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News Article: Sens hire DJ Smith as head coach

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I think I'll take a wait-and-see approach with this hire. Don't feel like being overly pessimistic just yet.
 
SpezDispenser said:
Certainly his record in the OHL says he can work with young players with positive results. The Leafs D was trash anyway, as is Babcock, we'll see how he does when he's the head coach.
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He has had positive results when getting teenagers playing against other teenagers. His track record in the NHL is very weak: the Leafs' D wasn't good and the special teams were hot and cold.
 
As an outsider looking in, I hate this.

Taking any coach from the Maple Leafs staff is a recipe for disaster. Fish rot from the head down, and in my opinion, the Leafs were outcoached in their series against the Bruins.

Hopefully the Senators hang onto their 2020 draft picks. It might be a long season.
 
Do Make Say Think said:
He has had positive results when getting teenagers playing against other teenagers. His track record in the NHL is very weak: the Leafs' D wasn't good and the special teams were hot and cold.
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Yeah, that's the problem right there though. He'll have a young group to coach in Ottawa, one that will be very mobile and quite good in the coming years. Can he handle it? No idea.
 
OttawaSenators11 said:
Maybe he'll be good who knows for sure? My issue isn't Smith himself, its Melnyk for always going the cheap route.
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All the candidates would have been roughly at the same price point. The nice thing with Smith, is players love to play for him and he’s been thought of as a HC in waiting for several years now, and is only 42 years old. He’ll grow with the team.
 
Don't really care one way or the other. All the candidates in a hat and pick one, they are all the same level of mediocre at best, give or take.

He was a fan favourite gooning it up at Memorial Stadium when I was a kid, there's that nostalgia to it
 
rfournier103 said:
As an outsider looking in, I hate this.

Taking any coach from the Maple Leafs staff is a recipe for disaster. Fish rot from the head down, and in my opinion, the Leafs were outcoached in their series against the Bruins.

Hopefully the Senators hang onto their 2020 draft picks. It might be a long season.
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Uh...I really don't think the Sens would trade that pick for all the tea in China right now. Especially after the Duchene trade went down the way it did. And yes, it'll be a LONG season for Ottawa, but fun hopefully.
 
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BatherSeason said:
Simmer HATES Babs, almost like its personal, and I sure he learned his lesson from being extremely outspoken about the Caps GM, which was also very personal and pretty much made a fool of himself.

Based on his feelings on Smith, I assume that its because his personal Babs hatred.
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Simmer is the only person I have access that has real NHL experience and says exactly what he thinks (as opposed to McGuire who hates being negative and Roenick who loves to trash everything and everyone). If he thinks DJ Smith is a meathead, I think there is a great chance that he's right.

Doesn't mean he can't be a good HC at the NHL level of course.
 
Samsquanch said:
I mean technically its pretty hard for them to get any worse...
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Smith, 42, becomes the 14th head coach in the team's history. He has spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach on Mike Babcock's staff with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He joined Toronto in 2015-16 after leading the Ontario Hockey League's Oshawa Generals to the 2015 Memorial Cup title.

In three seasons as head coach in Oshawa, Smith compiled a record of 135-53-3-13 and earned the honour of the OHL's Coach of the Year after guiding the Generals to a 42-20-0-6 record in 2013-14. Oshawa finished with a 51-11-2-4 record during their championship season in 2014-15.

Before his time in Oshawa, Smith spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the OHL's Windsor Spitfires. During his tenure in Windsor, the Spitfires captured back-to-back Memorial Cup championships in both 2009 and 2010.

Smith has also played professionally, appearing in 45 career NHL games as a defenceman with both the Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche after being selected with the 41st overall pick by the New York Islanders in the 1995 NHL Draft.

He also spent parts of nine seasons playing in the AHL with the St. John's Maple Leafs and the Hershey Bears. A native of Windsor, Ontario, Smith played his junior hockey with his hometown Spitfires from 1994-97.

"D.J. Smith is a winner. We believe he is the best person to drive the development and success of the Ottawa Senators," said general manager Pierre Dorion. "D.J. is a great communicator and an exceptional strategist. His passionate approach, coupled with his ability to teach the game, is exactly what we were looking for throughout the process. We're thrilled to welcome D.J. and his family to Ottawa."
 
Do Make Say Think said:
Simmer is the only person I have access that has real NHL experience and says exactly what he thinks (as opposed to McGuire who hates being negative and Roenick who loves to trash everything and everyone). If he thinks DJ Smith is a meathead, I think there is a great chance that he's right.

Doesn't mean he can't be a good HC at the NHL level of course.
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Watching him live for 6/7 season as a kid, he was the biggest meathead on the ice possible.

Things could be completely different behind the bench for sure. I'm not sure of his coaching style.
 
rfournier103 said:
As an outsider looking in, I hate this.

Taking any coach from the Maple Leafs staff is a recipe for disaster. Fish rot from the head down, and in my opinion, the Leafs were outcoached in their series against the Bruins.

Hopefully the Senators hang onto their 2020 draft picks. It might be a long season.
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I'm not exactly excited but guys like Paul Maurice and Pat Burns had some success after their time in Toronto.
 
Clayonator said:
All the candidates would have been roughly at the same price point. The nice thing with Smith, is players love to play for him and he’s been thought of as a HC in waiting for several years now, and is only 42 years old. He’ll grow with the team.
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Players love assistants. He's going to be an NHL HC now, it is a different game.

We don't know who asked for how much money. However, we can be certain DJ Smith was the cheapest option since he was the one with the weakest and shortest track record
 
PeterSidorkiewicz said:
Joking aside. I mean the guy is a players coach apparently and we're going to have a young team of nobodies. Maybe he is not the worst choice. I don't even care who the coach is but I have one question......

Why is a head coach named before a POHO?
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because the POHO is being forced on the team by the NHL and will have no actual role to go along with his title.
 
Variable26 said:
Smith, 42, becomes the 14th head coach in the team's history. He has spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach on Mike Babcock's staff with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He joined Toronto in 2015-16 after leading the Ontario Hockey League's Oshawa Generals to the 2015 Memorial Cup title.

In three seasons as head coach in Oshawa, Smith compiled a record of 135-53-3-13 and earned the honour of the OHL's Coach of the Year after guiding the Generals to a 42-20-0-6 record in 2013-14. Oshawa finished with a 51-11-2-4 record during their championship season in 2014-15.

Before his time in Oshawa, Smith spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the OHL's Windsor Spitfires. During his tenure in Windsor, the Spitfires captured back-to-back Memorial Cup championships in both 2009 and 2010.

Smith has also played professionally, appearing in 45 career NHL games as a defenceman with both the Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche after being selected with the 41st overall pick by the New York Islanders in the 1995 NHL Draft.

He also spent parts of nine seasons playing in the AHL with the St. John's Maple Leafs and the Hershey Bears. A native of Windsor, Ontario, Smith played his junior hockey with his hometown Spitfires from 1994-97.

"D.J. Smith is a winner. We believe he is the best person to drive the development and success of the Ottawa Senators," said general manager Pierre Dorion. "D.J. is a great communicator and an exceptional strategist. His passionate approach, coupled with his ability to teach the game, is exactly what we were looking for throughout the process. We're thrilled to welcome D.J. and his family to Ottawa."
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Cool? I read the article myself already. Great junior record, great motivator, likes to yell. Hes pretty much the (very) poor mans version of Roy. I feel like DJ is purely a budget conscious choice thats just going to amount to another waste of a few years - but thankfully we have a couple of years to burn I guess..
 
rfournier103 said:
As an outsider looking in, I hate this.

Taking any coach from the Maple Leafs staff is a recipe for disaster. Fish rot from the head down, and in my opinion, the Leafs were outcoached in their series against the Bruins.

Hopefully the Senators hang onto their 2020 draft picks. It might be a long season.
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Most of us absolutely hate this.

Every single time we think we have reached rock bottom, we find a way to go lower.
 
MiscBrah said:
because the POHO is being forced on the team by the NHL and will have no actual role to go along with his title.
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I wouldn't be surprised to find out it was Rutkowski's idea actually: "my boss is a huge liar and loves liars. Let's just make a very public lie with the objective to show up/shut up the vocal hardcore fans who see right through us and that my boss won't shut up about because he's an insecure old man who had a near-death experience and now craves approval but can't afford it".

Is it a coincidence that the whole thing "fell apart" right around the time Rurkowski quit? Maybe....?
 
I'm slightly confused by the criticism of the Leafs' defense as a justification to criticize Smith. Speaking strictly from a personnel standpoint, the Leafs had a lower tier defense corps, especially when compared to the other playoff teams this year. There's people on this forum who would put our defense corps (a fledgling group at best) up against the Leafs' so it seems kind of weird to criticize their shortcomings on defense on that coach alone. But maybe that's just me.
 
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And then we get that moron Dorion up at the podium reading from a script - word for word - in what amounts to like 1 paragraph worth of information while he introduces Smith....Its like someone from PR literally had to tell him what the reasons were for us hiring him (so its not obvious that money was the sole reason)...

This team is so f***ing embarrassing.
 
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Do Make Say Think said:
Players love assistants. He's going to be an NHL HC now, it is a different game.

We don't know who asked for how much money. However, we can be certain DJ Smith was the cheapest option since he was the one with the weakest and shortest track record
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No I’m pretty sure he wasn’t the cheapest. No one else was looking at Bowness for HC. And only one other was looking at Martin other than Buffalo. Last kick at the can for both of them likely. Smith was in high demand with a long future ahead.


I wonder if Martin or Bowness gets offered an associate gig. I like the idea of Smith having an old guy to lean on. Like the idea of Kelly back there as assistant. Wonder if like @FormentonTheFuture mentioned, Boughner gets in there too.


In regards to simmer not liking Smith, dating back to what he was like as a young player, then I wonder what he thought/thinks of Sheldon Keefe. But I doubt he’d voice it as much due to the former’s even higher level of popularity as the potentially next great NHL HC among most circles. Pretty shitty metric to use when evaluating a coach. Otherwise Gretzky, Savard, Housley, Oats, Stevens would be the equivalent’s of Babcock, Quineville, Trotz, Julien, Hitchcock.
 
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