new ownership coming in - the perfect recipe to upgrade the management and coaching staff

No more bargain bin shopping for these positions

The Devils may qualify for that.

The Devils also hired Andrew Brunette in the off-season - Jack Adams finalists groomed under Coach Q

 

[Ice-Tray]

Improved from last year, sure. The talent to do well next year, absolutely. But how can anyone co-sign keeping DJ Smith with the complete lack of killer instinct in games that mattered down the stretch?

Because the coach can’t give you killer instinct, he can only help develop your tools. The players have to develop that drive internally through experience and maturity.

 

[Ice-Tray]

The Devils may qualify for that.

They had terrible goaltending last year…. We may be more similar than we think if we get great goaltending next season.

Imagine getting killer tending in November this year during all of those one goal games? Or in March when we needed some key saves?

Not wanting to take a huge dump on the position, but it’s been a mess this season with injuries and taking the vets taking a while to get going.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Depends on how good your GM and coach are, both first-timers in their roles and have made countless mistakes.

I am just saying, IMO, DJ does not have the ability to take us to the next step. I don't believe he can take us to contending status over the next few seasons, I have seen him coach for 4 years here and be a horrible d coach for Toronto before us.

Goodbye DJ! 80% of fans want him gone, and new ownership coming in - the perfect recipe to upgrade the management and coaching staff

No more bargain bin shopping for these positions


The Devils also hired Andrew Brunette in the off-season - Jack Adams finalists groomed under Coach Q

80% of fans? Come now, that’s just the twitterverse talking to each other. Far more likely that 80% of Sens fans have no shits to give about management and coaching staff.

Change always comes, but I doubt we’ll see much unless we falter early next season, you really should brace yourself. New ownership won’t be in place to make these kinds of changes until Summer at best, and that means that they still won’t have time to properly evaluate personnel. The groups are just trying to win the bid right now.

Both guys are under contract, with DJ going into his last year, and the team has gotten better each year and has a promising future. This is the objective line from everyone outside of the team and it’s online fanbase. Other team’s colour guys, coaches, GM, players, pundits, etc all say the same thing about our team.

Like it or not, no one is on the hot seat right now as it’s been a successful season I terms of development and taking a big step towards being competitive.

Disappointing to not make it when we were so close, but most in here will eventually manage that disappointment and move in to excitement for next season.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Depends on how good your GM and coach are, both first-timers in their roles and have made countless mistakes.

I am just saying, IMO, DJ does not have the ability to take us to the next step. I don't believe he can take us to contending status over the next few seasons, I have seen him coach for 4 years here and be a horrible d coach for Toronto before us.

Goodbye DJ! 80% of fans want him gone, and new ownership coming in - the perfect recipe to upgrade the management and coaching staff

No more bargain bin shopping for these positions


The Devils also hired Andrew Brunette in the off-season - Jack Adams finalists groomed under Coach Q

Pretty tough to fire him considering the end result seems to meet their relatively low goals heading into the season, but you should take comfort out of the fact that we'll likely see a lot more accountability from the franchise with new, competent ownership finally in place. If he stumbles early on like this year with the long losing streak, I'd bet the axe will come down this time.