Proposal: Fire DJ Smith

[Alex1234]

Julien is a dinosaur, his time has passed. If we replace DJ I want a fresh face. I think we missed the boat on Touringay and Richardson.

I want someone with a ring
A f…ing winner

 

[swiftwin]

I want someone with a ring
A f…ing winner

Isn't that what we had before DJ?

 

[Sens Vader]

Julien makes sense to me

I think he’s actually living in Ottawa right now

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Julien makes sense to me

I think he’s actually living in Ottawa right now

He can teach team defense and I think he'd hold everyone accountable

 

[Alex1234]

Isn't that what we had before DJ?
View attachment 605681

We were one game away from the SCF
DJ has never even had 1 winning record in 4 seasons
There's light years between the 2

 

[GCK]

I get the blaming DJ for everything but Dorion needed to get a D this summer and struck out. Remember when DJ was asked about the D before the season and he called it “adequate”. I think he knew we were in trouble on the back end.

 

[NorthCoast]

I get the blaming DJ for everything but Dorion needed to get a D this summer and struck out. Remember when DJ was asked about the D before the season and he called it “adequate”. I think he knew we were in trouble on the back end.

Yes/No.

Copied this from my post in the main forum but it relates to this conversation.


Clearly the infusion of offensive talent has paid of. Goal scoring is way up and they can be dominant for stretches because of top 6 talent and overall speed amongst the forward groups.

Goaltending has not stolen any games, but it's been solid enough.


4 Things Come to Mind Re: the Defense

1) Lack of Experience on D and at C

Defense
- Sanderson (Rookie) has been great, but obviously can improve from where he is at 11 games into his career.
- Brannstrom (2nd year) has improved a lot, but also just in his second year.
- JBD (rookie) has just come in and may prove to be a quality NHL d-man but it's very early.

Centres:
- Stutzle (2nd year, only started playing centre mid last season),
- Pinto (Rookie),
- Kastelic (Rookie)
- Kelly (2nd year, only 41 games last year on 4th line)
- Brassard (35 yr old)

The lack of experience playing the defensive side of centre against top competition at the end of the game when the pressure is on is showing through.

2) Lack of Top 4 RD

Hamonic, Zaitsev, Holden are all 3rd pairing guys at this point and most likely 7th D on a contending team if that. Ottawa will need to bring someone in or hope one of the prospects really takes a next step.

3) Injuries

Sure, everyone gets them, but the injuries to Norris (only real centre with NHL experience and a decent 2-way centre) and Zub (best defensive defensman on the roster) has hurt Ottawa's ability to lock down games more than it would other teams because of #1 & #2.

4) Defensive Structure - Coaching

IMO Some of the defensive issues due to lack of accountability from the coaching staff or just bad direction. Continuing to try high skill, turnover prone offensive plays when up a goal in the third. Collapsing too far below the goal without support from forwards in front. Communication breakdowns that result in players missing the easy plays.

This may resolve over time. Sens are not supposed to be a contender this year, so I imagine DJ Smith is still trying to find the balance between driving performance and also keeping the young players positive.



All of the above translate into inconsistent defensive play that is prone to break down late in games when the other team is pressing the most. It's not surprising that the results are what they are. Good news is that most of these issues can be improved over the next 1-2 years with decent coaching and better luck on the injury front. Just too bad for this season as it's going to be tough to climb back up the standings even if some of these issues can be resolved sooner rather than later.


Long-story short....

Yes another RD would have helped, but it may not have been enough to overcome the lack of experience and injuries. Team wasn't supposed to be a contender this year. That means it was going to experience some growing pains that come with so many young players. The injuries have made those growing pains more painful.

That being said, we should see some improvement throughout the year, especially in the centres and overall team D in the 3rd. If there isn't then I would say it's time to consider if DJ is the right coach for the next 2-3 year period.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Maybe Boudreau gets fired this week. Instantly becomes the coach I want.

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

You can’t tell me it’s a roster issue instead of a coaching issue when teams that are constructed to tank have a better record than us.

Dudes defending this coach as if he’s the second coming of Scotty Bowman or something and he just needs 3 more experienced top4 dmen, another top 6 center, a Nick Paul, the 2nd coming of Chris Neil to round out the roster, and then the genius of this coach will finally be on display.

 

[bicboi64]

You can’t tell me it’s a roster issue instead of a coaching issue when teams that are constructed to tank have a better record than us.

As much as players might not like Torts long term, he gets the most out of players that have the right attitude (which we apparently have a lot of). Plus it would be entertaining having someone who can articulate his thoughts clearly. Can't believe he has Philly playing as decent as they have with their god awul roster

 

[swiftwin]

Maybe Boudreau gets fired this week. Instantly becomes the coach I want.

Hahahahahhahahha, you surely can't be serious. You think DJ has bad structure???????

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Hahahahahhahahha, you surely can't be serious. You think DJ has bad structure???????

I’ve seen Bruce Boudreau teams play with structure before and have a winning record. I have not seen that from a DJ Smith team ever. In fact, I’ve never seen a DJ Smith team play meaninful hockey after the month of November.

 

[Tuna99]

The whole "Pierre Dorion is loyal" speech he gave is precisely why he is a bad GM. Marc Methot alluded to this as well - he is incredibly passionate, to a fault. His decisions are rarely logical and a lot of the time seem purely emotionally driven.

His statement prior to the season starting that "he's never felt so calm as a GM" was annoying at the time and hilarious now. He narrowly escaped getting canned but I think it'll happen next year.

he didn’t look calm at the game the other night, looked like Darcy Tucker was in Dorion’s underwear

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

Hahahahahhahahha, you surely can't be serious. You think DJ has bad structure???????

a .633 coaching record over a 1000 NHL games. he knows way more about structure than DJ.

Jacques Martin as an assistant would be cool. He was the one who thought Alfredsson, Chara, Hossa to defend at a HoF level. Wonder what he could do with this next batch of elite Sens.

 

[OD99]

Brannstrom easily #1 for the loss yesterday. Not just the giveaway, but he was also soft in front of the net.

Zaitsev really hasn't been that bad, for a 6-7 defenseman. One thing's for sure is that he wouldn't get bullied off the puck like Brannstrom and Hamonic did yesterday.

When fully healthy, we can go back to Chabot-Zub, Sanderson-Hamonic, and a rotation of Holden-Zaitsev-Brannstrom (Brannstom really needs a game in the press box right now).

Brannstrom had the top Corsi of all D and 2nd best Corsi Rel against the Canucks so hard pressed to follow your evaluation.

He passed the eye test to me as well.

As for the season he is 2nd behind Chabot in Corsi Rel with both Z and Holden near the bottom of the team (Zub is a negative Rel % guy as well though).

 

[boxbox]

DJ is running on 3+ years of bottom 10 finishes. Coaches never last that long with those results in the NHL.

I am not too sure about that. I would agree if this was a contending team in those years but everyone knew from NHL analysts to the hot vendors that the only thing this team was contending for was the lottery.

 

[boxbox]

I get the blaming DJ for everything but Dorion needed to get a D this summer and struck out. Remember when DJ was asked about the D before the season and he called it “adequate”. I think he knew we were in trouble on the back end.

finalllly someone who gets it

 

[boxbox]

Is DJ solely responsible for the defense or is that a job/area one of the assistants covers, similar to like the NFL...

Ottawa is 0.1 off (goals per game) from being top 5 in the league when it comes to scoring. We are in the top 10 for most goals against but could be a middle of the pack team with a couple better results.

We seem to have a very effective offense as we currently are in 20th place in regards to how many shots the team has taken. What is somewhat odd is that we are in the bottom 10 in regards to the amount of shots against (being in the bottom 10 is good as the highest number of shots against is in first)...

So if the team is scoring at a above average pace, and there isn't a lot of shots generated against the team then the only thing left out to look at is our goal-tending. I have not watched many games to have an idea but as of right now our goaltenders have the 26th worst save %,. Are out goalies that bad ?

(I know all of the above are very general stats which don't paint the whole picture given all the advanced stats available these days...but "the numbers dont lie" )

I have not watched enough games to know so maybe some can fill me inn

 

[Tuna99]

“DJ Smith knows how to win”

85-112-24

Where does Pierre Dorion get his quotes from, the Dollarama?

 

[MrGuyPerson]

I haven't posted in some time, but I want to respond to this thread. Overall, I hear the complaints about Zaitzev, i agree with them, but in my opinion the biggest issue I see holding this team back has been the absolute waste of powerplay time. Never should you have 2 D-men on the first powerplay. If it didn't work with brent burns and Karlsson, I'm not sure how a coach can possibly think Chabot and rookie would get better results than 2 offensive norris winners, but I digress. Giroux should be on the 1st pp. Along with Stu, Batherson, Tkachuk, Chabot. Maybe you can put Debrincat on pp 1, but that is semantics, either is fine, either would work. Personally I see the playmaking, shooting, and veteran leadership of Giroux as more valuable so I personally would have him out in that group the next 5 games to see if they get it going before changing it. Play 2 D on the second pp unit, who cares, it will still give development time and opportunity to Sanderson, pinto, and whoever. This team has the talent for a top 10 pp unit on the roster, if the coaching staff was not playing stupid games to win stupid prizes with "2 strong pp units". No top 10 power play has "2 strong units". You load the first and if the other unit gets one in while the first unit catches their breath, hooray. This guy needs to get it together, because I see a team ready to win, I'm not sure I see a coaching staff ready to coach a winning team

 

[boxbox]

“DJ Smith knows how to win”

85-112-24

Where does Pierre Dorion get his quotes from, the Dollarama?

I am by no means like a fan of his or hate him I am just not sure hes the problem. The team was and still is rebuilding and his time behind the bench with the sens is during that time. You expect him to have winning record ?

To "know how to win" and "to win" can be interpreted differently. Dorion didnt say DJ is a winner, he said DJ "knows how to win" and DJ having done so 85 times, technically means hes right....

 

[Big Muddy]

I get the blaming DJ for everything but Dorion needed to get a D this summer and struck out. Remember when DJ was asked about the D before the season and he called it “adequate”. I think he knew we were in trouble on the back end.

You can’t tell me it’s a roster issue instead of a coaching issue when teams that are constructed to tank have a better record than us.

Dudes defending this coach as if he’s the second coming of Scotty Bowman or something and he just needs 3 more experienced top4 dmen, another top 6 center, a Nick Paul, the 2nd coming of Chris Neil to round out the roster, and then the genius of this coach will finally be on display.

We live in a binary world these days where nuance unfortunately has no place. So, in this specific case, everything is reduced to loving or supporting the coach, or hating the coach & wanting him fired.

Like most things in life, things are a little more complicated. So, both getting a new coach and needing another good defender can be both true and needed simultaneously. The new coach will still inherit any weaknesses from a staffing perspective that the team has. That's a truism.

 

[TheNewEra]

I get the blaming DJ for everything but Dorion needed to get a D this summer and struck out. Remember when DJ was asked about the D before the season and he called it “adequate”. I think he knew we were in trouble on the back end.

My problem is that and it has occurred in all DJ smith years is that he keeps playing less talented dmen and he ends up overplaying them as well. Its a double negative which ends up costing the team.

Like if you remove the last game from the equation Zaitsev would be averaging more ice time then Brannstrom and Holden. That is insane even if he is the coaches favorite

Last year we really gave over 150 games to Zaitsev/Brown/Mete/Del Zotto

The year before Zaitsev was somehow #2 in our ice time for dmen and Gudbrannson was playing as much as Zub...

Having a sub talented team is one thing but as a coach you should be able to deploy the team logically at least most of the time

 

[GCK]

Maybe Boudreau gets fired this week. Instantly becomes the coach I want.

Haven’t you been complaining about “lack of structure”

Brannstrom had the top Corsi of all D and 2nd best Corsi Rel against the Canucks so hard pressed to follow your evaluation.

He passed the eye test to me as well.

As for the season he is 2nd behind Chabot in Corsi Rel with both Z and Holden near the bottom of the team (Zub is a negative Rel % guy as well though).

Corsi is maybe the most flawed stat ever.

 

[GCK]

My problem is that and it has occurred in all DJ smith years is that he keeps playing less talented dmen and he ends up overplaying them as well. Its a double negative which ends up costing the team.

Like if you remove the last game from the equation Zaitsev would be averaging more ice time then Brannstrom and Holden. That is insane even if he is the coaches favorite

Last year we really gave over 150 games to Zaitsev/Brown/Mete/Del Zotto

The year before Zaitsev was somehow #2 in our ice time for dmen and Gudbrannson was playing as much as Zub...

Having a sub talented team is one thing but as a coach you should be able to deploy the team logically at least most of the time

The Zaitsev thing is definitely a problem but at least he routinely plays the least even strength minutes. The biggest issue on D is we have our #1 D playing like trash and the other guys would be hard pressed to eat more minutes.