Rumours had been swirling for a while now and to hear some of the media talk about it, it was only a matter of time. Yet still, yesterday’s firing of Paul MacLean caught the city off guard a little bit.
Like many other fans, I’m having a bit of a hard time with this one.
The biggest reason being I actually liked Paul MacLean. After years of bland coaches, it felt like the Senators finally had someone with a little personality behind the bench. Someone who could relate to the players but at the same time, handle the day to day grind of answering the same questions pre and post-game and actually make it interesting.
Not to mention someone who was judged to be the best Coach in the entire National Hockey League in the 2012-2013 season.
His performance against the Montreal Canadiens was the stuff of legends. He was one of the most entertaining parts of that series. He planted himself squarely in the mind of poor Michel Therrien and tap danced in there all series long. It was something we had never seen as fans of the Senators. It gave the team and the fan base a swagger that had always been missing at playoff time. After that series I remember thinking to myself, Paul MacLean will be Coach of the Ottawa Senators as long as he wants the job.
But this is a results based business and a market where the Owner has completely unrealistic expectations about the cost of a winner. And in the end, Paul MacLean paid the price for that.
There were other issues, of course. Somewhere along the way, in an attempt to get his star players to the next level, he lost their ear. Paul MacLean takes the blame for that. It doesn’t mean he was wrong to take that approach. It just means it didn’t work with this collection of players. It happens in sports. It has happened in Ottawa before. It will happen again.
You don’t have to like your Head Coach. But you have to respect him. As soon as Murray felt like the respect was no longer there, he had to make a move. Especially with such a young roster facing the possibility of a year without playoffs. Development has to be a priority this year and if management felt like that couldn’t happen with Paul MacLean behind the bench, then they had no choice.
A coaching change isn’t going to fix the issues the Senators have but it may make the rest of the season a little easier for the players that had an issue with MacLean’s approach, especially the star players. And for a team that has seen big name players walk out the door the last few years, that matters.
This really is a great opportunity for Dave Cameron. It’s an opportunity he would only get here (for obvious reasons) and now it’s up to him to make the best of it. And even though they removed that interim tag, Coach and GM will be reviewed again at the end of the season. Cameron was the easy, logical and cost-effective solution for the rest of this season but the organization absolutely has to revisit the Coaching position again this summer.
It’s now up to the players to improve under Dave Cameron. If they really felt like MacLean was holding them back in some way, they need to make sure they find another level to their game under the new Head Coach. Dave Cameron’s Ottawa Senators are on the ice for practice this morning. Should be an interesting round of media availability afterwards.
In the meantime, thanks to Paul MacLean for everything he did for this organization. For the last couple years he gave the team stability behind the bench and respect around the league. Paul won’t be out of work for long.
Both guys spoke to the media today. One was umm, far more eventful than the other.
