As he enters his second season as Head Coach of the Ottawa Senators, we are gradually starting to learn what makes DJ Smith tick.
First of all, he’s a “player’s coach” in every sense of the term. As a former pro, and not all that long ago, Smith understands how to talk to NHL players and how to get the most out of them. He can keep the locker room light but also create an environment where players want to play for him.
It seems like getting the most out of guys is among his specialities.
And while nobody would necessarily consider him a tactician behind the bench, he does have a clear understanding of how he wants his guys to play and ultimately, what’s it’s going to take for this team to be successful.
You’re going to hear it a lot this season but for Smith, it comes down to being competitive and “hard to play against”. Smith alluded to it in a previous interview but for this team to be competitive in a tough North Division, they have to play “playoff-style hockey every night”.
And we saw signs of it last year.
The Ottawa Senators lost plenty of games but they rarely took a night off. Hard on the forecheck, aggressive in all three zones, physical and an emphasis on battling for loose pucks. Never out of a game. A nightmare to play against, is how it was described. This became the calling card of the Sens in year one under Smith and it will continue in this shortened season. And considering some of their off-season additions, it’s safe to assume there will be an increased emphasis on playing a rambunctious style. They may not always be able to match the skill-level of their opponent but they aim to make up for that with their work ethic and their conditioning.
Of course you’d be hard-pressed to find a Coach that doesn’t want to play that way but for Smith, he’s proven adept at getting his players to buy in.
At the same time, Smith is the Head Coach of a rebuilding team. A key responsibility for DJ and the coaching staff is finding ways to get young players to buy into that mentality and ultimately develop into everyday NHL hockey players.
You get the sense in year two, DJ Smith is going to have to walk that delicate line between building a winning culture and being tough to play against but also, ensuring that the team’s top prospects have an opportunity to play and develop.
Training Camp is in full swing in Ottawa and yesterday, DJ Smith met with the local media and offered some thoughts on where things stand heading into the new season.
The one thing that jumped out in his comments is the idea of competition for rosters spots. And not just in Camp but throughout the season. While at one point he suggested there may be four to five spots up for grabs, he also seemed to suggest plenty of roster shuffling throughout the season. And with the four to six man taxi squad in tow at all times, it sounds like there’s a good chance the line up looks different on a night to night basis.
There were other nuggets along the way (Stuetzle on the wing, Chabot-Gudbranson to start, Brannstrom on the left side, Anisimov looking good) but the overarching message was the idea of competition for spots.
As DJ put it, “young players are going to play, that’s not the issue. It’s just when they’re going to play and how much they’re going to play”.
So for the likes of Josh Norris, Logan Brown, Drake Batherson, Tim Stuetzle, Alex Formenton, Rudolfs Balcers, Filip Chlapik, Vitaly Abramov, Erik Brannstrom, Christian Wolanin and Christian Jaros and a bunch of the guys, the message should be pretty clear- spots are available but the fight to stay in the line up is going to be a season-long thing.
That doesn’t necessarily mean forcing guys into the NHL line up. In fact when consider the potential complexity of sending guys up and down, for some guys it may mean either more time in the AHL or more time watching games from the press box. The key is going to be communication from the coaching staff and making sure every player knows where they stand on a nightly basis and understands what it’s going to take to hold those precious line up spots.
Just as important, if you really want to build a culture in that room, spots can’t be handed to veterans either. Contracts obviously play a huge part in who ultimately ends up on the NHL roster but if you really want to create competition and build that winning culture, the same expectations need to be there for all players.
Therein lies the balancing act DJ Smith is going to have to find this year.
Creating a winning culture and being tough to play against is a priority for this Coach but as an organization, they need to make sure that group of players continues to develop and that they are being put in positions where they can succeed.
Nothing is going to be handed to these kids. Both General Manager and Coach have now made that clear. But they also understand the importance of ensuring these kids are given an opportunity to grow as hockey players.
You get the sense that is going to be a season-long balancing act for DJ Smith as he enters his second year behind the Ottawa bench.
