As everyone knows that lives in the 613, the Senators are not exactly the dominating team that fans were accustomed too seeing back in the late 90′s and the first half of the ’00s. The blue chip defensemen that anchored the Senators team that made it to the big dance are long gone, the front liners are missing some familiar faces, and the goaltending….well ok the goaltending has never been great. As the Sens continue to sink in the standings and look destined to be finishing well out of the playoffs for the second time in three years, the winds of change are blowing hard against the arena out in wide open farm fields. Something needs to be done to reverse the almost yearly sinking of the team’s record and fortunes. Thankfully for the Senators, the team’s management is on the case. The General Manager of the Senators, Bryan Murray, has a solution that should bolster the teams fortunes and remove the sole reason why the Senators are doing as poorly as they are.
They want to fire Cory Clouston and hire another head coach.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” sums this up perfectly.
Some noise has been made that Murray, who felt that the team had the right mix of players to be competitive and get into the playoffs this year, had allegedly asked for permission to can Clouston within the last month, an allegation Murray flatly denies.
“First thing that I’d like to clear up that is wrong, is that I never called Eugene Melnyk and suggested that we fire the coach,” Murray said. “I don’t know where that started. I just know you guys (media) wanted the truth out there. And that is factual.”
That being said, Murray hasn’t’ exactly been putting the rumours of Clouston time ending in Ottawa to rest. Meetings with the team expressing their bosses extreme displeasure with their shoddy play happened before the Senators left for Chicago, and recent interviews give the impression that he’s treating Clouston’s employment as day-to-day.
“I’m not going to answer a question like that, because I don’t know,” Murray said when asked if Clouston would finish the season. “We go to Chicago (which they would lose 3-2 in a shootout). We come home and play Tampa (which they would lose 2-1 in regulation). We go on the road the following week. I can’t answer that honestly and I’ve talked to the (coaching) staff about that. We’re all in a position where we have to do a better job.”
The General Manager doesn’t’ know if he’s going to fire one of his subordinates or not? Did he become possessed by the spirit of Charlie Brown?
With many in the league feeling that if Clouston does get the heave-ho, Murray will get behind the bench for the first time since 2008. And he has proven that he’s not a slouch in that position either, having two .600 seasons and the man that coached the Sens to the only Stanley Cup version of the modern era, although the next year, the team started poorly, and he was promoted to his current position. The track record of coaches hired by Murray include…
- John Paddock – When hired he had been the coach for the team’s AHL squad in Binghamton for five years, but hand’t coached in the NHL level since 1995 with the Winnipeg Jets. In typical Ottawa fashion it seemed, the team bolted out of the gate, but stated running out of gas as the season progressed. Murray would fire Paddock by February, but the team never rebounded and was swept in the first round. Paddock is now assistant GM for the Flyers.
- Craig Hartsburg – Signed in the off-season to a three year deal after three years coaching the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Hartsburgh would be another coach with a large gap in NHL coaching experience, albeit only being out of the NHL since 2001. He would barely last three months, with the team continuing where they left off, playing uninspired hockey and calls that Hartsburgh was way too player friendly to get any performance out of the team. Add to reported problems with one of their stars at the time (Heatley), and it was almost over before it began. He’s now on year two of coaching the Everett Silvertips of the WHL.
- Cory Clouston- The first coach since….well since Murray to not get the axe within a year, he was able to revive the team inherited from Hartsburgh to a surprising run to the playoffs, although they would come up just short. Winning would continue in his second season, finishing in the playoffs but losing tot he Penquins in six games. In his third season, the team is currently on pace to give him his first losing record has an NHL coach. Assuming he finishes the season.
Looking back, Clouston ability to extract enough wins from the team to get into the playoffs last year probably helped his boss keep his job, as media reports were already swirling around that Murray might be the next to go. While having a winning record under the Murray reign doesn’t' guarantee you’ll keep your job (Paddock was fired with a .600+ winning percentage), that he’s the third coach in three years for the club probably helped. Outside of the New York Yankees of the 80′s, coaches usually don’t’ get canned so quickly.
So with the Sens once again looking as non-threatening of a squad as they did during Hartsburgh brief, tumultuous reign, would Murray canning him really be the way to have this squad snap back into winning again? I’d have to say not a chance. The fact that he was able to coach last year squad to the playoffs was quite impressive, so say nothing of getting any life out of that dysfunctional mess he inherited in the first year (and pre-empting Heatley whining headlines until the offseason doesn’t’ hurt either). And with injuries such as Jason Spezza and made-of-glass Pascal LeClaire this season for weeks at a time, the fact that the Sens were keeping the Leafs, Islanders and Devils company only recently is a minor miracle. I’d have to say that there are few coaches that could get this bunch to dig themselves out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves, and they probably have too much recent experience for Murray to consider hiring them.
It’s not like Clouston has been getting an influx of useful tools either. To say that there has been a talent drain between the squad that he inherited and the one that he has now would be an understatement. The captain, Daniel Alfredsson, doesnt’ have as strong of linemates and is getting close to the big 4-0, which for anyone other then Chris Chelios or Gordie Howe means it’s time to look at retirement. Jason Spezza as all Sens fans know is out for a month or more. Heatley production, if not his presence, is missed, and the players that came back in return aren’t even close to being up for the task. Defensive stalwarts such as Anton Volchenkov are long gone, with only Erik Karlsson looking promising in his absence. Filip Kuba was injured for half the year so far, and looks to still be off his game from it. Chris Phillips looks just absolutely terrible, and the rest of the blue line looks very green or unremarkable. As for free agent help….well….Alexei Kovolev and Sergei Gonchar. Nuff said.
So whose job is it to procure talent for this club? Why the General Manager of course. And as we can see by the teams record, he’s been doing such a good job you’d wonder if he’s angling for the Islanders position if Garth Snow is ever fired. Obviously the Heatley trade comes up as example #1 of his procurement talents, which makes me wonder why the organization didn’t just give the guy the Yashin treatment. it’s not like there wasn’t a precedent for dealing with players that behave like three year old that just crapped their pants. Instead of forcing a trade that netted the club a washed up first rounder (Milan Michalek), a flash-in-the-pan (Jonathan Cheechoo), and a draft pick, aka getting nothing guaranteed to be worth a damn. The Antoine Vermette deal, while still young, isn’t looking too hot, not only with LeClaire being injured often and not looking any better then Brian Elliott, but seeing Vermette posting a season that would have ranked him in the top five of Ottawa scorers doesn’t’ help either. Smaller deals such as trading their second rounder in last years draft for eighteen games of Andy Sutton is a bit odd considering that really, the Senators should be a rebuilding team. Then there’s his free agent acquisitions, such as offering Alexei “Hot-and-Cold” Kovolev, who was such a great scoring machine (or so the salary would make you believe), that Montreal didn’t even make him an offer. Yes Montreal, who as we read in this article here on SBN hasn’t had an actual scoring threat since the Trudeau administration. Other such “upgrades” like Jarkko Ruutu, and Sergei Gonchar makes you wonder if Murray is looking for projects, starting an Ottawa-based retirement home, or this is the best of the lot that will come to Ottawa. At least he didn’t resign Redden. In fact, the only side of player recruitment that hasn’t been looking horrible is the draft, and that’s because it takes years to determine if picks are any good or not. As you can see, it’s not exactly a sterling performance record.
Jack Paddock summed it up the Senators downward spiral pretty well in 2008 with this quote:
“I think now he’s next in line. We were 14 games over .500 when I was fired. They’re seven under now. Somebody needs to take responsibility for that. Whether the coaches he hired and fired were good or not, they’re his players and they’re either not playing good or can’t play, one or the other.” He was then asked which was the case: “The players are not very good, that’s the problem.”
While at the time it might have sounded like a bit of sour grapes from an ex employee, looking back it looks like he was seeing something that the rest of us hadn’t noticed yet. The Senators team of the 2005-6 season was great, and the team that followed it into the 2006-7 season was pretty good too. But like an old house, the foundation of the team has been rotting away for years, with nothing done to fix it. Sure a bit of fresh paint and a bit of maintenance in the form of coach changes and playoff appearances helps to keep the owner and visitors to it oblivious of what’s going on, but in the end if you leave it too long, it needs to be torn down, and rebuilt. The house that Murray inherited needed a bit of shoring up, but it was in good condition when he inherited it from John Muckler. Now it’s practically condemned,and the mouthpieces seem shocked that it’s become that way, while doing little to keep it from sliding to that condition.
I agree that the Senators need to make changes in their management ranks. They need someone that can rebuild this team, and get players that can deliver consistency to bring home the ultimate goal for any NHL team. Someone that can attract good free agents, make effective trades, identify weaknesses on the team and address them instead of having their head in the sand. They need to try something different if they want different results.
And that something different, is finally getting rid of Bryan Murray.
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The owner of the Sports Blog Network, Chris tells it exactly as he sees it, be it in the stands, in front of the tv, or on his semi-trusty laptop. And always with a can of trusty Dr. Pepper by his side, and spell-check working overtime. 