At what point would you fire DJ Smith?

[Micklebot]

Between all the injuries and Covid protocol taking players out of the lineup, you can't really pin the team's current performance on DJ, so I wouldn't use pretty much any of this season's record to evaluate DJ, at least not so far. He still makes some questionable decisions, but in reality so does every coach.

I'd be looking at the assistant coaches myself, see if we can beef up the areas of weakness by looking there rather than firing the guy we recently extended, but even at that you can only work with what you got, It's not the coaches fault Zaitsev, MDZ, Brown and Mete are staples on the blueline, there might have been some degree of flexibility to get in a guy like Brannstrom earlier but they wanted Thomson and JBD to develop in the AHL,

 

[L'Aveuglette]

It's a viable question considering DJ isn't a very good coach, regardless of injuries and covid. Hopefully he gets the axe along with Dorion next year when we're actually supposed to be a playoff team.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Terrible thread.

True.

"At what point would you fire Dorion" would be better suited.

 

[Micklebot]

Who expected them to be any better than they have been?

Bad roster is bad and injuries/covid just compounds their thin depth issue.

I seem to recall some expecting the team to be better but in fairness that was not accounting for the injuries and Covid.

 

[The Devilish Buffoon]

If Pinto was healthy and they had Gus,Thomson and Brannstrom playing from game 1 they could of been a playoff team (maybe add Sokolov and Parker Kelly to that list)

I will say I think the team is underperforming. Covid sucks but they were playing really bad before the positive tests started

I think, at best, we were always going to be around where we finished last year. I dont think Gus, Thomson and Brannstrom would have made a huge difference... Gus has played more than any other goalie and Forsberg one of his starts for us. Missing Pinto and White has had a huge impact, but even if we were healthy and playing our best possible lineup, whatever that is, we still lack maturity and skill at basically every position. Losing 3 of our 5 NHL centres had a huge, huge impact, but mostly because we totally lacked depth at C.

Next year is when the heat is on, imo.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I seem to recall some expecting the team to be better but in fairness that was not accounting for the injuries and Covid.

Before the summer it seemed so, but after the moves were made (or not made) the tone seemed to change a lot I thought.

I also thought there would be at least some tangible improvement through development, but that was more of a hope things go perfect scenario than a belief.

 

[Dan Patrick]

True.

"At what point would you fire Dorion" would be better suited.

Give it a day or two.

 

[TheNewEra]

I dont think DJ is a good coach and long term I do believe he should be fired

That being said Dorion needs to go first because he cant fire another coach. Whoever signed off on the joke of our defense to start the year does need to be fired, named, shamed and blackballed from the league for sheer stupidity

 

[Micklebot]

Before the summer it seemed so, but after the moves were made (or not made) the tone seemed to change a lot I thought.

I also thought there would be at least some tangible improvement through development, but that was more of a hope things go perfect scenario than a belief.

I think Batherson and Stützle look improved, development wise, I think Tkachuk has been slow to pick up where he left off likely due to his holdout.
Pinto looked really promising, loosing both him and White for the season really puts us in a tough spot.

 

[ISensFanI]

Right now

 

[The Devilish Buffoon]

I dont think DJ is a good coach and long term I do believe he should be fired

That being said Dorion needs to go first because he cant fire another coach. Whoever signed off on the joke of our defense to start the year does need to be fired, named, shamed and blackballed from the league for sheer stupidity

Lol

 

[swiftwin]

If Pinto was healthy and they had Gus,Thomson and Brannstrom playing from game 1 they could of been a playoff team (maybe add Sokolov and Parker Kelly to that list)

I will say I think the team is underperforming. Covid sucks but they were playing really bad before the positive tests started

Nope.

Even I, the eternal optimist around here said we'd have a 50/50 chance, only if Murray returned to his original form. Otherwise, I gave us a 1% chance:

The Ottawa Senators will make the playoffs this year.

 

[Boud]

If Pinto was healthy and they had Gus,Thomson and Brannstrom playing from game 1 they could of been a playoff team (maybe add Sokolov and Parker Kelly to that list)

I will say I think the team is underperforming. Covid sucks but they were playing really bad before the positive tests started

I think that's extremely optimistic and not necessarily realistic.

 

[swiftwin]

I dont think DJ is a good coach and long term I do believe he should be fired

That being said Dorion needs to go first because he cant fire another coach. Whoever signed off on the joke of our defense to start the year does need to be fired, named, shamed and blackballed from the league for sheer stupidity

Of course, long term, he'll get fired. Like every coach in the history of hockey. That's like saying someday, DJ will die. As will I, and everyone reading this thread.

Overall, I think DJ is the right coach for this group at this point in the rebuild. But I also think at some point, when we're looking to make some noise deep in the playoffs, hopefully a few years from now, we'll need a different type of coach to take us to that level.

 

[Tuna99]

I think that's extremely optimistic and not necessarily realistic.

for sure it would of had to of been a good year for key guys like Stuz and Chabot but I thought they had a chance to improve and at least be playing the final 20 games of the season with the playoffs in mind

 

[TonySoprano11]

I'd like to see him gone ASAP. He is not the long term coach this team needs, so why are we wasting our time with him?

 

[Hale The Villain]

Do you really think they expected to reach the next level this year?

They said as much. Could have just been classic Dorion BS.

But we absolutely should be trying to win games after 4 straight years of finishing bottom 10.

 

[Alex1234]

Melnyk does like watching a losing team, you're right I guess.

So is Dorion

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I think Batherson and Stützle look improved, development wise, I think Tkachuk has been slow to pick up where he left off likely due to his holdout.
Pinto looked really promising, loosing both him and White for the season really puts us in a tough spot.

I agree. Individually there have been some performances to be excited about and the injuries hurt an already thin depth chart.

 

[PlayOn]

Our best case scenario, if all went right, was to push for a playoff spot. That means rookie’s surprising, all young guys taking another step, Murray excelling, vets playing well, no major injuries.

Our worst case scenario was… well, this. But usually when your best case is a fringe playoff team, you’re not going to be competitive. You can’t really expect that everything will go right. We’re a bit unlucky in that things went horribly wrong, or maybe we’re closer to bottom 7-8 than where we are. Not the worst thing to get a high pick though I suppose.

 

[Beech]

I think, at best, we were always going to be around where we finished last year. I dont think Gus, Thomson and Brannstrom would have made a huge difference... Gus has played more than any other goalie and Forsberg one of his starts for us. Missing Pinto and White has had a huge impact, but even if we were healthy and playing our best possible lineup, whatever that is, we still lack maturity and skill at basically every position. Losing 3 of our 5 NHL centres had a huge, huge impact, but mostly because we totally lacked depth at C.

Next year is when the heat is on, imo.

do you realize that by the 2022/2023, this team will have had a 30th out of 31. A 31 out of 31. A 30 out of 31. A 22 out of 31. And this year, they are trending to be 28-30 out of 32 (Barring a surge at some point in the season).

These are worse than the expansion years. Think about it. Expansion in the early 1990's, when you did not have LV and Seatle favourable conditions and when Ottawa had no money to attract even "C" level free agents and when free agency was at 31.

Perhaps someone, somewhere may have done a historical perspective on how bad that is, but my guess is: this is all time bad. I would be shocked if in the era since the 67 expansion any team has come close.

next year..that was last year.

 

[The Devilish Buffoon]

They said as much. Could have just been classic Dorion BS.

But we absolutely should be trying to win games after 4 straight years of finishing bottom 10.

Lets be real, neither you nor I nor probably Dorion expected an actual playoff contender unless absolutely everything went right.

I'm willing to be patient. It was almost impossible for me to envision us doing enough this offseason to truly compete. I think we'd be much better if we had reasonable luck with health - to the point where we wouldnt be all-but-eliminated by January, like we're tracking for at this point - and I think that would be fine given where we're at. By next year, we should feasibly have 3 new defenders who are better than 75% of our current core; we need to add at least another top 9 forward or two; we should have a clearer picture of our goaltending; and I think the goal was always to provide room for that picture to emerge. We've faced bad performance and bad circumstance, but I still think we are on track to reach most of those objectives by the start of next season.

 

[TheDebater]

Absolutely.

Dorion should not be able to fire another couch.

I dont think DJ is a good coach and long term I do believe he should be fired

That being said Dorion needs to go first because he cant fire another coach. Whoever signed off on the joke of our defense to start the year does need to be fired, named, shamed and blackballed from the league for sheer stupidity

Dorion has made many, many, terrible decisions as G.M but where are we drawing this conclusion from (that he has fired too many coaches)?

Murray stepped down in April 2016, which means Dorion officially started his G.M duties in summer 2016 and on. Dave Cameron was already the coach at that time, and he was let go so that Guy Boucher can be brought in.

When Boucher was fired in early 2019 (near the end of the 2018-19 season), assistant coach Marc Crawford took over for the rest of the season, but was never hired to stay on. DJ Smith was announced the new head coach to start the 2019 season.

Smith is Dorion's 2nd coach, which is really not that bad if he lets him go and gets one last chance to hire another coach (although I think Dorion should go too if Smith is let go).

 

[PlayOn]

do you realize that by the 2022/2023, this team will have had a 30th out of 31. A 31 out of 31. A 30 out of 31. A 22 out of 31. And this year, they are trending to be 28-30 out of 32 (Barring a surge at some point in the season).

These are worse than the expansion years. Think about it. Expansion in the early 1990's, when you did not have LV and Seatle favourable conditions and when Ottawa had no money to attract even "C" level free agents and when free agency was at 31.

Perhaps someone, somewhere may have done a historical perspective on how bad that is, but my guess is: this is all time bad. I would be shocked if in the era since the 67 expansion any team has come close.

next year..that was last year.

It’s not that abnormal. Teams that tear it down from scratch will generally take about 5 years to rebuild. If you go the Anaheim or LA route and keep some key players (call it a retool), you can shave it down to three years. We obviously did not do that.

 

[Alfie11]

Not the coaches fault but Smith, along with the rest of the org, has to wrap their head around the need to play defencemen that can move the puck effectively. Obviously a player acquisition thing, but the team needs to play the guys we do have.

The team needs better players. I think Smith is doing a good job with the kids and a good veteran or two would work wonders.