Speculation: D.J. Smith - Part II

[jhutter]

Can you pay a NHL coach any less and expect better results?

You get what you pay for.

Yup. Take a look at all of the coaches hired under Melnyk's ownership and see how many have been rehired as head coaches in the NHL after being fired by the Sens.

 

[JD1]

Behind Gudbranson they have Coburn & J. Brown who are worse so there is no help on the taxi squad. Zaitsev with that contract is here for a while, nobody is going to want him at that salary. Brannstrom to me is too weak & loses too many board battles & can't push anyone from in front of the net. He's suppose to be a PMD who can add offence & sometimes he does move the puck out, but he doesn't create much offence. Wolanin can look great in one moment & then look terrible the next, he has the size & strength to fight off NHL forwards, but lacks confidence at times to make the smart play. Each of these defencemen have deficiencies & they aren't going to fix that this yr, our only hope is the guys who are coming & hopefully a few of them can improve this defence.

You're always on about size and strength but i think you've got some bias leaking in

Wolanin was buried into the net the other night on the goal that didn't count and on Monday he was outmuscled on the play in front of the net that led to the first goal. His problem is he doesn't have the strength to defend well and his offense is not good enough to make up for the defensive deficiency

Brannstrom in my view has more battle in bim and at 21, of the two, is far more likely to get stronger

 

[JD1]

What i find weird is how we seem to be far more successful against Toronto who have Matthews, Marner and Tavares, at least in theory we should run into the same problem trying to run and gun with them.

McDavid and Draisaitl play faster

 

[JD1]

I'm no expert analyst or anything, so proverbial grain of salt...but watching almost every game this season, they seem to go completely off the rails against teams that can effectively aggressively forecheck. Teams that gameplan sending a forward at speed straight at the defenseman behind the net/goal line, perhaps gambling (more often than not successfully) that the Sens will cough up the puck.

The aggressive forecheck

We're pretty good in the offensive zone. We can cycle and we can make plays.

In our end, once we gain control we have trouble when teams try to take away our time and space in our end. We just don't play quick enough in our end or hard enough. The same guys winning puck battles in the O zone aren't winning them on the walls in the D zone. We also lose the puck/don't clear from back pressure in our end. I think a part of that is the reads in our end. One guy wins a puck, other guys don't pivot fast enough to give him somewhere to move it. There could be some coaching with that too with young guys being told to not blow the zone early

 

[The Devilish Buffoon]

I like DJ. I think he's a smart guy who operates with a "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" mentality. He definitely needs to improve our defensive play, but I feel as though he's gradually introduced structure and responsibility into other aspects of our gameplay to a point where I have some faith in him.

I doubt he makes it to year 4/5 but, given our financial constraints, I think he is a pretty good option for now. I feel as though he's handled the kids really well... he doesn't throw anyone into the fire (other than maybe Norris out of necessity), but he gives guys responsibility pretty quickly after they start showing they can handle it and I feel like he's good at scaling it back temporarily without hammering a kids confidence.

Not a perfect coach by any means, but I think he will work in this league for a long time.

 

[Crosside]

Smith: Good opportunity for Brannstrom to play big minutes in AHL over the weekend

 

[swiftwin]

I like DJ. I think he's a smart guy who operates with a "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" mentality. He definitely needs to improve our defensive play, but I feel as though he's gradually introduced structure and responsibility into other aspects of our gameplay to a point where I have some faith in him.

I doubt he makes it to year 4/5 but, given our financial constraints, I think he is a pretty good option for now. I feel as though he's handled the kids really well... he doesn't throw anyone into the fire (other than maybe Norris out of necessity), but he gives guys responsibility pretty quickly after they start showing they can handle it and I feel like he's good at scaling it back temporarily without hammering a kids confidence.

Not a perfect coach by any means, but I think he will work in this league for a long time.

That's how I feel about it too. Coaches are almost always fixated on doing whatever it takes to win games today, and screw over the kids and the future.

I know I keep bringing up this quote from DJ, but I think it's really important:

“We want to be able to play even with teams or better,” said Smith, who’s set to begin his second season behind the bench in the nation’s capital. “For the most part last year, we were always counter-punching. Even when we won, we spent a lot of time in our zone. We had to hang on a lot.
“We want play a little more even with these teams, regardless of the wins and losses.”

He's basically admitting there that we're more focused on developing the kids than we are trying to eek out a couple more wins. We're playing a system where we're spending time in the offensive zone and learning to play with the puck, even if it leads to more mistakes and odd-man rushes against (especially against Edmonton who are fantastic at counterattacking). We're 12th in the league in corsi right now. If DJ wanted to, he could go full Guy Boucher, and play ultra defensive to eek out a few more wins, but at the cost of puck possession, and at the cost of developing the offensive side of the kids.

It's quite clear that DJ's mandate is to develop the kids, not win games.

One thing that concerns me is that Chabot is seeing a massive increase in ice time the last few games. I hope it's not because Melnyk/Dorion are putting him on the hot seat, and DJ is now trying to do whatever it takes to win more games (which means playing Chabot more).

 

[coladin]

He just doesn't trust Wolanin and Brannstrom, no matter what he says. The minutes speak for themselves

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

He just doesn't trust Wolanin and Brannstrom, no matter what he says. The minutes speak for themselves

True but I think if you are going to play one of them < 10 minutes and their contribution is fairly even, given Brannstrom's age and ability to go to Belleville via a paper transaction you'd rather do that and have him play more.

 

[Crosside]

Smith: Daccord gave us a chance to win every night and his energy was infectious throughout the room

 

[Crosside]

Smith: I don't think it's time for Wolanin to come out of the lineup yet

 

[GCK]

McDavid and Draisaitl play faster

Much, much faster.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

 

[aragorn]

You're always on about size and strength but i think you've got some bias leaking in

Wolanin was buried into the net the other night on the goal that didn't count and on Monday he was outmuscled on the play in front of the net that led to the first goal. His problem is he doesn't have the strength to defend well and his offense is not good enough to make up for the defensive deficiency

Brannstrom in my view has more battle in bim and at 21, of the two, is far more likely to get stronger

All of the defencemen on this team with maybe the exception of Zub have deficiencies in their game. Three of their defencemen Gudbranson, Coburn & Reilly are UFAs & should likely be traded by the trade deadline. If Wolanin doesn't play enough games he could also become a UFA & could be traded or simply not re-signed. I think most NHL coaches would prefer defencemen with experience over young guys who are still developing their game or have their own liabilities.

When you look at the defencemen in this org after the guys in Ottawa & the taxi squad there aren't many other guys this team can count on. Belleville IMO has Brannstrom & Thomson & not much else & both these guys are still developing. Once Reilly is moved Ottawa will be down to Wolanin & Brannstrom on the left side unless Coburn is still around which most don't want to see in the lineup either. Brannstrom is still young & can play in Belleville whereas Wolanin would be on the taxi squad not helping anyone. There are plenty of examples of Brannstrom losing battles as well, it's not just Wolanin who has been a disappointment this yr so far, the entire defence is a disappointment.

 

[DrEasy]

Yeah they invited Aeroplan members to watch this live (was at 2pm today) and submit questions in advance.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Yeah they invited Aeroplan members to watch this live (was at 2pm today) and submit questions in advance.

Did you attend? I am not an Aeroplan member

 

[DrEasy]

Did you attend? I am not an Aeroplan member

I did! My wife is an Aeroplan member (I am too, but I guess since I never use it I didn't get an invitation myself). It was streamed on YouTube, I think about 180 people watched.

It was basically just a half hour interview, with questions submitted by members. The questions that Christine did ask were fairly innocuous, things like: "how do you keep players positive", "is there a difference between coaching at the junior level vs the NHL", "do you treat 4th liners differently than 1st rounders", with the answers you'd expect. If I'd gotten my sh*t* together in time I wanted to ask questions such as: "are you satisfied with the current PP zone entry system that you have?" "Zub seems to have some untapped offensive potential; how do you use that?" "Is Nick Paul now forever a winger, or is there any thought of returning him to centre, especially given our current lack of depth there?", but then again I'm not even sure these questions would have been relayed anyway.

I must say he sounded like a reasonable person. One interesting question was: "what is one hockey stat you look at?", and he replied "shot attempts". He also mentioned how the team's Corsi is in the top 15 (I think).

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I did! My wife is an Aeroplan member (I am too, but I guess since I never use it I didn't get an invitation myself). It was streamed on YouTube, I think about 180 people watched.

It was basically just a half hour interview, with questions submitted by members. The questions that Christine did ask were fairly innocuous, things like: "how do you keep players positive", "is there a difference between coaching at the junior level vs the NHL", "do you treat 4th liners differently than 1st rounders", with the answers you'd expect. If I'd gotten my sh*t* together in time I wanted to ask questions such as: "are you satisfied with the current PP zone entry system that you have?" "Zub seems to have some untapped offensive potential; how do you use that?" "Is Nick Paul now forever a winger, or is there any thought of returning him to centre, especially given our current lack of depth there?", but then again I'm not even sure these questions would have been relayed anyway.

I must say he sounded like a reasonable person. One interesting question was: "what is one hockey stat you look at?", and he replied "shot attempts". He also mentioned how the team's Corsi is in the top 15 (I think).

 

[SensHulk]

Anyone know if there’s some bigger partnership brewing between the Sens and Air Canada? Wonder if arena sponsorship rights are up for grabs soon. Just been noticing more Twitter Chatter between both official accounts (i.e. sens and air Canada) which never happened before

EDIT: what do you know...naming rights may be up at the conclusion of this season.

Canadian Tire puts its name on Ottawa Senators’ arena

The signage will be changed in time for the 2013-2014 season. The deal's first term will span eight years, and has an "evergreen clause" allowing for it to be amended and renewed every 10 years after that. Financial terms were not disclosed.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Less stubborn that most coaches. Which is nice

 

[Emerica]

Less stubborn that most coaches. Which is nice

Agreed

 

[Senovision]

DJ'Ss doing a pretty good job.

 

[JD1]

DJ'Ss doing a pretty good job.

Ya. it's amazing how much he's learned in the past month. He must be reading the board here

 

[Ice-Tray]

I hear that DJ doesn’t actually exist. He’s just a manifestation of the conflicting desires of HF posters.