Daily Faceoff Live: The Ottawa Senators need to make a change behind the bench
It’s garbage time on Daily Faceoff Live, and Matt Larkin wants to talk about the losing culture that still exists in Ottawa with the Senators, and how they can change it.
Matt Larkin: “I want to talk about D.J. Smith. We know that the Senators have underachieved this season, and yes you can partially blame some injuries. Of course, we have Chabot who’s been out for a while, Cam Talbot got hurt, there’s been a few different goaltending injuries, Josh Norris. But I still think you look at all the toys that Ottawa got, this team is supposed to be a lot better, 6-12-1 is not going to cut it, and I fear a Jeff Blashill syndrome with D.J. Smith.
And what I mean is, you have that coach I call a janitor coach, someone who’s cleaning up during the dirty years when you’re rebuilding, but if you leave that coach in there for too many seasons, it builds a losing culture, you get a core that’s too used to losing. Detroit kept Jeff Blashill in there way too long, six losing seasons, we’re already in I think it’s the fourth season now for D.J. Smith, we’re not getting results, and I know Pierre Dorion keeps coming forward in defense of D.J. Smith, but sometimes the message is just not getting through, you can use a new voice, and there’s too much talent here being wasted in Ottawa.
It’s not like this is year one of the rebuild and they just drafted Tim Stutzle, you got to get moving here, that was the whole point of signing Claude Giroux and trading for Alex DeBrincat. This team is supposed to be getting results this season, and they’re getting the exact opposite of that. I think you have to lay the blame at the feet of the coach because the GM gave you a whole bunch of new toys, this team should not be worse, this team should be better, and it needs a new voice in the room.”
Tyler Yaremchuk: “Yeah, hard to disagree with that. I mean, you mentioned Giroux and DeBrincat, how about a guy like Cam Talbot as well. He’s put up good numbers and yet his record is 1-5 since he got healthy. A lot of things not going well in Ottawa, and I wonder if maybe this is one of the situations where a coaching change maybe even sparks them a little bit this year, wake up that young core for a little bit like ‘Oh damn, we lost a guy this job, we got to start playing better.'”
Matt Larkin: “That’s right, and there are certain myths in hockey that if you really dig into them, they’re not true. The idea that a mid-season coaching change produces a surge for almost any team is true. That’s something that I dug into during my Hockey News days a few years back, there is a statistical correlation between bringing in a new coach and you get that surge. We saw it most recently and really prominently with Bruce Boudreau last year, and almost the fact the team has gone in the tank with the same coach this season almost proves the point. It’s the novelty factor, the fresh voice, that just lights a spark.
It’s still early enough that it’s not too late, so to me with D.J. Smith, you either have to make the decision really soon, like I’m talking before the end of November, or you wait until next season, but there’s still time to save this thing in my opinion.”
You can watch the full episode here…