He’d been living on borrowed time for so long, it felt surreal when his time had finally come.
D.J. Smith was fired as head coach of the Ottawa Senators on Monday, a day after the club lost its fourth straight game, falling four games below .500 and entrenched in the NHL’s Atlantic Division basement.
Jacques Martin will step in as interim head coach, a move that many saw coming but were too polite to suggest, when Martin was hired as a senior coaching advisor on Dec. 5. Martin, 71, was the longest-serving Senators head coach in franchise history when he ran the team from 1996-2004, fired by then-owner Eugene Melnyk.
Interestingly, franchise icon Daniel Alfredsson, who had been helping out with Senators practices, takes on a more impactful role as a full assistant behind the bench.
I guess Alfie got his tryout in Sweden and passed the audition.
Davis Payne, the assistant coach in charge of Ottawa’s forwards, has also been let go.
Steve Staios, the Senators president of hockey operations and the interim GM, said he felt the coaching changes had to be made. While the Senators had shown flashes of better play in stretches of the season, the recent slide showed the team lapsing again.
“As time went on, a lot of the same things were our demise,” Staios said on a Zoom call with reporters late Monday afternoon. “We fell back into the game we were playing early in the season. There’s never good timing (for a firing) but for me, I think this was the right time to make the decision to bring some hope to our players, in search of some consistency to our game.”
Staios said that Smith handled the firing “like a true pro.
“He cared about this group and was a big part of the development of a lot of our players, our young players to get them to this level. It was a difficult day for me. It’s difficult for our players because I think we all feel a sense of responsibility — including D.J. He was disappointed in himself.”
We can debate the timing of Smith’s firing, if not its inevitability. The Senators had become painful to watch and letting Smith go almost feels like a merciful bloodletting, ending the man’s suffering.
There were predictions of a coaching change much earlier, given that so much was expected of this Senators team that foundered around the .500 mark most of the early season — many of the losses in the trademark fashion of recent seasons. Blown coverages. Blown leads. Struggling goalies.
Every time a coach was fired in the NHL — now Edmonton, now Minnesota, now St. Louis — fans in Ottawa wondered how Smith had lasted so long. He was hired on May 23, 2019 and this was his fifth season behind the Senators bench.
A partial explanation is that Staios had already had to fire GM Pierre Dorion unexpectedly in early November and he wasn’t prepared to fire the coach in rapid succession. Rather than fire Smith, he provided resources — Martin as an advisor and Alfredsson to work with players at practice.
Staios feels the elements that made Martin a successful coach in the league, his attention to detail, structure, discipline, are just what the doctor ordered for the scrambly Sens.
“What I’m looking for is consistent play,” Staios said, in one of his more emphatic moments. “There’s been too many times through the season where we’re not quite sure what we’re going to get on a night by night basis. So, I think there’s a process that needs to take place with this group.”
Process. He is already speaking Martin’s language.
As for Alfredsson, Staios admitted to being delighted that Ottawa’s Hall of Fame player and retired captain is willing to step into a bigger role than just helping out here and there. Staios feels that the more Alfie is around this group, the better off it will be.
No argument there.
With Payne out, Alfredsson will be running what is currently the fifth-worst power play in the league at 17.8 per cent.
“His ability to work with the forward group and on the power play is what led to putting this group together, having a good balance with Jack (Capuano) running the defence and penalty kill along with Ben Sexton.”
Staios feels Alfredsson will have a “massive” impact on all areas of the team, but especially the power play.
Management likes the “fit” of Martin and Alfredsson.
Down the road there will be a decision made on a new GM and a full-time head coach. All in due time, Staios said. He is not going to rush that GM decision.
Smith’s record as an NHL head coach: 317 games, 131 wins, 154 losses, 32 overtime losses for a .464 average. The Senators were the first opportunity for the 46-year-old Smith to work as a head coach. He had been an assistant in Toronto.
Early on, Smith was given lots of slack by then-GM Dorion because the team was rebuilding with draft picks and young stars. Last season’s finish just short of a playoff spot was a disappointment, and this season expectations had ratcheted to a point where the Senators had become a massive disappointment, arguably the most disappointing in the league.
Is it too late to salvage the season?
Staios didn’t say. For now, he just wants to see his players at their best, playing more consistently.
“I believe in this group,” he said. “I believe in this core.”
Give the man his due, Smith worked as hard as he could to the bitter end and never shirked responsibility.
On Monday in Arizona, he ran the final practice of his Ottawa career — a “fun” practice of shootouts, etc., after yet another distressing loss. How D.J. was that?
And how unfortunate that he was even out there as a lame duck coach. But Staios said it took time to put everything in place and then inform Smith.
Before he was let go, Smith accepted blame yet again.
“As a coach, you take all of the responsibility and I deserve that,” Smith said, not knowing he was about to be fired.
“My team’s not winning, so I’m the one that’s putting them on the ice. I’m the one making the decisions — I’m my own worst critic. But in saying that, I believe in this group, I believe in the leaders . . . they’re going to find a way.”
Small wonder the players like him. The media, too.
I can’t remember a time when Smith was sarcastic or rude to a reporter, no matter how difficult a loss or losing stretch. He answered the bell night after night. Addressed every question in a professional manner.
Now the team will strive to “find a way” under that steady old hand, Martin.
You can be sure he will be driving home particulars on detailed, defensive hockey.
All “part of the process” under that stickler Martin.
