DJ Smith dismissed as Ottawa Senators Head Coach

TWIG – You've seen this before and it's not restricted to the NHL alone. In the U.S. within its four "major" sports, each new season is preceded by a list of the coaches that some media members have deemed to be the "most likely to be fired" at some point in their team's season.

These bizarre lists get updated along the way to account for teams that have underperformed, thus earning their coach a spot on this list of infamy. But make no mistake, in each of these leagues, on every team, every time a coach is dismissed they go through a list of former league coaches in their sport to see who might be a good candidate for another go-round at it.

In the NBA alone I think Larry Brown has coached at least half of the teams in the league, or so it seems. More often than not someone who has been in one of the prominent sports leagues and has shown a bit of the moxie and guile required to win a few games here and there gets the open job.

And just as frequently a lot of these coaches flame out once again. They seem to possess the ability to get in, perhaps change a club culture a bit, win some games without obtaining the big prize and are gone from our presence once more. Some guys get multiple chances to come back, some get about two of them and then that's it.

So is life as a professional sports coach. I suppose if that is the path you have chosen for yourself, go for it and best of luck to you. It takes guts and uncanny courage to coach in any sport at any level. But when there are no other leagues above the one you are in the challenges and ensuing stress can be upper level too. There isn't enough Pepto Bismol in the world for some coaches to take that on. I

n the National Hockey League there are 32 teams and head coaching jobs. For this 2023-24 season, most teams are at about the 30-game point of their schedule out of 82 games. So far in the early going a total of four head coaches have been relieved of their duties. Quite often I chuckle to myself a bit when I see that "relieved of their duties" tag. Yeah sure, and no one is probably as "relieved" as the poor coach who suffered the indignation of getting a very public job termination.

On Nov. 12 Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft was dismissed. In this case the team was in the midst of a very poor start to the new season. The Oilers were 3-9-1 on that date. In my view they were playing quite poorly when it came to the five-man team defensive play and that filtered down to their goaltending. They brought in Kris Knoblauch as the new coach and sent tender Jack Campbell to their AHL affiliate. The question begs to be asked, was it the roster or the coach?

Knoblauch is the 4th coach of the Oilers (McLellan, Tippett, Woodcroft, Knoblauch) since early into the 2018-19 season. Sixth season, 4th coach. My answer is easy, no depth on defense and no top-tier goaltending. The Oilers front office has been my main suspect for many seasons now.

On Nov. 27 the Wild cut the cord on Dean Evason. While I never saw Evason as a coach who could deliver a Cup to The State of Hockey, I have to be honest and say that he could coach. Without belaboring a topic that has been beaten to a fair thee well, in Minnesota it is also the roster. And it isn't that the team doesn't have some talent it's just that this club has to play a more perfect team game to win in the absence of big-time superstars.

And of course, they are also in the middle of navigating cap restrictions which has diminished the roster to an extent.

On Dec. 12 the St. Louis Blues fired Craig Berube. In a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business, whatever grace he may have been afforded for winning the team's only Stanley Cup in team history (2019) had apparently been exhausted. In observing the proceedings in The Gateway City I picked up quickly on GM Doug Armstrong stating that the dismissal wasn't Berube's fault.

Well, he's right about that. It is his fault. That's right. I look at some of the club's post-Cup roster maneuvers and can only shake my head. When their best defenseman, Alex Pietrangelo, was due for a new contract they let him walk.

After the 2021-22 season they opted to not re-sign David Perron. These are two players that change the entire complexion of your team. But Army and owner Tom Stillman did decide to give two other players, Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas, almost identical 8 year-$65 mil deals. These two are decent players, but they aren't Pietrangelo or Perron. So Berube pays the price here for front office miscalculations. On Dec. 18, the Ottawa Senators fired DJ Smith. The team promoted the newly hired Jacques Martin to assume the duties with the "interim" term being a part of his job title.

You could make the argument that this was a thinly disguised maneuver to accommodate some posterior covering once they did release Smith. So, is coaching the problem in the Canadian Capital? I don't believe so. Since appearing in the Eastern Conference Final in 2017, losing to the eventual Cup winner Penguins in a seven-game thriller, this club has not had a sniff at the playoffs since. That’s six seasons ago.

Is that on Smith? Or is that on the team's management? I have my answer. In the very recent past, this is the team that could have locked down Cam Talbot and Filip Gustavsson as their netminding duo. They didn't. And now another coach has paid the price for the inadequacies of his team's front office.  

About all I can say here is when you see that a coach has been dismissed in one of the four major sports, especially in the NHL, read between the lines friends. It's not always the coach, they are just usually the ones that are the easiest to let go. Don't look now but the Minnesota Vikings aren't locks to get into the NFL postseason. They are currently at 7-7 with tilts upcoming with the Lions and then Green Bay at home, finishing up with the Lions in Detroit in the season finale.

The once upward-trending club that went 6-1 after a disastrous start is now at 1-3 in their last 4 contests. While I don't feel that they need to win out to get into the playoffs I do believe they are going to have to take two of three to do so. After the loss versus Cincy last week the team's playoff probability stands at 54%.

If they win against the Lions on Sunday the chance elevates to 78%. If they lose it drops to 39%. It would behoove the team to take out the Lions on Sunday. By the time this edition of the Reader hits the stands, we will already have our answer. PEACE