During a rare appearance on TSN1200 yesterday afternoon, Senators General Manager Pierre Dorion provided the biggest update of the off-season to this point.
Head Coach Guy Boucher and his entire staff will be back to start the 2018/2019 season.
Dorion met with Boucher on Monday of this week and listening to the GM, it’s clear that he liked the plan that was presented by Boucher. Although, it’s up for debate whether or not Boucher’s job was ever in serious jeopardy in the first place.
While the full staff is back, Dorion highlighted a couple of the changes they have planned ahead of next season. Martin Raymond, who spent the last two seasons as an Assistant behind the bench, will now shift to the “eye in the sky” role on a permanent basis. Meanwhile Rob Cookson, who held that role previously and is known as a video specialist of sorts, will now be behind the bench with Boucher and Crawford.
At the same time, Boucher is now expected to take full control over the power play. Hard to imagine how that will make much of a difference. While Boucher may have delegated that responsibility, he was still ultimately the one responsible for the team’s play with the man advantage and he had two seasons to provide input and fix the issues. Must have been one hell of a plan he came up with on Monday to convince Dorion that this was enough to fix that part of their game.
The decision to bring back Boucher won’t come as a huge surprise.
A lot went wrong for this team last year and it probably wouldn’t be fair to just point the finger at the Head Coach, even though that’s become a popular approach in Ottawa over the years. It would have been pretty easy to swap out the Assistants for some fresh voices but in the end, Dorion has decided to stay the course. Although you wonder just how short a leash Boucher and his entire staff will have heading into next season.
Not to mention how much responsibility should ultimately land on the shoulders of Pierre Dorion is things continue to go south.
While the NHL team is staying the course, changes are coming at the minor league level.
During his radio appearance, Dorion mentioned that Kurt Kleinendorst will not be back in Belleville next season. The Belleville Senators may have been a success off the ice but it was a pretty ugly inaugural season on the ice. They won just 29 of 76 games and gave up 266 goals, which ranked 29th in the thirty team league.
Those who watched the BSens on a regular basis also had frequent complaints about the way Kleinendorst deployed his younger players. This is an issue in any part of the organization but especially in the American Hockey League where the priority should always be the development of young talent.
Troy Mann (brother of Chief Scout Trent Mann), recently let go by the Washington Capitals organization, is considered to be one of the leading candidates for the job in Belleville. Last night, Bruce Garrioch confirmed that he will indeed receive an interview.
You can listen to Dorion’s full appearance on The Drive here.
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