Senators fire DJ Smith: Martin named interim HC

[pmorrow]

https://twitter.com/Senators/status/...hxuXkpYaA&s=19

[2014olympicgold]

And the assistant coach Davis Payne fired.

It's actually pretty interesting they chose now to fire him.

They are in the middle of a road trip, and need to travel to Arizona and Colorado this week. And back in Ottawa for the 23rd, then in Toronto on the 27th for their first game post Christmas. I've always understood teams prefer to fire a coach while at home so he can remove his stuff that day and it's less disruptive for the team. They chose, the middle of a road trip lol. Such an Ottawa move somehow.

He deserved to be fired, even weeks ago. But a week+ ago when they were in the middle of a homestand was the better time to do it. Not when you now make your ex-employee fly across the country to empty their desk.

[Axeman33]

Alfredsson joining the bench staff too.

[Pengwin7]

Time for a change for the Sens. Brutal.

[TheDard]

The second they announced Martin coming in as an advisor; it spelt the end for Smith.
He was there to advise himself on what was going on with the team and be ready to take over for the rest of the season.

[RizzeeDizzee]

I feel for Martin. Korpisalo is a BADDD goalie.....like just plain bad. I said it before the season and he's only underscored it. I think Forsberg could work out; but this might become like what happened in Dallas a few years ago when they thought it would be Holtby and Khudobin but it ended up being Oettinger. And Sogaard, though indeed young and having slowed after a scorching start in the AHL this season, still might be worth a look.

[PenguinHunter]

Alfredsson joining the bench staff too.

this is aweosme!

[Godin]

Alfredsson joining the bench staff too.

I like this.

[Belexus75]

And the assistant coach Davis Payne fired.

It's actually pretty interesting they chose now to fire him.

They are in the middle of a road trip, and need to travel to Arizona and Colorado this week. And back in Ottawa for the 23rd, then in Toronto on the 27th for their first game post Christmas. I've always understood teams prefer to fire a coach while at home so he can remove his stuff that day and it's less disruptive for the team. They chose, the middle of a road trip lol. Such an Ottawa move somehow.

He deserved to be fired, even weeks ago. But a week+ ago when they were in the middle of a homestand was the better time to do it. Not when you now make your ex-employee fly across the country to empty their desk.

While i mostly i agree with you, its Christmas Season coming up, i dont think they wanted to fire him day or 2 before. I mean its already too close to Christmas but at least he got few days to cool off...i actually like this move if they were going to do it this year...

[2014olympicgold]

While i mostly i agree with you, its Christmas Season coming up, i dont think they wanted to fire him day or 2 before. I mean its already too close to Christmas but at least he got few days to cool off...i actually like this move if they were going to do it this year...

Ya my thought was why not last week. They hired Martin Dec 6 or something, you knew he wasn't coming in to help Smith, why not let Smith go last week before this road trip? The team is just a mess. You have a new owner who let their GM and Head coach go mid-season. An organization who had a bad relationship with their Franchise Star Daniel Alfresson, who is coming in with little experience coaching to coach a team with 11% playoff chance? A 71yr old who hasn't head coached in like 10yrs coming in. Like, people his age need help signing into the WiFi....And he's in control of a team who's stars are born in 1998 or earlier.

I wonder if there's a written or unwritten rule around firing coaches during the Christmas Roster Freeze for the players. Because that's starting tmo at 12am. But ya, Smith needed to be fired, but why not last week lol. And why Martin? And I think the assistant head coach that wasn't fired is in control of their defense, which hasn't been good.

[stevegamer]

There's definitely an unwritten rule about not firing people around the holiday season unless it's for a cause that is behavioral, but that's not a NHL thing - it's a real world thing.

I've seen firings timed to affect the holidays for people, sometimes out of malice, sometimes out of not thinking at all. I can say that it generally reflects badly on the person doing the firing, unless there's a behavioral reason. Don't get me started on firings that are timed that way due to spite; I've gotten to know that some people I worked with are trash humans who need to be removed from the organization due to that.

I do think that the fans were fine firing Dorion, due to the bad job as GM, which was likely exacerbated by the prior owner. Also a GM has very little to do with the day to day situation with the team, unless they are an extreme outlier.

They did need a change, and I guess that the timing is related partly to when Martin was up to speed.