How much rope does DJ Smith have? [UPDATE: None]

[JD1]

Imo one of the big critical success factors for the year is a rebound in attendance

 

[Qward]

If Dorion is still at the helm, DJ will have the whole season, or at least until the trade deadline ish.

If Dorion is gone, I think they give him a short leash.

 

[stempniaksen]

If Dorion is still at the helm, DJ will have the whole season, or at least until the trade deadline ish.

If Dorion is gone, I think they give him a short leash.

Kinda think it's the opposite honestly. If Dorion is at the helm and they have another bad start I could see Dorion firing DJ as a bit of a last gasp in hopes he can ride a new coach bump into playoff contention. If the team starts okay and stays within striking distance of the bubble I think DJ has a bit of a leash.

 

[trentmccleary]

20-25 games
The team blew the first 20 games two years ago, but there were a lot of reasons for it to have happened.
The team blew the first 20 games last year, no reasons for it to have happened.
If it happens again, then it's clear that the coaching staff isn't capable of preparing the team for the start of the season.

 

[Larionov]

My concern about DJ is that he doesn't seem to be able to implement a defensive system, or get the players to commit to it. Look at the change in Calgary once Sutter had a full season to work with them - night and day. My God, Sutter made Gudbranson look like a solid NHL defenceman with the system he had. Everyone in Calgary was buying in, whereas our defensive zone coverage looks like a dumpster fire. I had nice seats down low for the Jersey game right at the end of the year and it was the same old story - lots of speed and offensive creativity on display, but a complete disaster in our own end. This is a nightly issue, and the primary reason why I remain iffy on DJ...

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

My concern about DJ is that he doesn't seem to be able to implement a defensive system, or get the players to commit to it. Look at the change in Calgary once Sutter had a full season to work with them - night and day. My God, Sutter made Gudbranson look like a solid NHL defenceman with the system he had. Everyone in Calgary was buying in, whereas our defensive zone coverage looks like a dumpster fire. I had nice seats down low for the Jersey game right at the end of the year and it was the same old story - lots of speed and offensive creativity on display, but a complete disaster in our own end. This is a nightly issue, and the primary reason why I remain iffy on DJ...

Who's to say how much it really mattered and surely Sutter was a big factor, but there was some PR about Gudbransson last fall about going back to the drawing board and working 1 on 1 most of the summer with trainers on puck handling, skating and puck retrieval specifically. Gud talked about potentially being phased out of the league because of his poor puck handling and limited skating, so he said he knew he had to re-invent himself to survive essentially. Seemed to acknowledge his poor play here iirc. I also thought he looked good in Calgary this year and not the same player we saw here.

 

[jhutter]

Under normal circumstances, he should've been let go already. He hasn't had any tangible results, and there are a number of upgrades available right now. Unless the team is willing to spend on a mid-tier replacement at minimum, it doesn't make a lot of sense to let DJ go only to replace him with another $750k/year first time head coach.

 

[JackieDaytona]

We have a young head coach who was tapped to work with Team Canada.

The players love playing for him, and he takes his time with development of young players, but unlike many old coaches he actually plays the kids more as they gain confidence.

He is the perfect coach for this young team in my opinion, and should have lots of leeway. Last years start, and season in general have less to do with coaching, and more to do with injuries, COVID, and roster availability in general, including goaltending.

I’d prefer to see a nice long coaching stint like with JM where the players finally get a stable system to play in, and everyone has bought in.

Unlike JM, DJ is brining the entire core into the NHL, and is giving players a lot more leeway than JM did. Guys still have to be accountable, but I think the desire to play D and work hard comes from the team chemistry and communication from coaching. The guys are all accountable to a level we haven’t seen in years.

No more changes for the sake of changes. We have one of the very best young coaches, and we have one of the very best young core of players. We really just need to find a way to enjoy the development process and resist the urge to cut corners.

Lots of reasons to like DJ for this team. I agree with most of this for sure. He seems to get so much right 'off the ice' with the players and motivation to play hard / the right way. But I can't help but feel this team doesn't play with enough structure and strategy - on-ice plans - transitions, breakouts, defensive support, etc.

I think back to the Guy Boucher days where that structure overshadowed all other things, to the point where I felt the strategy didn't fit the eventual make up of the team, and there was this dogmatic aspect of following 'the system' that clearly lost the buy-in of the players at some point in Boucher's tenure. So... not that. But there's gotta be a happy medium where a bit more structure is introduced that would be beneficial to the team's play without disrupting all the positives that DJ brings. We should keep DJ and swap/add assistant coach(es) who are really good in that department.

 

[Loach]

My concern about DJ is that he doesn't seem to be able to implement a defensive system, or get the players to commit to it. Look at the change in Calgary once Sutter had a full season to work with them - night and day. My God, Sutter made Gudbranson look like a solid NHL defenceman with the system he had. Everyone in Calgary was buying in, whereas our defensive zone coverage looks like a dumpster fire. I had nice seats down low for the Jersey game right at the end of the year and it was the same old story - lots of speed and offensive creativity on display, but a complete disaster in our own end. This is a nightly issue, and the primary reason why I remain iffy on DJ...

Maybe they change the assistant coaches if this goes sideways at the start of the season again. It would allow the players to keep DJ and have new voices to hear.

Lots of reasons to like DJ for this team. I agree with most of this for sure. He seems to get so much right 'off the ice' with the players and motivation to play hard / the right way. But I can't help but feel this team doesn't play with enough structure and strategy - on-ice plans - transitions, breakouts, defensive support, etc.

I think back to the Guy Boucher days where that structure overshadowed all other things, to the point where I felt the strategy didn't fit the eventual make up of the team, and there was this dogmatic aspect of following 'the system' that clearly lost the buy-in of the players at some point in Boucher's tenure. So... not that. But there's gotta be a happy medium where a bit more structure is introduced that would be beneficial to the team's play without disrupting all the positives that DJ brings. We should keep DJ and swap/add assistant coach(es) who are really good in that department.

I should have read a bit further to read this. I agree.

 

[Sun God Nika]

Should be 20 games and if your not 5 pts within a wild card your out .

He likely gets 82 games tho

 

[Micklebot]

The team blew the first 20 games last year, no reasons for it to have happened.

Murray going 0-5 with a sub .900 SV followed by Covid hitting the team at game 12 and having to play through it sunk the season right off the bat, but DJ didn't do himself any favour with the D he dressed.

 

[Xspyrit]

 

[Larionov]

Imo one of the big critical success factors for the year is a rebound in attendance

Wouldn't that be nice to see. I still think that Ottawa fans are going to be in "show me" mode for a while, and of course the somewhat gloomy economic outlook is going to cast a bit of a shadow over discretionary spending. Still, though, the magic healing potion is always winning. Get off to a strong start and still be in a playoff position by December, and you watch the bandwagon start to fill up...

 

[SpezDispenser]

Should be 20 games and if your not 5 pts within a wild card your out .

He likely gets 82 games tho

Exactly. If even 20 games. This is serious, we've burnt it to the ground, but if Dorion makes a couple of impact moves (lol) and we still comes out of the gate 1-8, I'd fire him in a second.

 

[Cosmix]

Wouldn't that be nice to see. I still think that Ottawa fans are going to be in "show me" mode for a while, and of course the somewhat gloomy economic outlook is going to cast a bit of a shadow over discretionary spending. Still, though, the magic healing potion is always winning. Get off to a strong start and still be in a playoff position by December, and you watch the bandwagon start to fill up...

The team is not being supported as well as in the past because it did a "rebuild" where it traded away its best players for magic beans and iced a roster with low salaried players and retread old vets. The team has to make a commitment of icing a good team that fans want to pay to see. Having a dud as GM did not help. Having a series of inexperienced duds as coach also did not help. There are other reasons too. The Senators are not a competitive playoff team for many reasons.

 

[Cosmix]

Exactly. If even 20 games. This is serious, we've burnt it to the ground, but if Dorion makes a couple of impact moves (lol) and we still comes out of the gate 1-8, I'd fire him in a second.

Fire him now b4 he does further damage.

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

We have a young head coach who was tapped to work with Team Canada.

The players love playing for him, and he takes his time with development of young players, but unlike many old coaches he actually plays the kids more as they gain confidence.

He is the perfect coach for this young team in my opinion, and should have lots of leeway. Last years start, and season in general have less to do with coaching, and more to do with injuries, COVID, and roster availability in general, including goaltending.

I’d prefer to see a nice long coaching stint like with JM where the players finally get a stable system to play in, and everyone has bought in.

Unlike JM, DJ is brining the entire core into the NHL, and is giving players a lot more leeway than JM did. Guys still have to be accountable, but I think the desire to play D and work hard comes from the team chemistry and communication from coaching. The guys are all accountable to a level we haven’t seen in years.

No more changes for the sake of changes. We have one of the very best young coaches, and we have one of the very best young core of players. We really just need to find a way to enjoy the development process and resist the urge to cut corners.

I agree with much of this - yet I'd still say that his leash is dangerously short.

The team cannot afford to trip over its own feet on the way out the gate like we have the last two seasons. For as well-liked as Smith is, and for as good a coach he may actually be, if the team stumbles I believe Dorion will pull the plug. If it comes down to firing Smith or putting his own job at risk, Dorion will absolutely make that move.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I agree with much of this - yet I'd still say that his leash is dangerously short.

The team cannot afford to trip over its own feet on the way out the gate like we have the last two seasons. For as well-liked as Smith is, and for as good a coach he may actually be, if the team stumbles I believe Dorion will pull the plug. If it comes down to firing Smith or putting his own job at risk, Dorion will absolutely make that move.

I agree. It's a cut throat results based business and head(s) will roll if they have another poor start.

 

[The Devilish Buffoon]

Murray going 0-5 with a sub .900 SV followed by Covid hitting the team at game 12 and having to play through it sunk the season right off the bat, but DJ didn't do himself any favour with the D he dressed.

I will add that our forward group suffered two injuries and as a result we couldn’t dress 4 NHL C or 12 NHL F basically from day 1, through no fault of DJs.

 

[Micklebot]

I will add that our forward group suffered two injuries and as a result we couldn’t dress 4 NHL C or 12 NHL F basically from day 1, through no fault of DJs.

The early injuries were what, White, Pinto, Watson, and Murray. Tkachuk missed two games to holding out too if I recall.

 

[The Devilish Buffoon]

The early injuries were what, White, Pinto, Watson, and Murray. Tkachuk missed two games to holding out too if I recall.

Yeah, those injuries should not cripple a teams lineup nearly as much as they did for us, which is not DJs fault. I think things look a lot different even if we just have a few more NHL plugs (a la Gambrell)

 

[Micklebot]

Yeah, those injuries should not cripple a teams lineup nearly as much as they did for us, which is not DJs fault. I think things look a lot different even if we just have a few more NHL plugs (a la Gambrell)

Well, starting goalie (which is what Murray was brought in to be) will hurt any team. White is a third liner, Watson a 4th liner, no big deal, but losing Pinto too meant we were going to our 5th and 6th centers(6th and 7th if you think Bishop would have been the first callup since he was hurt too).

 

[TonySoprano11]

Enough to hang himself with.

 

[Tuna99]

Enough rope to ruin the Sens playoff chances by November 1, Like he does every year

 

[lancepitlick]

Until the ownership gets settled it is hard to imagine DJ getting canned unless Dorion loads the lineup with good veterans and the team still sucks or the team starts 0-20 or something.

If you fire DJ you have to hire another coach and a) what good coach wants to come into an unstable situation in terms of Owner/GM b) would a prospective owner want to to take over and hire a new GM that fires the coach, then hires a new coach, now you are paying the salary of 3 coaches in one season. That would also increase the amount of instability for the players.

Think the team opts for stability/not paying two coaches, barring a catastrophe.