Speculation: The coaching search continues

[swiftwin]

DJ Smith 317 games as a head coach .464 on a rebuilding team
with crazy GM at the helm the worst GM in the history of our franchise and a Crazy penny pinching owner the worst owner in the history of our franchise. Terrible goaltending and major amounts of key injuries and crazy situations....Formenton....Pinto gambling situation....and a laundry list of crazy scenarios he had to deal with....

DJ did ok considering the crazy shit show environment he had to work in and tried to insulate the players from the craziness that was...

All coaches have a shelf life and DJ's time was up but he did ok given the lunacy that was going on.
It is a guarantee that these players will never be subject to the unprecedented situations our young inexperienced players were put through over the last few seasons.

Travis Green 335 games as a head coach in the NHL .473 winning percentage.

There records as head coaches are as close to identical as you can get.

The fact that DJ was hired by another NHL team a month after he was fired is telling.

That being said, we were absolutely due for a change. But he's not a bad coach.

 

[flyingfingers]

The fact that DJ was hired by another GIS team a month after he was fired is telling.

That being said, we were absolutely due for a change. But he's not a bad coach.

He's a great assistant, a terrible head coach. Some guys are cut out to be Robin, not Batman. And that's fine. He'll have a nice, less stressful career.

 

[BankStreetParade]

We're sooo past the "benefit of the doubt" phase though. We haven't made the playoffs in seven god damn years. We needed a real winning coach.

To me it appears like they're treating this team as if it was brand new franchise with zero expectations. There's no urgency that I've seen so far, nor is there much awareness about how this fanbase has been screwed around for the last several years and is desperate for success.


Damn you should get hired in the marketing department.

Damn man, this ridiculous hire got us agreeing on multiple fronts.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I'm surprised he wasn't more involved given the expectations he'll stay on as a consultant.

Be a waste of a good resource.

 

[Micklebot]

Every year he's been a coach in the NHL he's gotten above-average goaltending, yet his teams have bled goals.

Hell even in his brief stint in NJ he got solid goaltending from Allen and Kahkonen down the stretch, yet NJ performed worse than they did under Ruff when their goalies couldn't stop a beach ball.

Uh... According to Hockey ref

2017-18 Van .902, league average .908
2018-19 Van .905, league average .905
2019-20 Van .907, league average .905
2020-21 Van .900, league average .903
2021-22 van first 25 games, .900, league average .902
2023-24 njd final 21 games .893, league average .898

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Reading the Green thread on the Nucks board prior to his firing, it's eerily similar to DJ.













From the sounds of it he wants everyone to play like he and Shayne Corson did with the Leafs and tries to be a hard ass but the players don't respect him. Also get ready for too many men penalties.

results + opinion from people that watched him coach 200+ times is just not enough info to have ANY opinion WHATSOEvER

Why would management want that?!!?! I was told DJ is the worst coach ever.

I think this current coach and this current GM will be vying for the worst ever spor

To me it appears like they're treating this team as if it was brand new franchise with zero expectations. There's no urgency that I've seen so far, nor is there much awareness about how this fanbase has been screwed around for the last several years and is desperate for success.



Damn you should get hired in the marketing department.

Well that works best for staios. Hired himself as GM. Why place any expectations on yourself in the first year? He will stretch this out as long as his friend will let him

 

[Stylizer1]

Is it too soon to start the "Ottawa's next coach" thread?

Why can't we for once hire a legit head coach?

 

[Philadelphia Collins]

It’s so funny he’s made two moves since naming himself GM and both were universally panned by the hockey world immediately lol, same old sens

Officially pretty scared about Steady Steve Staois’ upcoming moves to shake up the roster this summer, if they draft for size/character this June it’ll be like Pierre never left

 

[LevelingSolo]

Is it too soon to start the "Ottawa's next coach" thread?

Why can't we for once hire a legit head coach?

I'm wondering if any of this had to do with $$$

 

[thinkwild]

I remember Travis Green having a bit of a golden boy moment in the sun coaching. Vancouver hired the big name to replace him, got a coaches bump, but the big name didnt really fare much better. Its hard to know how to evaluate coaches but when i see people judging them by the record of the team they coached the expression that comes to mind is: 100% of the people that confuse correlation with causation - die.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Lots of vitriol here about Green. I hope he proves us all wrong and we chant "Sorry Travis" at the CTC

 

[Loach]

I've never seen someone read so much into, and extrapolate so much, from coaches interviewing for an open position. Good for you and your positive vibes!

Well this went a bit sideways. Lmao!

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

The more I'm reading about Green from Canuck fans the more horrendous this signing feels.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

The more I'm reading about Green from Canuck fans the more horrendous this signing feels.

I know I'm probably coping but most of those Canucks rosters under Green were legitimately not good, ESPECIALLY the defence. Seriously, after the 2020 playoff it was Quinn Hughes and a bunch of bottom pair guys.

 

[SensFactor]

The more I'm reading about Green from Canuck fans the more horrendous this signing feels.

I think it could be another mistake in a long line of mistakes.

 

[Xspyrit]

Wait... is it official?

I just read about this... There's not an ounce of success anywhere, am I wrong?

So we waited years for a new owner and new GM and we're not getting "winners"? Dear Alfie if that's the case

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

I know I'm probably coping but most of those Canucks rosters under Green were legitimately not good, ESPECIALLY the defence. Seriously, after the 2020 playoff it was Quinn Hughes and a bunch of bottom pair guys.

I'm reading lots of dump and chase and stifling creativity style of coaching.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Damn man, this ridiculous hire got us agreeing on multiple fronts.

I think I saw pigs flying out my window today.

 

[Flamingo]

I'm reading lots of dump and chase and stifling creativity style of coaching.

Great, let's throw away Stutzle's skill.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Great, let's throw away Stutzle's skill.

Perhaps he learnt from his mistakes or not. We're going to find out either way.

Any word on his assistant coaches?

 

[Do Make Say Think]

What would define a season that doesnt suck where the playoffs aren't the goal? Just not making it in? Not being in the bottom 10 in the league? Being a spot or two higher than we were this year? Not going on long losing skids? Not having shit team defense?

I just don't know what defines not sicking for this team anymore, when we've kinda sucked at everything.

It is a moving target for sure.

Right now the goal has to be to not shit all over ourselves as the season begins. We'll see how things are looking around christmas and reevaluate then.

We can't be expecting playoffs when this roster has never not sucked.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Lots of vitriol here about Green. I hope he proves us all wrong and we chant "Sorry Travis" at the CTC

I mean the team sucks and we have hired a fairly unsuccesful coach, hard to not feel down when this news comes out of nowhere.

The reality is that, with where this franchise is at and with what the fanbase has been put through, there isn't much that could make most of us happy. There is some, I am sure we'd all have been happy had we hired Roy or Berube but anything less than a perceived surething? We're not gonna be happy until we stop sucking.

Hopefully Travis Green has gotten a whole lot better since his time in Vancouver. Hard to blame him for the Devils being crap to close out the year when the team sucked all year.

 

[DylanSensFan]

To me it appears like they're treating this team as if it was brand new franchise with zero expectations. There's no urgency that I've seen so far, nor is there much awareness about how this fanbase has been screwed around for the last several years and is desperate for success.



Damn you should get hired in the marketing department.

Not really a fan if we've hired this person as the head coach.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Tkachuk will ask out after next season.

Are you kidding me. Quit having Sens PTSD. Anybody who would predict that a Tkachuk would ask out after 8 losing seasons, when they have an impending NMC as leverage to create a choke point where the Senators have incentive to trade him by a specific date (because they would lose control after that date and thus get a much worse return). That's just an insane Sens PTSD idea to say that if we have another terrible season he would ask out.

When have the Tkachuks ever put business first and maximized their leverage?

I can't believe you'd even make that prediction on a hockey forum, you're going to go so many downboats!

 

[Relapsing]

I'm reading lots of dump and chase and stifling creativity style of coaching.

Ugh.

We just went through years of people complaining about dump and chase hockey around here (right or wrong) . Another year of complaints about that and I may lose whatever marbles I have left.

It is a moving target for sure.

Right now the goal has to be to shit all over ourselves as the season begins. We'll see how things are looking around christmas and reevaluate then.

We can't be expecting playoffs when this roster has never not sucked.

Not shitting the bed at the start of the season is imo the simplest ask of a fan: do your jobs.

This roster really has sucked more often than not. They've shown flashes but never at the right time and never sustainably.

We as fans have been expecting the playoffs lately, but I think management has developed a much different viewpoint and it does not jive with ours.