Full credit to the Ottawa Senators for finding a way to give us something to talk about during this quiet period.
The idea of going a full ten days never really seemed realistic anyway. Barely lasted 24 hours actually. Eeeep.
Late last night, following a win over the Rochester Americans, the Ottawa Senators announced that Troy Mann is out as Head Coach in Belleville. David Bell will take over the role on an interim basis.
To say this came out of left field would be an understatement.
The reason behind the move was immediately made clear but Ryan Bowness met with the media in Belleville earlier today and rhymed off a few things. At the top of the list was the need for “better cohesion” between the teams in Ottawa and Belleville. Fairly vague but it did sound like there were a few factors at play here.
Meanwhile, Claire Hanna at TSN suggested that there may have been a particular incident that sealed Mann’s fate where pre-scouting material was shared with another NHL team. Not great, if true.
Safe to say we haven’t heard the end of this story though. Will certainly be interesting to see what Troy Mann has to say about the decision.
