BREAKING: Sens trigger major shakeup with huge announcement
Over the last couple of years, every summer leading into a new regular season the Ottawa Senators walk in with the highest of hopes to break their long-standing playoff drought that currently stands at 6 seasons - going on 7.
You'd think with Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson, and a still-producing Claude Giroux, that the Senators would be in the hunt for a playoff spot instead of toiling at the very bottom of the Atlantic Division - even behind the Montreal Canadiens.
Well, the 11-15-0 Senators took a step in the right direction earlier today as they fired head coach D.J. Smith and replaced him with Jacques Martin who was previously their head coach between 1995-96 to 2003-04.
Smith spent 4 seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs as an assistant coach between 2015-16 and 2018-19 before taking on the head coaching position in Ottawa ahead of the 2019-20 season. Smith ranks 2nd all time in franchise history with 317 games coached - behind Martin - and 131 victories. He went 131-154-32 in parts of 5 seasons.
Martin was recently hired as Senior Advisor and has now been officially appointed as interim head coach. Long-time Ottawa Senators legend Daniel Alfredsson was also promoted to assistant coach after taking a developmental job earlier in the season with the club.
Tim Stutzle leads the team with 29 points in 26 games, Claude Giroux is right behind him with 25 points, Drake Batherson has 10 goals and 23 points, and Brady Tkachuk and Jakob Chychrun round out the top with 21 points apiece.
As has been the case for years, their goaltending has been their Achilles heel as Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg have combined to go 11-15-0 with a 3.39 G.A.A. and a .887 SV%.
The defensive-minded Martin will look to fix the broken penalty kill that sits 31st in the NHL with a paltry 72.41% success rate. On the flip side, Alfredsson will look to work his magic on the 21st ranked power play unit that has succeeded on 17.76% of their opportunities this season.
| POLL | ||
18 DECEMBRE | 579 ANSWERS BREAKING: Sens trigger major shakeup with huge announcement Is the Sens firing their coach enough to help turn their season around? | ||
| Yes, they should improve now | 92 | 15.9 % |
| No, they're going to finish low again | 358 | 61.8 % |
| No, but a major trade will turn things around | 129 | 22.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
