Proposal: Fire DJ Smith

Should the Sens fire DJ Smith?


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Alex1234

Registered User
Oct 14, 2014
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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....
lol
Every coach in NHL history with more then 20 games knows how to win
 

Flamingo

Registered User
Nov 13, 2008
8,012
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Ottawa
This morning at the french radio. The guys said Dorion in constently talk with Julien since two weeks. He said Dorion father and Julien were good friend so that Pierre have trust in Julien

Interesting.

See, you can't just fire DJ. You have to have a new head coach. Our current assistants aren't suitable for that role. And unless they promote Mann from Belleville, Dorion's got to bring in someone with a track record.

edit: just read my post, do I really sound like captain obvious?
 
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maclean

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Jan 4, 2014
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Interesting.

See, you can't just fire DJ. You have to have a new head coach. Our current assistants aren't suitable for that role. And unless they promote Mann from Belleville, Dorion's got to bring in someone with a track record.

edit: just read my post, do I really sound like captain obvious?

No, it's definitely a valid point that a demonstrative firing isn't going to help unless there's someone better lined up to take charge. That's always been my stance. I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough to really judge how good DJ is as I mostly only get to see highlights and don't think my hockey insight is deep enough to make that call. But what I am able to say is: show me a proven better coach and I'll get on board.
 
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Big Muddy

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Dec 15, 2019
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Sometimes it's also just easier to fire the coach than fire the players to shake things up.

It's no different than switching goalies after a loss even when it wasn't really the goalie's fault.
That's kind of the way I see it as well. It's the low hanging fruit so to speak. Hard to make even one or two "in-season" player moves, let alone moving & replacing a good chunk of the team.

The change of coach thing often gives a boost for some time (maybe 1/2 to 3/4's off a season roughly), but that usually wears off as well unless the other underlying issues are addressed.
 

GCK

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Oct 15, 2018
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That's kind of the way I see it as well. It's the low hanging fruit so to speak. Hard to make even one or two "in-season" player moves, let alone moving & replacing a good chunk of the team.

The change of coach thing often gives a boost for some time (maybe 1/2 to 3/4's off a season roughly), but that usually wears off as well unless the other underlying issues are addressed.
We could use that new coach boost to get back within striking difference.

The truly terrifying reality is that Dorion is clearly approaching panic mode. If Dorion is going to make a panic move I’d rather lose DJ than letting Dorion loose on the trade market and I think DJ is a fairly adequate coach.
 
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Big Muddy

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Dec 15, 2019
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1. We could use that new coach boost to get back within striking difference.

2. The truly terrifying reality is that Dorion is clearly approaching panic mode. If Dorion is going to make a panic move I’d rather lose DJ than letting Dorion loose on the trade market and I think DJ is a fairly adequate coach.
1. Yes agreed, I have given that some thought as well.

2. Agreed that a panic trade could be worse for sure.

Overall though, I was just making the point that while a change of coach can have some positive impact, it isn't a panacea for all that ails the organization.
 
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Sens Vader

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Jan 23, 2016
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DJ's likable personality has hypnotized us

no coach in the best league in the world should survive 3-4 seasons in a row having one of the worst records in the league 15 games into a season.
 
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Micklebot

Moderator
Apr 27, 2010
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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.

I don't think that's really true at all.

Sanderson has been excellent, yet is averaging under 20 mins a night. By contrast, some comparable young D like Wierenski, Hughes, McAvoy all averaged over 20 thier rookie years. Imo Sanderson has clearly shown the ability to handle top 4 mins and could easily handle an increase,

Brannstrom averaged over 19 mins just last year but is sitting around 15:40 this year, his lowest since his rookie year. He certainly could playore on the PP than he has which would likely come out of Chabot's share, and I personally think he can handle more 5v5.

I guess you can argue it's their partners that can't handle more time, but that breaks down when you look at Chabot's icetime actually increasing since Zub got hurt, his partner got worse while his icetime increased. This probably has more to do with us needing to push for more offense in losing efforts, Chabot will get used more when we are down than while we protect a lead, at least in theory.
 

Micklebot

Moderator
Apr 27, 2010
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Sometimes it's also just easier to fire the coach than fire the players to shake things up.

It's no different than switching goalies after a loss even when it wasn't really the goalie's fault.
We should pull a iron Mike Kennan, give DJ the pull mid game then throw him back in for the third...
 

GCK

Registered User
Oct 15, 2018
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I'd much rather wait for Boudreau, Berube, or Sullivan than go with Julien...

I'd have AV ahead of him too.
Boudreau should be a new fly zone.

Sullivan would be handed a 5-6M deal by some team the day he got fired, incredible coach.

Berube would be interesting.
 

coladin

Registered User
Sep 18, 2009
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Batherson, DeBrincat and Chabot , and to a lesser extent Stutzle, will get DJ fired. There is a system. There is a structure. But key players are not buying in. And at the end of the day DJ has to get Batherson, Stutzle and Tkachuk to stop puck watching. He can't make DeBrincat score, but DeBrincat is killing them. And he is overusing Chabot and affecting his play.
 

LuckyPierre

Registered User
Jul 1, 2010
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Batherson, DeBrincat and Chabot , and to a lesser extent Stutzle, will get DJ fired. There is a system. There is a structure. But key players are not buying in. And at the end of the day DJ has to get Batherson, Stutzle and Tkachuk to stop puck watching. He can't make DeBrincat score, but DeBrincat is killing them. And he is overusing Chabot and affecting his play.
A goal scorer with bad puck luck won't get DJ fired. But putting your goal scorer on your second powerplay unit and second line might.
 

BonHoonLayneCornell

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Oct 16, 2006
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Batherson, DeBrincat and Chabot , and to a lesser extent Stutzle, will get DJ fired. There is a system. There is a structure. But key players are not buying in. And at the end of the day DJ has to get Batherson, Stutzle and Tkachuk to stop puck watching. He can't make DeBrincat score, but DeBrincat is killing them. And he is overusing Chabot and affecting his play.
Like many other coaches before DJ.
 

GCK

Registered User
Oct 15, 2018
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I don't think that's really true at all.

Sanderson has been excellent, yet is averaging under 20 mins a night. By contrast, some comparable young D like Wierenski, Hughes, McAvoy all averaged over 20 thier rookie years. Imo Sanderson has clearly shown the ability to handle top 4 mins and could easily handle an increase,

Brannstrom averaged over 19 mins just last year but is sitting around 15:40 this year, his lowest since his rookie year. He certainly could playore on the PP than he has which would likely come out of Chabot's share, and I personally think he can handle more 5v5.

I guess you can argue it's their partners that can't handle more time, but that breaks down when you look at Chabot's icetime actually increasing since Zub got hurt, his partner got worse while his icetime increased. This probably has more to do with us needing to push for more offense in losing efforts, Chabot will get used more when we are down than while we protect a lead, at least in theory.
There is a lot of context required. Hughes and Werenski averaged about 1 minute more over the course of the year while McAvoy was almost 3 more minutes. None of the three averaged a minute short handed, Sanderson averages 2:40 short handed which takes its toll
 

GCK

Registered User
Oct 15, 2018
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Not that i disagree with what any of you wrote regarding this topic, but what do you think is particularly flawed about corsi?
I don’t like Corsi because it is deployment biased. If you are a D getting mostly Ozone starts based your Corsi will be elevated. It is also highly dependant on other players. An example would be when Methot played with Karlsson. MM didn’t generate many attempts on his own and was also likely not responsible for many shot attempts against.
 
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Micklebot

Moderator
Apr 27, 2010
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There is a lot of context required. Hughes and Werenski averaged about 1 minute more over the course of the year while McAvoy was almost 3 more minutes. None of the three averaged a minute short handed, Sanderson averages 2:40 short handed which takes its toll

Sanderson is a year older than Werenski was, is used to playing 24-26 mins a night in college with heavy PK min, and there are other examples too, Provorov played 22 mins a night with 2:49 on the PK as a 20 yr old rookie, Heiskanen played 23 mins a night as a 19 yr old with 1:23 on the PK, Seider played 24 mins a night at 20 with 1:53 on the PK, no need to bubble wrap Sanderson.

I think it's reasonable to get him more time at 5v5, I've not yet seen a game where it's looked like he was overwhelmed by the mins he got, it would be different if he was struggling but the kid has arguably been our best defenceman.
 

Micklebot

Moderator
Apr 27, 2010
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I don’t like Corsi because it is deployment biased. If you are a D getting mostly Ozone starts based your Corsi will be elevated. It is also highly dependant on other players. An example would be when Methot played with Karlsson. MM didn’t generate many attempts on his own and was also likely not responsible for many shot attempts against.
Zone starts don't have a huge impact on Corsi, it's been pretty thoroughly demonstrated at this point, more important is your teammates and your QOC.
 

Golden_Jet

Registered User
Sep 21, 2005
26,438
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A goal scorer with bad puck luck won't get DJ fired. But putting your goal scorer on your second powerplay unit and second line might.
That’s a weird comment, since he leads the team in PP TOI.
 
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