CBC-Sports

Hartsburg's firing just the beginning of change in Ottawa

February 2, 2009 02:16 PM | Posted by   Jeff Marek  

After 48 games the Ottawa Senators’ brass decided they had seen enough, lost enough and needed to do something to shake up the organization. The solution? Fire head coach Craig Hartsburg.

As Scott Morrison said on Hockey Night Online Monday … it’s Groundhog Day, indeed.

The Senators find themselves with the third-worst record in the NHL and, if you can believe it, are in the sweepstakes for John Tavares. Who could have possibly predicted that last October?

So what now in Ottawa?

Let’s shine a quick spotlight on the usual suspects and ask some questions.

Bryan Murray: He’s hired, and fired, the last two Ottawa Senators coaches within a year and now all eyes are on the Senators’ general manger. He is the architect of this team. It has his stamp on it and as such he is responsible for its performance, which has not been good.

In his defence, he has tried to move bodies to improve his team, but due to the salary cap has not bee able to pull the trigger on any deal that would help his club immediately. Ottawa desperately needs puck-moving defencemen and Murray has been quite guilty of letting every rushing blue-liner leave the team and replacing them with defencemen who have had challenges all year moving the puck forward.

The big question surrounding Bryan Murray is: will he be in position to hire the next coach or will he be the next to walk the plank in the Canadian capital? Stay tuned.

Goaltending: They need a goaltender. The old axiom “show me a good goalie and I’ll show you a good coach” has never been more pronounced than with the Ottawa Senators.

Patrick Lalime, Dominik Hasek, Ray Emery, Martin Gerber have all been given a shot at taking the team to the Promised Land and as much as Ottawa hates to admit it, Emery got them the closest and we all know how that saga ended. This is job number one. And again, Murray has tried to fill the goaltending void going as far back to last year’s trade deadline when he offered Ray Emery and Martin Gerber to the Chicago Blackhawks for Nikolai Khabibulin and Patrick Lalime. Yes, a four-goalie swap … that’s how desperate for goaltending Ottawa has been.

Trades: Talk around the league is that Bryan Murray will continue to explore trade discussions as the March 4 deadline approaches, that is for certain, but he has been down this road and with the amount of bloated contracts the Senators are carrying a deal will be difficult of not impossible if the Sens want equal value in return. The league knows that Ottawa is vulnerable and the vultures are circling for sure.

And with a head coach in place who may not be there next season how do the players respond? Tough to get behind a bench boss whom everyone knows may not be there the next time training camp rolls around.

Cory Clouston: He has been a very good coach at the WHL and AHL level, but may strictly be a band-aid, short-term solution with the Ottawa Senators. The 39-year-old native of Viking, Alta., will one day be a full-time head coach in the NHL, but speculation is now is not the time and he will probably head back to the AHL once the season is over.

Eugene Melnyk: Ottawa’s owner is said to be very close to his players and is perhaps guilty of caring too much about the day-to-day hockey operations of his team. It doesn’t help when he makes public proclamations about the team’s performance. But the reality is, he has the keys to the franchise - it’s his baby.

Identity: That’s the big question, isn’t it? Who is this team? Who are its leaders? At first blush you would think, based on salary and seniority, those people would be Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson, but has anyone seen evidence of leadership? Perhaps that’s too harsh a criticism as there are many players on this Senators team who aren’t paddling in the same direction either.

Prediction: Ottawa rides out the rest of the season, win lose or shootout and come July 1 completely overhauls this once-mighty squad. One of the best never to have won the Stanley Cup is about to get a complete makeover. Who coaches and who manages? There has been talk going back to the world junior tournament that Pat Quinn and Bob Nicholson could come in as a combo package. We’ll have to wait and see about that one.

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