While teams around the National Hockey League have been frantically filling their vacant Head Coach positions, things have been pretty quiet for the Ottawa Senators.
Alain Vigneault landed a big money contract with the Philadelphia Flyers. Same thing for Joel Quenneville in Florida and Todd McLellan in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, we haven’t heard a whole lot about Ottawa’s search.
Marc Crawford is an obvious candidate. Troy Mann will get an interview too. But beyond that, it has been mostly crickets.
This morning, Bruce Garrioch mentioned that the Senators are in no hurry to fill the position.
But with vacancies in Buffalo, Edmonton, Anaheim and possibly St. Louis, plus whoever joins that list after the first round of the playoffs, it might be a good time for the Senators to get the ball rolling a little bit.
Dorion has already narrowed down his list of candidates to six or seven apparently and it sounds like a familiar face could be a part of that group.
Jacques Martin, who has been an Assistant Coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins since 2013, may be on the Senators radar for their vacant position.
Martin spent nine seasons behind the bench in Ottawa, putting up an impressive 341-235-96-20 record and guiding the Senators through a previous run of unparalleled success. In the regular season, anyway.
Martin is also the league record holder in total time spent staring intently at the scoreboard.
Martin is considered to be a defensive specialist of sorts and with two Stanley Cups to his name, he certainly has a track record of success that would make him a candidate worth considering.
What’s not clear is if we would actually consider coming back to the city where he really made a name for himself in the NHL.
Whether it’s Jacques Martin or someone else, now seems like a pretty good time for Pierre Dorion to roll up his sleeves and start interviewing guys.
Mostly so I have something to write about.
