It's sort of a tough pill to swallow when a division rival with basically an infinite pool of money is shamed into thinking about the game in a different light. Such is what happened this off-season and this morning, when the Toronto Maple Leafs fired
these two brains for
Kyle Dubas -- one of the sharper minds in the business.
The Dubas hiring, in and of itself, really isn't surprising at all -- he's a super bright guy that a sensible organization was going to retain within the next couple of years, especially considering the way hockey's being thought differently now and for the foreseeable future. What's stunning is that
this organization decided to reverse course. You could always count on the Maple Leafs to fly in the face of reality and pump endless resources into character traits and intangibles. That's probably coming to an end.
There's also another concern -- I'd like to think that Dubas, in his new position, is going to be afforded the opportunity to work with a number of guys who have worked with numbers for years. A week ago,
Eric Tulsky announced he had been retained by a hockey organization in a part-time capacity. He didn't release what team, but you have to think Toronto's on the short-list here. This on the heels of
New Jersey hiring blogosphere stat guy Sunny Mehta to run their show.
How does this all relate back to Ottawa? We've talked about ways for an organization strapped by a painful internal budget to beat the rest of the hockey market by simply using the data that's been kicked around here for years. The problem is that window appears to be closing. To say nothing of Ottawa's already depleted hockey operations department -- Bryan Murray's fighting the good fight against cancer, and it appears that it's now a two-man show between the likes of Pierre Dorion and Randy Lee.
This is, of course, doubly concerning with the departure of Tim Murray, et al. to the Buffalo Sabres organization. Him and his contingency were guys who also paid a lot of attention to the numbers stuff. And rest assured, they're doing it in Buffalo, too.
At some point, you think Ottawa -- no matter who it is -- is going to have to hire externally. They appear woefully understaffed, and Bryan Murray's headed out of the business (at least in a full-time capacity) in coming time. I would be surprised if Ottawa didn't head in a similar direction to the one above, especially since every dollar in and every dollar out is of utmost importance to the club.
On the ice, I still like Ottawa to compete for a playoff spot this year -- I think they're right on the border of playoff-team/just missed the cut. And I still like a number of the younger players in the system, particularly guys like Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman who seem to really have a shot at getting a full season of playing time under their belt in 2014-2015.
But, the pressure's on this team to get into the post-season -- make no mistake. This is an organization that had a woeful 2013-2014 amidst big expectations, and another year on the outside could mean a purging of executives and coaches running the show.
Interesting times for the Senators ...
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