Welcome to another edition of the Hockeybuzz hotstove.
In this one the hotstove examines whether or not the Senators made the right decision in canning head coach Paul MacLean.
Todd Cordell
I don't think Paul MacLean was the problem in Ottawa, and thought he should have been given at least the season to right the ship.
I watch a fair amount of Sens game/follow the team closely and I can't deny MacLean has made some questionable lineup decisions and given too many minutes to guys like Chris Neil, Zack Smith, etc. but he wasn't given the best roster to begin with.
Long-term the return for Jason Spezza might be OK (Alex Chiasson is decent and Nick Paul looks like he'll be a player) but they lost an established point producing top-6 center for a 3rd line winger in the short-term. They also have the lowest payroll in hockey, and beyond Erik Karlsson their defense is filled with guys who haven't come close to reaching their potential or guys long past their prime.
Again, you can question MacLean's lineup decisions at times, but he has a mediocre roster with the lowest payroll in hockey two points out of a playoff spot.
He also took the Sens to the playoffs in two of his three years there, including when there were no expectations to even come close to a playoff spot.
Tim Chiasson Paul MacLean is a good coach. I'm not sure what people expected of the Ottawa Senators roster this year but they're right where they should be. MacLean wasn't the problem in Ottawa.
It's hard to be a playoff team when Scrooge McMelnyk lights his checkbook on fire and says good luck. They had a legitimate first line center (Spezza) and now they don't (Turris). They were missing Marc Methot all season long. This isn't the easiest scenario for a coach to be successful.
As soon as Spezza was out the door Paul MacLean became the village scapegoat in Ottawa. I live in Ottawa and I've listened to the complaints turn from Spezza to MacLean on a dime. Good luck to Dave Cameron because the Senators roster is like a puzzle when my two year old daughter is done with it; half the pieces are missing.
Clearly there was something going on internally and this firing was a few weeks in the making. I don't like the firing and I think MacLean is going to make another team very happy before the end of the season.
Matt Henderson Ottawa is interesting in that the decision to turf MacLean really questions how much impact a coach has on the game in spite of his players. The Senators have the 30th ranked Salary in the NHL. They are spending roughly as close to as little money as you legally cab in the new NHL. The team is basically Karlsson, Bobby Ryan, and about 4-5 OK NHL players then they hit a brick wall of experience and talent. In all the fancy stats metrics they fall into Flames territory, which is to say they are horrible and don't control the play at all. Is that on the coach? Some of it for sure has to be, right? But when you look at their team they have guys like Phillips playing 22.5 minutes a night. The Senators' biggest problem is that they are 2 points out of a playoff spot. The reality is they should be fighting for McDavid. I don't know if some other coach is going to squeeze more blood from that stone than MacLean did. Personally, I think Melnyk and company are out to lunch.
Adam French Tentative no
When a coach is fired there is always a lot of speculation. Especially a coach with such a good reputation and a piece of significant hardware. I expected the Sens to miss the playoffs this season barring something unforeseen and I was taking into account Anderson wouldn't be a beast again. Despite Anderson's best efforts this team is middling, like I think most reasonably expected. You trade your first line centre for a 2nd/3rd line scoring winger, step 2 ?, step 3 profit? The top line is MacArthur-Turris-Under-performing Ryan (for his salary), did anybody really expect that to be hyper-competitive? There are some nice young pieces on and coming on to the team, but realistically none of them are immediate impact "stars." They'll need time to continue to grow like Zibanejad. I don't know what management or ownership was expecting, but a hard fight for the Wildcard was a very real scenario and what were they doing up to that point? Just that.
I've heard it said he lost the room for various reasons. If so. It makes some sense. If that is the real answer why they let him go, I wouldn't be confused, it can happen to the best of coaches (hence the tentative "no"). But if this was a decision based around the idea that this team is under-performing and is a contender, then quite frankly Murray should look this roster he has constructed without the black and red glasses on.
James Tanner I think so. In reality, all we know about coaches is based on how they employ their players and what strategies they use. I think, however, that being a coach goes a lot deeper than that. To a lot players, a coach is probably like a father-figure of some kind, and there is an entire element - possibly the most important one - that fans and writers just aren't privy to.
So, while there is certainly a lot of things going on in Ottawa, like money, ownership, the exodus of star players etc. etc. that a coach can't control, it very well could have been time for a change. I can't know for sure, but what I do know is that Bryan Murray thought so and he's never really given me a reason to doubt him.
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