News Article: Sens hire DJ Smith as head coach

[Nordiques1979]

- Memorial Cup champion
- OHL champion
- OHL coach of the year

Maybe a good sign for the kids.

 

[BigRig4]

AHL-level defenceman who was a lefty fighter.... did we just hire Boro? It all makes sense now!!

 

[albator71]

The Sens always hires the man that cost the less, not the better man, but the cheapest. f*** you Melnyk. As long as he is the owner the Sens are going to be a laughing stock.

 

[Adrianopolous]

Absolutely the cheapest option

 

[Do Make Say Think]

The one guy I did not want... f*** me

This guy has never had to motivate adults... What a garbage hire.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

Half?

It's half empty in my absolutely best "proudest day as an NHL GM" times.

All the other times it's 99 percent empty.

 

[DueDiligence]

Leafs fans are happy about this.

Must have been the lowest bidder.

Well they can't blame Babcock for all their problems. Got to be the assistant coach's fault.

 

[Cheapseats]

Its the safe economical choice. I didn't expect any different. Hopefully next year we get a new GM, followed by a change in ownership.

 

[Emery]

What does this mean for DJ Prosper?

 

[Sting]

Cheapest option that allows us to tank for 3 years. Not bad.

 

[benjiv1]

His salary is probably being subsidized by the Leafs, just to f*** with the Sens.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Who?

What do we know about this guy?

Succesful junior coach who has desperately been trying to get an HC job in the NHL, everything I've hears about him is that he is a total meathead who's most effective form of communication is yelling. He knows how to motivate 16 year olds, that's about it.

We went for the cheapest option. Three more years of bottom-dwelling: I cannot believe how awful this hire is. Essentially this is management admitting we are an NHL organization in name only.

 

[Samsquanch]

What a f***ing joke... The only saving grace is that we will suck for sure the next couple of years, and DJ smith is highly unlikely to change that at all.

 

[Micklebot]

Not someone i was all that interested in.

Well, last time we went with a Babcock assistant, we got some great soundbites out of it,

Ran Toronto's defense... And to be fair, despite the criticisms the d have improved.

This gets a big Meh from me. Not happy or upset with it. Lets see who comes in as assistants.

 

[DanyHeatley]

when I read “DJ” I honestly thought they hired a new arena DJ

 

[Cheapseats]

What a ****ing joke... The only saving grace is that we will suck for sure the next couple of years, and DJ smith is highly unlikely to change that at all.

Yep, Dorion wants this type of coach to use as a scapegoat at the 2 year mark. That way he can save his sorry ass again by blaming the coach and crying about picks n prospects while the younger players walk away from the team.

What a complete fking joke this team has become. At the end of the day, this is all they can muster'

 

[West Coast Eagles]

Leafs fans will be happy indeed. He had poor management of special teams for the Leafs and their defensive assignments at times. He's been blamed for a lot of poor decisions in deployment too. So...we're going to suck, probably. Which is fine, since we want a lottery pick the next few years I imagine.

Smith was probably cheap to hire as well. McGuire and J.R. were discussing salary talks with the Senators and McGuire basically inferred that salary should never come up at first. Which works fine for us, since we can't pay them.

Sounds like Boucher.

 

[Engineer]

We haven't had enough of 1st tenure coaches, nope, let's try another, nothing can go wrong here.

 

[Salva Mea]

no problem..

tank brrrr

 

[Viletho]

Just wondering. Who truly know D.J. Smith has a coach here?

Like who can talk about his strength and weakeness as a coach?

 

[Cheapseats]

We haven't had enough of 1st tenure coaches, nope, let's try another, nothing can go wrong here.

Less experience = Less salary. Doing it the Uncle Euge' way...

 

[starling]

Seems like a downgrade from Boucher

 

[Cor]

So, DJ's coaching, at least as an assistant, left a lot to be desired, but we don't see behind the scenes. We don't see exactly what DJ controls versus what Babcock controls. Was it DJ Smith was running Zach Hyman to the faceoff dot against Patrice Bergeron on the PK instead of putting out a natural center? Was it DJ Smith who failed to adjust the Leafs PK to actually put pressure on McAvoy, or Chara, or Krug, or was it Babcock?

The one thing we can speak of, is that DJ Smith is incredibly liked by his players.

For a rebuilding team like the Senators, where the players likely often feel that their ownership and management group often work against them, it's not a bad thing to have a guy like DJ that connects well with players.

Also, assistant coaching is very different than being the head of a bench. DJ had good success in Oshawa as a head coach.

 

[OgieO]

Here's an article as he was leaving Oshawa for Toronto. Doesn't give much detail to style, etc. But it's something to read.

Workhorse D.J. Smith brings his own style to NHL

 

[aragorn]

Some pretty negative comments about a guy who nobody really knows how he will do as coach of this team. Shouldn't we at least give him a chance before we tar & feather him & run him out of town? Where is our sense of fairness? Let's see how he does before we tear him to shreds & no one hates the Leafs, Babcock & everything Toronto more than I do.