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When Ottawa Senators fans wake up this morning they should still be angry with how DJ Smith outcoached himself in Thursday night's home loss to Minnesota. In fact, this current Sens' roster and upper management, most notably Sens' GM Pierre Dorion should also be disappointed after DJ decided to make a lineup change while riding a four game winning streak. What NHL head coach makes a lineup change for the sake of it when riding a four game winning streak? It would've been different had there been an injury as to why DJ inserted Nikita Zaitsev but that wasn't the case on Thursday night as the Sens' head coach said he was making Nick Holden a healthy scratch so he could get Zaitsev some game action in case of injuries and had sat for 4 games. I spoke with numerous NHL personnel, former/present players, and scouts over the last 36 hours and there wasn't a single individual that could justify what DJ did. The problem is DJ employs a double standard because if this truly was his reason for dressing Zaitsev, then why hasn't he played Dylan Gambrell yet in any of the team's first seven games? At this point in his coaching career, nobody should accept mistakes like that of Thursday night. Pretty much every Sens' fan said prior to the season they hoped DJ wouldn't play Zaitsev unless there were injuries on the blue line, even then many said JBD or Lassi Thomson were far better options. Yet here we are only seven games into the season and DJ continues to show many fans why Dorion needs to put Zaitsev on waivers for the purpose of being sent down to Belleville because no team would claim him at this point. The GM needs to make sure this situation doesn't happen again this season!

Sadly, DJ outcoaches himself at times, which shouldn't happen in his fourth season. There should be no more rookie coaching mistakes, as many fans said over social media on Thursday night, if the head coach tells the fanbase and media the day before the regular season that the best players will play, why scratch Nick Holden after possibly his best game of the season? Holden was outstanding on the PK against Dallas and led the team with five blocked shots on goal! To nobody's surprise, Brannstrom struggled at times against Minnesota due to his defense partner. How many times did the Sens get hemmed into their own end in the 2nd period when they struggled to create any offense? This situation happened each time when Zaitsev was on the ice in the second period, constantly swinging momentum in the Wild's favour. Not to mention, Brannstrom plays with so much more confidence when paired with Holden.

On three occasions Thursday night, DJ got stuck with his fourth line out against the Wild's first line, on each occasion they got exposed due to the superior speed and skill. This should never happen when you have the last line change at home. Inexcusable! This team is winning despite the coaching mistakes because this season they have the talent to offset ridiculous coaching decisions. I truly thought this head coach would've learned from his first three seasons behind the bench when it comes to deploying the current roster properly.

As they say, a very good NHL coach can earn you an extra five-plus wins a season, but on the flip side, there are coaches who actually do the opposite and outthink themselves, hurting their own team by making horrible decisions with how they deploy players on their roster. It has been said for two years now, take away Zaitsev from DJ now! Dorion needs to fix this issue more than ever. Nobody can tell the Sens' fanbase that JBD or Thomson aren't better options on defense. These numbers don't lie when it comes to Zaitsev.

Sens w/ Brannstrom & Zaitsev - 37.89% xGF
Sens w/ Brannstrom but w/o Zaitsev - 58.97% xGF
Sens w/ Zaitsev & w/o Brannstrom - 14.35% xGF
Sens w/o Zaitsev - 57.8% xGF

Travis Hamonic really struggled against Minnesota but he will keep his spot in the lineup and isn't held accountable the way others are on defense. He made endless mistakes clearing the defensive zone while making some horrible reads. Thankfully for Hamonic, Jake Sanderson masks some of Hamonic's mistakes, otherwise, it would be worse!

When looking at how many minutes Thomas Chabot plays, this is already a concern only seven games into the season. He has had three games of 26-27 min. TOI, to go with three games of 24-25 min. TOI. DJ needs to spread out the minutes far better because it seems Chabot misses practice time the next day whenever playing over 26 minutes. No wonder Chabot hasn't progressed defensively under this coaching staff the way you would hope an 8 million dollar player should when he's overplayed most nights, then he misses quality practice time at a young age.

Lastly, when looking at Thursday's loss, even Dorion wasn't happy with the way the game ended. When DJ decided to pull the goalie with over two minutes left while on the PP and having all the momentum at this point in the game, instead of waiting to see if his team won the faceoff and were able to possess the puck in the offensive zone, he felt his team would be better served to start the 6 on 4 immediately. It would've been different had there been little time left on the clock, but when you have over two minutes left, there was absolutely zero need to force the issue. Naturally, it took all of 15 seconds for Minnesota to score an empty goal, negating any sort of comeback. Then DJ decides to practice a 6 on 4 drill for an extended period of time at practice yesterday. Too bad his number one PP quarterback on defense was getting a rest day due to playing far too much once again and wasn't able to practice this drill!

We're also about to find out how much Artem Zub means to this team, not that Sens' fans already didn't realize Zub's worth but we're about to find out how much more he will get on his next contract if the Sens' struggle while he's out of the lineup. Dorion hasn't addressed the RHD for two straight off-seasons and now Ottawa has their top RHD out of the lineup, meaning players on the blue line will be playing up two spots on defense than what they should be playing.

With Dylan Heatherington being called up due to the Zub injury, I would hope he plays against Florida over Zaitsev. He boxes out, clears the front of the net, and isn't afraid to play the body. All traits that Zaitsev doesn't give you when in the lineup.

Thoughts, comments Sens' fans?!
Thanks for reading.

Kevin

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