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When re-watching parts of the Sens' 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay from Tuesday night, it was very evident that Ottawa had no legs even after having three days between games. I couldn't help but think that DJ Smith's approach to preparing for the Lightning game actually hurt his team by going hard-core battle drills and conditioning on Sunday after their loss to Florida on Saturday night. The knock against DJ for the last two seasons has been how hard his training camps have been, leaving his players with little left in the tank to start the season. Quietly, many players said it took them a while to actually recover from the daily grind of DJ's training camps, therefore affecting the teams' results in the early of the season. When media and fans alike all agree that Ottawa had no legs on Tuesday night, it goes back to the head coach and how he's preparing his team. He needs to have the pulse on his team, not set them up for failure by doing what he did on Sunday at practice and by using the same system that clearly didn't yield results last season.

When looking at the three straight losses by the Sens, many of the breakdowns go back to what has ailed this team for over a few years now and that is very little defensive zone structure. Add in the fact that this coach seems ready to go down with Nikita Zaitsev by constantly playing him above what he's capable of handling at the NHL level and you have a recipe for disaster. Zaitsev went from being a healthy scratch to 2nd most TOI against Florida and 3rd most TOI against Tampa Bay. I can't imagine another NHL head coach distributing players' ice time like this. Usually, when you insert a player that hasn't played much, they are given a limited role, not an advanced role that they can't handle and have shown they can't handle for a few years! Listening to DJ after the Tampa Bay game in his presser and as the leader of this team, he looked very dejected. His body language shows he's worried about his job.

When listening to Bruce Cassidy of Vegas and Jim Montgomery of Boston the last few days on TSN1200, both coaches give some details on their defensive structure as well as how they play as five man units in all phases of the game. It was refreshing to hear and you can see how both teams have responded to a new head coach in a short time because they're competent NHL head coaches with a lot of experience. Both teams are getting superior results to start the year.

Personally, it's very alarming to see the same approach by DJ Smith while getting the same results. With the upgrade in talent has increased scoring, nothing has changed defensively. You can't try to outscore teams game in and out, there needs to be some serious change to how this team plays their 200-foot game and it's clear DJ isn't the guy to do this. Otherwise, fans would've seen a big change in how Ottawa approaches this game as five-man units.

The only aspect that has helped DJ a bit is when he's on home ice with the last change, to nobody's surprise Ottawa is 4-1 at home, but 0-4 on the road. Let's not forget Ottawa has played three backup goalies to start the season, which got them two wins plus a Washington team that was without five of their top nine forwards when Ottawa defeated them 5-2.

Not all of this falls on DJ Smith, as Sens GM Pierre Dorion has to shoulder some of the blame for the player personnel he has given DJ to work with. Dorion was quite angry after the last few losses, something he doesn't show often when sitting in the press box but it was clear for all to see his displeasure with the results on the ice. For the past two off-seasons, Dorion has failed to acquire or sign a top four defenseman, even though he has told the media and fanbase numerous times that it was his priority.

If this team was to go 1-2 or 0-3 on this mini three game homestand, I truly can't see DJ coaching this team when they travel to NJ and Philadelphia a week from now.

Thoughts Sens fans on the current state of the team?! What needs to be done with player personnel to get back on the winning track? Predictions for tonight's game?

Thanks for reading.
Kevin

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