Former Ottawa Senators’ D Michael Del Zotto on team’s culture: ‘Couldn’t believe that was an NHL organization’

Despite a GM and now a coaching change, the Ottawa Senators continue to struggle. Since firing D.J. Smith, the Sens are only 3-4-0, which isn’t terrible, but still very inconsistent for a team that sits in last in their division and needs to start stringing together wins while they have games in hand.

So what’s the issue then? Is it still an organizational problem or is it on the players? Former Senators defenseman Michael Del Zotto joined Daily Faceoff Live to talk about his time with the organization and what the problem may be in Ottawa.

Michael Del Zotto: How much time do you have? I couldn’t believe that that was an NHL organization when I was there. Just from top to bottom, how the players were treated, how the staff was treated.

I tell this story all the time, I was spoiled. My first year was in New York playing for the Rangers and it was first class treatment. Every single day, anything that a player could think of has already been thought of numerous times and had been perfected by the organization. So just even the food we’d have after the game, a fantastic spread of food at home, which I think maybe two guys would go there and actually make the most of it, because you’re in New York City, you’re going out for dinner after.

And Ottawa, I remember after my first game, we had boxed quesadillas in a warming drawer. And I’m thinking, you’re spending the $80 million on your players, and we had a young team, so we had 20-21 year-olds, guys that probably have never stepped in the kitchen before to cook, and you’re in Ottawa where there’s not really restaurants that are open on a Tuesday-Wednesday, so you’re either eating these boxed quesadillas or you’re going to Taco Bell or McDonalds that are open late night. So just little things like that. They don’t give their players the best opportunities to succeed every night.

But that organization to me is interesting because they have a good team, you look at their roster, up front they have some of the most exciting talent as far as forwards. They have a decent back-end, yes they’ve dealt with some injuries. They keep bringing in goalies year in and year out who are proven goalies, and it’s the same old song and dance each season.

So something had to happen there, obviously the first being the GM to go, now the coach. They’re going to have to start over again. But they have a lot of great pieces, so I’m not sure exactly why they can’t take the next step. I know before with the old regime in there, there was no accountability and they were developing the young guys and giving them every opportunity, but at some point, you can’t allow them just to get away with whatever they want and losing becomes acceptable, and that’s all you ever know. Because now you’re going to get these guys that are going to be 6, 8, 10-year veterans that have only ever had losing seasons, they don’t know what it takes to win.

You can watch the full episode here…