With another frustrating loss on Saturday night, it’s safe to say that the Ottawa Senators are a officially in a tailspin.
They’ve dropped back to back games, four straight on home ice and their 4-6-0 record has them sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference. And following that loss over the weekend, the frustration seemed to hit a boiling point. Some fans are frustrated with the Coach. Some players are frustrated with the fans. And based on my mentions on Twitter over the last 48 hours, A LOT of people are frustrated with me.
So much attention was put on the idea of getting off to a better start this season and while it’s still early, it’s hard to imagine it going much worse. They’re not San Jose bad obviously but in terms of meeting expectations, they’re not particularly close.
The combination of debilitating absences down the middle and on the back end combined with the circus-like atmosphere around the team in the last couple weeks, predictably, has everyone on edge.
And what better way to process our collective angst than with Monday News and Notes. No news. No notes. Plenty of unhinged venting and finger pointing.
-We’ll start with the “Fire DJ!” chants that echoed through the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday night. I said it on Twitter at the time and I stand by it now – it was embarrassing. It’s not surprising that frustrations boiled over the way they did and obviously the paying customer is free to express those frustrations by chanting for someone to lose their job just isn’t a great look for anyone.
-Now, that doesn’t mean we need to let the Head Coach off the hook completely. He’s probably absorbing an unreasonable amount of the criticism for the team’s current struggles but we also knew that was gonna happen if the team got off to another slow start. Sure they’ve been unlucky and yea, the injuries have been crippling but it’s not surprising that some fans have chosen to tune out the context around the slow start.
-The context is pretty important though. There aren’t many (any?) teams in the league that could absorb the loss of three top six defenceman and three centres so it’s not overly surprising that Ottawa has struggled a little bit without Chabot, Zub, Brannstrom, Greig, Pinto and Kastelic, to a lesser extent.
-That context is also critically important when trying to determine whether or not this is a good time to make a change behind the bench. Like the Dorion firing, there is a certainly inevitability when it comes to changes to the Coaching Staff. Eventually, Andlauer and Staios are going to bring in their guy but they want to bring that person in at a time when they are set up for success. Steve Staios, who is pretty new to the role, has talked about his belief in the coaching staff and the need for stability right now following the chaos of the last couple weeks so it’s hard to imagine he sees this as a good time to bring a new Head Coach.
-Elliotte Friedman talked about the situation in Ottawa on the latest episode of 32 Thoughts and offered both reflections on the weekend drama and ideas about what might come next for the Senators. He mentions specifically that one of the unsuccessful Ownership bids had plans to bring Patrick Roy in as a Head Coach and he also offers up the name of John Gruden, currently coaching the AHL Marlies, as an option. He also mentions Claude Julien as an option that’s currently out there. Generally, Friedman suggests that a chance right now seems unlikely.
-The reaction to Brady Tkachuk’s post-game rant was pretty disappointing although again, not surprising. There is a segment of the fan base that feels like this is all DJ’s fault and therefore he deserves to be publicly embarrassed, so someone suggesting anything even remotely in opposition to that is gonna hear about. I say this speaking from experience. My mentions have been ugly the last couple days. But just as fans have the right to express their frustration through booing and calling for firings, the players can also use their voice to share their own thoughts and feelings. Honestly, I thought Brady showed admirable restraint in his remarks considering what we know about him and about his willingness to stick up for his teammates. This is what leadership looks like.
-This. This was dumb. Just a spectacularly disingenuous representation of what DJ Smith was talking about with this quote. He wasn’t blaming the players. He’s saying the attention should be on the players and not how the calls for his job made him feel as a Head Coach.
-There are rumours out there today that Jiri Smejkal, who is currently with Belleville of the American Hockey League, is headed back to Europe. Disappointing if true as Smejkal seemed like a viable call-up option after an impressive preseason.
