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Andrew Sztein

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andrewsztein·Mar 19, 2025

Ottawa Senators Finally Able To Put Thomas Chabot Back In Position To Succeed

Every team has a whipping boy. From Stanley Cup contenders to bottom-feeders, there is always a player on the roster who draws the ire of the fans, convinced that “this guy” is who stands between their team and success. Names like Nikita Zaitsev, Jared Cowen, Cody Ceci, Brian Lee and even Erik Karlsson immediately come to mind. But Thomas Chabot has also been one of those players, at least in the eyes of some fans. However, sometimes the forest gets missed for the trees when a quality player isn’t given leeway due to factors like salary, linemates, or overall team success. Consider the example of Wade Redden. Redden was renowned for having one of the best first passes in the league, silky smooth skating, and strong power-play quarterbacking. He could always be counted on for point totals in the 35-45 range, along with a positive plus-minus rating in the double digits. As an assistant captain with a big contract, he played a calm, sound defensive game with smooth skating, and he was tasked with leading breakouts from the defensive zone to the offensive zone. Sound familiar? But every so often, Redden would make a bad giveaway and out came the pitchforks. Redden’s presence as the last man back on the ice for Jeff Friesen’s 2003 dagger goal in the closing minutes of the Eastern Conference Final did not go unnoticed. Today, Redden is a beloved member of the team’s Ring of Honour. A funny thing can happen when you put a player in a better position to succeed. For much of his career, Chabot was thrown into the fire with ill-suited defence partners. He was tasked with playing 30 minutes a night on defensively inept teams with bottom-of-the-league goaltending. He became the poster boy for the team’s defensive struggles, with far less attention given to the team's other defenders. As injuries mounted, Chabot could never approach the 55 points he posted as a 22-year-old NHL all-star in 2018-19. With Dylan DeMelo, that was the last time, until this season, that Chabot had chemistry with a reliable partner. Every defenceman in the NHL, from Cale Makar on down, will commit giveaways. And the more the player is on the ice with the puck on his stick, the more often it will happen. Consider the following: Makar, for example, is 14th in the league in giveaways with 93 in 68 games—an average of 1.36 per game. Chabot has 80 giveaways in 65 games, averaging 1.2 per game. Chabot’s expected goals against per 60 minutes is 3.24, according to Moneypuck.com, is in the same range as Makar’s 2.96. Chabot has also blocked 110 shots, compared to Makar’s 100 in three more games played. Naturally, no one should be confusing Chabot with Makar. Makar has 78 points compared to Chabot’s 33. But hockey is a fast game and mistakes are part of it. A quality defenceman will make dozens of quiet, quality plays per game that go unnoticed, which helps mitigate the errors that end up on highlight reels. Both Makar and Chabot share that in common. It’s interesting how the Senators’ fortunes turned around when they put Chabot in a position to succeed. They got him a nearly perfect veteran partner in Nick Jensen, and the two now rank 1st and 2nd in the team’s plus-minus rankings. Chabot has helped bring out surprising offence from Jensen, while Jensen has provided the defensive presence that Chabot can trust. Entering Tuesday night's game in Montreal, it’s likely no coincidence that Chabot’s only minus rating in his previous five games (-2 against the Leafs on March 15) came with Jensen out of the lineup and fellow whipping boy Travis Hamonic on his right side. To make matters worse, there was also a highlight-reel giveaway from Linus Ullmark with Chabot on the ice. It also can’t be a coincidence that, with the emergence of Jake Sanderson and reduced ice time, Chabot has remained healthy and is on pace for 81 games, which would shatter his career high. A beloved leader in the room, deployed to his strengths, and finally paired with a well-suited defence partner, Chabot’s results speak for themselves. He's emerged as one of the best second-pair defencemen in the NHL this season. Despite his $8 million annual salary, he is probably where he should have been all along. So maybe the team can win with this guy after all. By Andrew SzteinThe Hockey News Ottawa Stay updated with the most interesting Ottawa Senators stories, analysis, breaking news and more at The Hockey News Ottawa. Tap the star here at Google News to add us to your favourites and never miss a thing.

Andrew Sztein·Feb 9, 2025·Partner

Assessing The Ottawa Senators' Restricted Free Agents: Leevi Merilainen And Key Decisions Ahead

In part two of our look at the Ottawa Senators' 2025 crop of free agents, we focus on the team's list of restricted free agents, which includes Leevi Merilainen. The NHL 4 Nations Face-Off break is now upon us – a great time to glance at some of the Ottawa Senators' off-ice matters. With the NHL trade deadline less than a month away (March 7), decisions on players with expiring contracts will soon need to be made, especially among pending unrestricted free agents. We looked at those last week. Today, we examine what might happen with player who are scheduled to become restricted free agents, a list that includes goaltender Leevi Merilainen. Forwards: Noah Gregor: A replaceable spare part player who brings speed, good penalty killing, and the rare highlight-reel backhand or breakaway goal. He’s fit in well, but with 6 points in 35 games, a 27% Goals For percentage, and a sub-50% Corsi rating, he’s a prime candidate to be overtaken by emerging younger players. He’s the kind of guy who could be useful in a hard-fought playoff series. In play at the trade deadline? Yes, but the team won’t actively shop him either.Likelihood he stays: 25%Predicted contract: One year, league minimum, likely elsewhere. Defense: Tyler KlevenKleven has had a quiet introduction as a full-time NHL player, which is exactly what you want from a young stay-at-home defenseman. The left-handed anchor on the third pairing is taking care of business in his own end, despite a rotating cast of partners on the right side. He brings nearly zero offense, but he’s a useful and mobile player, and at just 23 years old, he has plenty of runway to grow further into his role. You’d like to see a little more physicality in his game given the tools he has, but that may still come as he continues to do good work with positioning and winning puck battles. He’s not going anywhere. In play at the trade deadline? NoLikelihood he stays: 100%Predicted contract: Two years, $1.5 million per season. Donovan SebrangoA likable and young tweener from the Ottawa area who’s easy to root for. Injuries have given him a shot in the lineup, and he didn’t look out of place in his one game in the team’s recent 6-5 shootout thriller against the Bruins. The team will bring him along as a depth option with a higher ceiling. He’ll likely be counted on in Belleville for a few more seasons yet to come, but his place in the organization is likely cemented for the foreseeable future. In play at the trade deadline? NoLikelihood he stays: 90%Predicted contract: Two-year, two-way contract. Jacob Bernard-DockerThe likable yet enigmatic JBD has likely run out of chances with this organization and could benefit from a fresh start. He’s an RFA with arbitration rights and does carry some value as a bottom-pair D. Bernard-Docker has no major holes in his game but no noticeable strengths either. Our guess is the team will tender a qualifying offer but trade him in the offseason. In play at the trade deadline? Yes, but a recent injury will likely make other teams wary.Likelihood he stays: 20%Predicted contract: Another one- or two-year deal at league minimum, likely elsewhere. Nikolas MatinpaloThe hulking 26-year-old has been a nice surprise as an injury fill-in and a good fit with Kleven on the bottom pair. He’s staked a nice claim for a more permanent spot in the 6-7 role, supplanting Hamonic and JBD as the most reliable option in that spot. He brings zero offense, but his above-50% Corsi shows he’s taking care of business effectively by being a beast in the corners and clearing out the slot in front of his goalies. He has arbitration rights, but it should be an easy negotiation. In play at the trade deadline? NoLikelihood he stays: 90%Predicted contract: Two years at league minimum. Goalies: Leevi MerilainenWe’ve saved the most interesting for last. The 22-year-old started the season as a good prospect and fourth-string goalie for the team but has kicked down the doors and put the entire NHL on notice with his stellar play and unshakeable poise. In 12 games, Merilainen has a team-leading three shutouts (four regulation shutouts), a 1.99 GA, and a .925 save percentage. The goalie of the future has staked his claim in the present, and everything seems to line up for him to be the backup/platoon goalie with Ullmark for years to come. Of course, the NHL goalie graveyard is filled with Jim Careys, Andrew Raycrofts, and Andrew Hammonds, who all burned brightly as rookies until the rest of the league figured them out. Merilainen's recent stretch probably saved the Senators' season, and now that they've gone 0-3 since demoting him to Belleville last week, there's no shortage of second-guessing going on right now. But goaltending is voodoo, and the team will want to tread carefully before committing long-term for big bucks. The sample size remains impressive, but still small. Fortunately for the Senators, negotiations with Merilainen should be straightforward. This will be his first one-way, big-league contract with a few years before UFA eligibility, and he will share the crease with an $8.25 million superstar who’s signed for the next 4.5 seasons. In play at the trade deadline? NoLikelihood he stays: 100%Predicted contract: One to two years, $1.5 million per. It should be an interesting few months. While some players are part of the long range game plan, others may soon be on the move before long. Stay tuned as the off-ice chess drama continues to unfold. This article is from The Hockey News-Ottawa. For more great Ottawa Senators coverage, check out THN.com/Ottawa or leave a comment below at Senators Roundtable.

Andrew Sztein·Feb 1, 2025·Partner

With Exactly Five Months Left On Their Contracts, What Will The Ottawa Senators Do With Their Unrestricted Free Agents?

Claude Giroux headlines the list of Ottawa Senators scheduled for unrestricted free agency on July 1st. The Ottawa Senators have certainly taken a big step forward this season. It’s nice for Sens fans to look at the standings on February 1st and see them in third place in the division, breathing down the necks of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers. This is a position that neither the fans nor the players on the roster have found themselves in since the first calendar year of Donald Trump’s first presidency. It’s been a total team effort up and down the lineup. And when injuries have occurred, young players from Belleville have steadied the ship, including a young rookie goalie who has captured the attention of the league with stellar play But many of the players in this group are not signed for next season. Which of these pieces has a future in Ottawa, and which won’t be back? A few of these players likely won’t make it past the trade deadline if the Senators remain in position to be buyers, so we’re going to work on the assumption that Ottawa is still in a playoff spot at the deadline, and no other roster moves are made. Of course, anyone can be traded, and circumstances can change, but the Senators have shown a good amount of stability this season, and will likely sail ahead with what’s been working in most cases. Today, we look at the unrestricted free agents. UFA Forwards: Nick Cousins Cousins has been a good fit as an energy player who can chip in some limited offence. A Cup winner last year with Florida and playing on a league minimum contract, the 31-year-old’s value comes from distracting the other team and opening up space for his linemates. The team likely accepts some poorly timed penalties as part of the package. Assuming Cousins fully recovers from knee surgery, and he'll have roughly 10 games to prove that at the end of the year, there's a good chance he returns. In play at the trade deadline? No Likelihood he stays: 75% Predicted contract: 2 years, $1.5 million per. Matthew Highmore The prototypical tweener with nearly 200 games of NHL experience at age 28. Knows his role and has filled in admirably in the bottom six. Replaceable but useful. In play at the trade deadline? Yes Likelihood he stays: 50% Predicted contract: 2 way league minimum deal. Cole Reinhardt As a 2020 NHL Draft pick, you might not expect to see Reinhardt on the UFA list. But because he'll be 25+ when this contract ends (he's 25 today), and because he's played less than 80 career NHL games, he qualifies as a Group 6 UFA. Reinhardt is another bottom-six tweener between the NHL and AHL, but four years younger than Highmore with a higher ceiling. The team will likely keep him around for depth for a few more years and see what they have, but could be an attractive piece to a rebuilding squad as part of a package to bring in support at the deadline. In play at the trade deadline? Yes Likelihood he stays: 75% Predicted contract: 2 way league minimum deal. Adam Gaudette While his unsustainable early season goal scoring rampage has made his offensive numbers look better than they probably average out to, Gaudette has been consistent in other ways and has fit in with the team nicely as a player who can play up and down the lineup and supports his linemates, as evidenced by his nice +10 rating. He still has a shot at 20 goals, which is fantastic for a bottom-six player making under a million a year. For now, he should finish the season up with Ottawa as key depth for the playoff push. In play at the trade deadline: No Likelihood he stays: 70% Predicted contract: 2 Years, $1 million per season. Claude Giroux Giroux is the club's biggest pending UFA by far. He has visibly slowed down in the final year of his 3 year, $19.5 million contract, but remains an invaluable piece in terms of secondary offense, leadership, community stature, and as Tim Stutzle’s regular winger. His Corsi is on the positive side of the ledger and his Goals For Percentage (58.30) is actually the best it has been in his three seasons as a Senator. He’s still a marketable star and well loved by the fanbase. It’s up to him if he wants to stay or not, and he’s not going anywhere at the deadline if Ottawa is in or near a playoff spot. The vibes seem to point to him sticking around, likely on a series of one year deals at a bit lower of a cap hit. Giroux also seems the type who will value winning and family over another big contract at this stage of his career, especially with career earnings of around $100 million, but no Stanley Cup on the resume. The ball is entirely in his court. In play at the trade deadline? No, not unless Ottawa tumbles out of the race. Likelihood he stays: 80% Predicted contract: 1 year, $4.5-$5.5 million. UFA Defensemen Travis Hamonic The Ottawa fan base’s favourite whipping boy has actually played okay when called upon this season. He’s clearly on the 18th hole of his career, and has had issues with injuries and lack of mobility. It’s unlikely he’ll return as a player, but more than possible that he returns to the organization in an off-ice role, perhaps in player development. The team cherishes his experience and leadership. In play the trade deadline?: No, his full no-movement clause prevents it. LIkelihood he stays: 5% as a player, 75% as an organizational employee. Predicted contract: None Goalies Anton Forsberg Forsberg is a likeable but frustrating player to watch, because you never know what you’re going to get from game to game. Maybe he’ll stop 20 shots in the first period on the way to a shutout and give the team a chance to win, or maybe he’ll let in 4 goals on 12 shots and waste a good performance from the team in front of him. Forsberg is on one of his good runs right now and because of Linus Ullmark's injury issues, he'll still be a valuable insurance policy for the rest of this season. But at the moment, Leevi Merilainen looks more than ready to take Forsberg's spot next season at a quarter of the price. Likelihood he stays: 0% Predicted contract: League minimum for a backup role on another team.

Andrew Sztein·Dec 23, 2024·Partner

Ottawa Senators Give Fans The Gift Of Optimism (And More) This Holiday Season

As the Ottawa Senators enter a five-day break in the schedule, it's a happy holiday season for a long-suffering fan base. By nearly every important metric, it's a happy holiday season for Ottawa Senators fans. Goal horns ring,Are you listening?In the slot,Tkachuk is planting. A beautiful sight,They're happy tonight,Standing in a Wild Card Wonderland. Forgive my ill-advised foray into Sens-related songwriting, but you’ll understand if Sens fans are adding a little song and dance to their holiday plans this year. After weathering the storm in their usual naughty November, complete with a disheartening five-game losing streak, the Senators have become the storm, rolling through a nice December with an 8-2-1 record (including a six-game winning streak) before the holiday break. In the past, Santa has given the Senators so many lumps of coal they could have heated up the water in the faucets at Canadian Tire Centre with it. But it sure looks like he came through this year. With the Sens putting some distance between themselves and other teams chasing the final wild card spot, it sure seems like the proverbial corner has been turned. Of course, team history being what it is, if the Sens stop being good, there’s still loads of runway for Santa to back up his sleigh and throw everything back in his bag. So what are some of the gifts Sens fans have been able to unwrap this year? Playoffs? Playoffs??? Not only are the Senators holding down the final wild card, they’ve given themselves some room for error. The team has three- and four-point cushions, respectively, on the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. They also have a very satisfying seven-point lead on the Montreal Canadiens. The distance between Ottawa and the free-falling Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres sits at eight and 12 points, respectively. It's certainly not a big enough cushion to invite complacency, but it's enough security to start looking up at the standings and the possibilities. Both the Tampa Bay Lightning (tied with Ottawa, with three games in hand) and the Boston Bruins (two points up) are within reach, despite both teams winning seven of their last ten games. Boston is somehow winning despite a minus-17 goal differential. The Sens are a plus-seven. In previous years, a loss like the one to the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night would have sent fans to their abacus to come up with scenarios of “If we can win this many, and the team we’re chasing loses this many, then we can still be in it.” For Sens fans, it's refreshing to watch their team lose a close game and simply shrug it off with, "Oh well, you can't win them all," while still seeing the team in a strong position in the standings. Goaltending The catalyst for this success, above all else, has been stellar goaltending from Linus Ullmark. The Sens have been pining for a goalie like this since the heyday of Craig Anderson. As a result, they're playing with a confidence not seen in years. They're no longer forcing the play when they're down a goal; they've mostly stopped cheating for offense by leaving the defensive zone early; and winning possession after a shot against is now a likelihood instead of a hope. Sidebar: Since Ullmark didn’t give up the winning goal in the 3-1 loss in Edmonton, his personal seven-game winning streak remains intact. He left the game after the first period, but it sounds like it was merely a precaution due to a stiff back. A Toast to Good Health On that topic, with only a few exceptions, the Senators have also been given the gift of good health this season. It's no coincidence that, as the Senators bolstered their medical, mental health, and strength-and-conditioning staffs, they’ve seen more stability in the health of their players. These investments have had a tangible effect on chemistry, familiarity, and overall team play. Good health also goes a long way in allowing head coach Travis Green to assess and deploy players properly so they can thrive in roles they’re best suited for. Spare Us The Drama Another welcome gift Sens fans have seen this year is the lack of drama. The closest thing to drama came earlier this month when owner Michael Andlauer made accusations of “soft tampering” after another ridiculous Brady Tkachuk trade rumor. Compare that to some of the real drama around the league right now: - Buffalo’s 13-game losing streak, which was exacerbated by comments from their owner and general manager. - The Nashville Predators' total implosion in the standings after making big acquisitions. - Detroit’s freefall after expecting a step forward. - Vancouver’s rumors of a rift between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. - The New York Rangers' players apparently turning on the organization, which aggressively pushed popular players with no-movement clauses out of town. In the past, under the old guard, the Senators experienced every single one of those types of stories. In the welcome absence of drama, the Sens are just quietly going about the business of executing their vision and process, playing the right way, and winning games. The unspoken contract between a sports franchise and their paying fans is pretty simple. They’re selling you entertainment or hope. This year, Sens fans got the gift of both. From all of us at The Hockey News Ottawa, we wish you a Happy Holidays! More articles from The Hockey News Ottawa:

Andrew Sztein·Oct 30, 2024·Partner

After A Wild October, What Is The Ottawa Senators Identity?

After an “all over the place” October, what exactly are the Senators now? Stop me if you've heard this one before. The Senators secured an above .500 record early in the season after beating the Utah/Arizona franchise by four goals on October 22nd, giving fans hope that a trend of historically bad starts was finally behind them. You'd think we're referring to this year when Ottawa rolled into Utah and won a 4-0 matchup on October 22nd. But the same thing happened on October 22nd, 2022 when the then-Arizona Coyotes dropped a 6-2 decision to the Sens, who sported a 3-2 record after that game. The Senators then won another game against Dallas on October 24th, giving them a 4-2 record. Immediately after, the Senators lost seven games in a row. They beat the Flyers 4-1 to "improve" to 5-8-1 before concluding November with an 8-13-1 record. In the 2023-24 season, they also had a 4-4 record after eight games on October 28th, a 3-1 start that turned ugly, and let's just say that season was a write-off by the end of November as well. This year, they secured a 4-2 record before losing two in a row to Vegas and Colorado, to drop back to .500 at 4-4. The similarities between that lost season and what we've seen so far should be concerning for any Ottawa fan. In both those seasons, these middling starts were exacerbated by multiple extended losing streaks that would reach five, six, and even seven games. Can the Senators avoid it this time around? This team's identity is starting to take shape, and there's equal evidence for optimism and pessimism with this team. While the similarities to years past are concerning, there is also reason to believe, not the least of which was an 8-1 beatdown the Senators laid on the St Louis Blues on Tuesday night. Let's take a closer look. Injury Prone - Only 9 games into the season, the Senators have again run into a litany of injury issues that threaten to torpedo the season before it even gets started. - New starting goalie Linus Ullmark missed four games with a mysterious strain, and backup Anton Forsberg has started 5 games to Ullmark's 3. - Shane Pinto is out "week to week." - Ridley Grieg missed time. - Artem Zub has missed all but 3 games. - Travis Hamonic is currently in over his head, filling in on the top pair with Jake Sanderson, which shows how vital Zub is to this roster. - David Perron is out for personal reasons. - Goalie of the future: Mads Sogaard also got injured in his first game back in the AHL and is out for the foreseeable future. - Josh Norris has played in every game, but injuries will remain a concern for him until he shows an ability to stay in the lineup for the long term. It's tough to get into a groove when you don't have a consistent lineup to develop chemistry. Their reputation as an injury-prone squad is well-earned and has continued into this season. This team can score in bunches, and the core has taken a step forward. Already more than once this season, the Senators have at least managed to score their way out of trouble and put up a touchdown plus a two-point conversion on the competition. The Sens overcame a disastrous goaltending performance to win against Los Angeles, 8-7, in overtime. They beat Tampa Bay, 5-4, in a game where Forsberg looked leaky, and the score flattered the Lightning for the most part. Their core stars have come to play so far this season. Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, and upcoming unrestricted free agent Claude Giroux are all well above a point per game. Tim Stutzle is currently 8th in the league in scoring, only 4 points behind the overall lead, but his 0.48 expected goals (now above 1.00) rating before the St Louis game shows that he has even more to give consistently. Josh Norris and defenseman Jake Sanderson are sporting 8 points in 9 games. Thomas Chabot has also generally looked better and more comfortable this season, especially alongside Nick Jensen, who's been a quality addition. This success is currently propped up by an excellent power play, which is currently second in the league at over %40 efficiency. If the Sens can keep making teams pay for penalties, they'll be in great shape offensively. Consistently inconsistent outside of the top six forwards - Injured Shane Pinto only has 3 points in 6 games, is -3 with an abysmal 0.16 expected goals for rating, and is out indefinitely. He will likely be better when he returns. Ridley Grieg gets under opponents' skin, but the team needs better than 1 goal in 6 games and a -4 rating from him, especially since he's now getting prime ice time with Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle on the top line. Which new addition to the Sens' roster currently leads that batch of players in scoring? Noah Gregor? Nick Cousins? David Perron? Michael Amadio? Of all these new faces, Adam Gaudette and Nick Jensen share the lead with 5 points each. It's a problem when Zack MacEwen has more goals (two) than any other bottom-six forward outside Gaudette. It's probably not what the team expected so far. Road trips have been this team's Achilles heel in the past, and this season so far has been no different. Currently, they are 4-1 at home, but a poor 1-3 on the road. This team absolutely must figure out more ways to win on the road if they want any shot at the playoffs, and they need quality shifts from the bottom six against unfavourable matchups to be able to do that. When the Sens can roll four lines like they did against St Louis, they can dominate. The Senators have kept pace in a tough division so far - The team found themselves second in the division before their matchup with Vegas. Then, they dropped to last place after two losses. They're back up to 4th with the win against St. Louis, 3rd in points percentage. Their expected goals for has dropped off a cliff during their recent 3-game Western road trip, suggesting that their 4-0 win against Utah was lucky, and they may have deserved even worse than deflating losses against Vegas and Colorado. Their cumulative shot attempts for percentage (Corsi) sits at just over 49 percent, and that's after a dominant game against the Blues. The injuries above play a role, but it's not the only reason. All too common in previous seasons is one loss turning into extended losing streaks of five, six, or even seven games. A streak like that in a tight division (where 3 points currently separates 2nd place from last) at any time will crush their chances. Fortunately, this season, after they lay down a loss, they tend to stop the bleeding. This season, they've reached five wins in October for the first time since 2017, and their longest losing streak has been two games so far. It looks like new coach Travis Green has them looking more focused on the game in front of them than the standings. Besides a 4-1 stinker against the Canadiens, the Senators have been competitive in nearly every game. They're beating the teams they should be beating, and fans should forgive some losses against contenders like New Jersey, Vegas, and Colorado. Goaltending is still inconsistent but better than in seasons past. After opening the season with a 3-1 win against the defending cup champ Florida Panthers, Sens fans seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that goaltending woes were finally behind this team. Not so fast. Hands up, everyone, who thought that not only would Anton Forsberg start more games than Ullmark by the end of October but also sport better stats? Forsberg is currently sporting a .3.27 GAA and a .895 save percentage, numbers that would be way uglier without a sparkling shutout performance against Utah. After signing a monster four-year deal that makes him one of the highest-paid goalies in the league, Ullmark has been injured and had two poor starts against Montreal and Vegas. It's been a bit of a false start for Ullmark, and the sample size remains small. Still, an .885 save percentage and 3.35 GAA before the St Louis game is not what the team expects out of him. Fortunately, his excellent one-goal-against performance has already boosted those stats to 2.76 GAA and a .904 save percentage. The team needs Ullmark to perform at the level he showed against Florida and St Louis (and be available every night) if they want to make any headway in an exceptionally competitive Atlantic division. So what is this team's identity now? The unfortunate truth is that they still don't have one. After seven years out of the playoffs, they're an injury-prone squad with inconsistent goaltending that can score in bunches but can't win on the road. It's early enough, and there are some signs that the narrative is changing. However, you can only identify strengths and weaknesses with a full lineup. You can't identify quality depth if you're losing matchups when you don't have first change on the road. You can't identify actual defensive issues when you're not getting saves. You can't identify goaltending issues when you're giving up more than you're getting. It's still early, and the real test of November, a month that has been brutal for the Sens in the past, looms. After this month, we'll have a much clearer picture of what this team is made of. It's still very early, but as Sens fans know, it can get late real early in an NHL season.

Andrew Sztein·Oct 11, 2024·Partner

A Fan's Eye View of Opening Night: Ottawa Senators Make Positive Changes In Game Day Experience

With a focus on movement and convenience, new management has made some good changes in the fans' game day experience at Canadian Tire Centre. After six months away from the rink, Senators fans were treated to not only an entertaining 3-1 win against Matthew Tkachuk and the reigning Stanley Cup champs, they were treated to some significant changes in and around the building. These changes went beyond great goaltending from newly signed superstar goalie Linus Ullmark. Smart changes and tweaks have made going to a Senators game easier and more fun, allowing fans to focus more on the game itself.The game day experience itself has changed in very interesting ways, in ways immediately noticeable and subtle alike. This writer was among the sellout crowd of 19,346 in attendance, and here are some musings on the (mostly) positive changes. Managing foot and motor traffic: In the past, a sellout crowd meant fun in the stands but a nightmare to get in and out, an Achilles heel of attending a Senators game for most of their existence. The first immediately noticeable change is how quickly fans can get into the parking lot now. Police presence directing traffic appeared effective and kept traffic moving. Parking attendants have been eliminated, and cars can now cruise right into the lot. This has resulted in never being fully stopped on Palladium Drive. No more watching fans walk down the road faster than the cars. No more waiting for someone to fish out their credit card with a hundred cars behind them. Payment of the $21 flat rate is now handled by Indigo via online payment with QR codes posted throughout the lot (with no app download!) or via a machine in the building. Some may scoff at the $21 price, but this aligns with other arena parking options around the league. In a short conversation with an arena attendant, they confirmed to us that ticketing for non-payment is handled by the City of Ottawa parking enforcement, which means zipping into the lot and not paying will result in enforceable tickets and prevention of licence plate renewals for delinquents. We were also told that plates are not inspected until after the second period. This means fans who forget to pay until later in the game are not punished unfairly. This is a smart partnership to increase revenues for the city and get fans in and out quicker in a customer-friendly way. In the past, fans could arrive at the arena at 6:15 PM for a 7:00 PM start and still miss the opening faceoff just waiting to get into the parking lot and then into the building. Entrance to the building has been streamlined; just a quick walk through a security checkpoint, and we were in the building. No emptying of pockets, no wand waving around your body. There was no line for security or ticket scanning, just a steady flow. We arrived at 6:15 for this one, took in the fan fest in the front of the arena for 15 minutes, grabbed a $5 beer at the tent, and were still comfortably in our seats for warmups, player introductions, and the start of the game. So getting in quicker is all well and good, but any Senators fan who’s driven to a game knows that getting out is a different story. It was not uncommon to simply sit in a parking space and take nearly an hour just to leave. The seemingly minor decision to open the public transit interchange directly onto the 417 East to general traffic once buses have cleared has made a world of difference. From ignition on in the car to cruising along the highway, it took 15 minutes. This is a massive improvement from the days of huddling in an idling car in the dead of winter, listening to the post-game show for half an hour until any movement was even possible. Hopefully, this means less of the Senators' tradition of fans filing out with 10 minutes to go in the third period, regardless of the score. The concourse is still crowded and difficult to navigate during intermissions through a crush of people, as it took an entire intermission just to take a lap around the building. However, this isn’t something that’s possible to fix without major renovations or a new arena, so we’ll let that one slide. We’ll also see if anything happens with water temperature in the bathrooms as the temperatures go down this winter.Concessions: While we didn’t get any of the new food options, the concourse sure smelled better with the new options throughout the arena. One option we did take advantage of was the self-serve beverage options. Open coolers filled with drinks, both conventional and alcoholic, have been installed throughout the arena, and payment is as simple as placing the can or bottle on a smart scanner. All is monitored by an attendant to check IDs, ensure that fans pay for the purchase and open the cans before leaving so the team isn’t selling dangerous projectiles that can fly in from the stands. This is how self-scan should be, with a human being nearby, but in the interest of speeding things along. A single can of Coors Seltzer costs $16, which, again, some may scoff at but is in line with beverage pricing across professional sports in Canada. At least it took under a minute to purchase. Cash has not been accepted in the arena since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s debit, credit or get out. In-seat experience: Compared to other markets, Ottawa features a more subdued experience, which likely serves this market better than a bombastic experience. It’s disappointing that there’s still no on-the-ice projection that turns the entire ice surface into a screen, and the HD scoreboard is now dated compared to other arenas. Stats such as shots and power play rates are displayed on the screen, but the small font can be difficult to make out for those with weaker eyesight. Some new additions in the upper bowl include a new platform designed to look like a pipe organ with a live keyboard player. While it’s just PVC pipe designed to look like a pipe organ instead of the real deal, it adds to the old-school hockey atmosphere. The team also installed a loud bell in the upper section around section 320. Games will now be kicked off by fans and celebrities who ring the bell loudly before puck drop. It’s a nice touch that Vegas made popular with their pre-game Siren Crank. The seats throughout the lower bowl have been upgraded, and they looked comfortable, even from the rather cramped seats in the corner of the upper bowl where we were.The team was smart to bring back Lyndon Slewidge for the anthem performances. He still has that powerful and operatic voice that reverberates throughout the arena. This is another nice bridge rebuilt by the organization. Intermission entertainment was handled by a tribute 80s hair metal band who belted out anthems by the likes of Journey, Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses and the like. It was fun and inoffensive stuff. DJ Prosper was nowhere to be seen for the home opener, which we will leave up to the reader as a positive or negative. The in-arena DJ did seem to focus more music on sing-along anthems, muting the music for the crowd to sing during chorus portions of songs like Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer or DMX’s “Party Up (in Here).” The in-arena music mix seems designed to appeal to a wide range of fans and was a good balance to keep them engaged. All these changes meant teams could hang on every Ullmark save, get more engaged with the game, and then get home sooner afterwards. The team has made some smart changes that, aside from some increased costs, have made it more fun and easy to attend a game. Will it affect attendance for this season? That probably depends on the product on the ice more than anything, but the team has done a great job of controlling the controllable and creating a more welcoming environment for fans.

Andrew Sztein·Oct 4, 2024·Partner

Four Reasons Why the Ottawa Senators Could Finally Turn the Corner This Year (Despite Some Nagging Concerns)

The vibes are immaculate, expectations are rising, and things are in place for a big turnaround...but… With pre-season (mercifully) nearing its conclusion and another season of NHL hockey upon us, things are looking up for the Senators and their fanbase. There are plenty of reasons for optimism. However, Senators fans have been here before. Splashy acquisitions, significant changes, young stars another year older, stop me if you've heard any of these in the past few years. This year could be different. Might be. Should be. This team has to take that meaningful step forward one of these seasons, right? Let's look at five reasons the Sens will finally turn the corner this year. Of course, as supporters of this team have seen in the past, each of these reasons for optimism comes with a dose of fragility and a glaring "but" attached to them. 1) The vibes around the team are immaculate - From the outside, the players have come to town with a new sense of focus. Past years have opened with a fun attitude and excitement that gave way to a country club atmosphere. There were significant distractions like Shane Pinto's suspension, botched trades leading to lost first-round picks and delayed closing of the team sale. There's a welcome silence and a controlled flow of information now. Everyone seems happy to be here and pulling in the same direction. There's just a group of hungry players talking calmly and professionally about how they're approaching the challenge in front of them, supported by new cup-winning veterans. They look like they're having fun in interviews and practice, but fun isn't priority one. This looks like a team ready to focus on the ice and get to work, led by a new coach in Travis Green, who's saying all the right things, preaching accountability and putting a system in place. But… Name any Senators' controversy in recent years, from the implosion of LeBreton Rendezvous to Uber-gate to the Pinto suspension. What did they all have in common? They all seemed to come out of nowhere and took everyone by surprise. You'll forgive Senators fans for waiting for the other shoe to drop. A usual start with 2 or 3 wins in their first ten games, and those immaculate vibes will evaporate. Also, that coach who's saying and doing all the right things? He has a losing career record and has only seen the playoffs once. 2) The new acquisitions look good - The prospective lines for this team are less top-heavy and more balanced throughout the lineup. There are Cup-winning veterans in place to guide the younger players. The team has enviable centre depth and a balanced top four on defence. Carter Yakemchuk is doing everything he can to force his way onto the roster as a teenager. Most importantly, there's a goalie in place: Linus Ullmark. He has a Vezina Trophy on his mantle and has been a steadying influence in pre-season with highlight-reel saves and calm play while under fire. The team has gone 3-1-1 in pre-season games as of this writing. Take that stat for what's worth – an excellent pre-season record and two nickels will get you ten cents – but most Sens fans would gladly take that start for the real season. But… Injuries are a thing. The fanbase took a collective gasp as all of Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, and Thomas Chabot didn't finish a recent chippy game against the Montreal Canadiens. Josh Norris played, looked good, and finished the game, but every hit he takes this season will be greeted with gritted teeth after all his shoulder issues. This good-looking lineup would suddenly look pedestrian once you remove one or two players and move depth pieces further up the lineup. One Ullmark injury means Anton Forsberg needs to carry the mail, a job he hasn't been up to in the past. One defenceman injury makes a mess out of the pairings. All three of their top centres have had recent injury woes. It goes from "yay" to "yikes" in a hurry as soon as you start plugging holes. More than anything, this Senator's team needs some luck in the health department, and that has not been the case for a long time. 3) The Atlantic Division looks more vulnerable than it has in years - Hockey fans know it's been the toughest division in professional hockey. Four of the best teams in the NHL have been hogging the top 4 spots for a good long while now. However, cracks in the foundations are showing for all those teams. - The Boston Bruins's acrimonious negotiations with Jeremy Swayman are giving him 64 million reasons to cut bait with the organization. Can Boston's vaunted defence overcome Joonas Korpisalo's atrocious stats from last season if they need to run with him? - Can the Florida Panthers avoid the cup hangover and stay elite after two punishing cup runs in a row, especially after losing a few useful pieces that got them there? Probably, but never a given. - Tampa Bay replaced their leader, Steven Stamkos, with Jake Guentzel, which is probably a lateral move. And their roster is aging rapidly. After being a playoff juggernaut for years, the Panthers have wrestled the "best team in Florida" title from them. The Leafs are running it back yet again with their high-priced talent that hasn't gotten it done beyond the regular season in the past. This time, they have two goalies who have never played 30 games in a season and a defence that is relying heavily on new players on the wrong side of 30. On paper, the Senators have enough talent to catch at least one of these teams on the way down the standings. But… The other bottom feeders in the division on long playoff droughts have also improved. Detroit has a big question mark in goal, but some great young talent and a top six that's young but experienced and can put the puck in the net. They're hungry after missing out on a playoff spot by the smallest margin possible. Buffalo has to make the playoffs one of these years, don't they? They have some great pieces and an enviable top 3 of young studs on defence. They can also lean on the "young guns are a year older and wiser" idea that Ottawa is leaning on too. While probably destined for last place in the Atlantic, Montreal is building something the right way, with passionate players learning from an excellent coach in Martin St. Louis. Could we see a total inversion of the Atlantic standings, with all 4 bottom feeders getting in or near a playoff spot and a few of the juggernauts dropping out? Probably not, but it's not as far-fetched as you think. 4) This franchise is due for a turnaround in luck - There were plenty of insane stats surrounding this team last season and in previous years that were well beyond the realm of the expected and didn't necessarily have to do with the quality of play on the ice. They set a club record by playing seven goalies in one season due to injuries. They let in a goal on the first two shots of the game over 20 times with worst-in-the-league goaltending last season. How about a 1-14-1 record against the Western Conference on the road last year? Or the abysmal start to the season for years running. Heck, even Joonas Korpisalo getting blinded mid-game by a single beam of sunlight in an indoor arena suggests that this team has had more of its share of old-fashioned bad luck to go with poor play. A regression to the mean in these categories probably means a sizable jump in the standings. They can't possibly hit these ridiculous levels of slanted karma yet again. Could they? But… Being due and actually receiving some luck are different things. There isn't a limited supply of bad luck. Hockey is a game of inches, bounces, and randomness. A little good fortune will go a long way to turning things around, but that's never guaranteed. How do you define turning a corner? Is it a playoff spot? Is it getting close but instilling the proper habits and putting the league on notice? Who knows? But barring another disastrous start to the season, it should be fascinating to watch. Things seem to be headed in the right direction, but… Well, with this team, there's always a "but."

Andrew Sztein·Aug 14, 2024·Partner

The Ottawa Senators and the Concept of a New Downtown Arena: There's Much to Gain, But Some Things Will Be Lost

In some ways, when it comes to a new building for the Senators, Sens fans should be careful what they wish for. With stable ownership now in place in Ottawa, the Senators have made major changes in management, hockey operations, and the on-ice product. Now the organization can shift more attention to the prospects of a new arena. Sens owner Michael Andlauer, Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe, Senator CEO Cyril Leeder, representatives from the National Capital Commission (NCC), which owns the land at LeBreton Flats, and dozens of journalists have publicly catalogued and discussed where the Senators' next home might be and when shovels might go into the ground. The Senators have been rumoured to be moving to LeBreton Flats for about a decade now. Ottawa residents will remember the disastrous “Rendevous LeBreton” proposal in 2018 that began with an ambitious development plan but ended with the NCC pulling the plug and Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and local developer John Ruddy each filing lawsuits against one another. It is a minor miracle that the Senators still have preferred bidder status with the NCC to develop the site in 2024. "I'm optimistic," Andlauer said this week on the Coming in Hot Podcast. "I met with the NCC as late as last week. And that's the first step. I guess, to be perfectly transparent, the original deal was really more window dressing to make sure that this team got sold at the highest price. "I think the NCC is well-intentioned. Some people are probably rolling their eyes right now because of the experience they've had with the NCC. But, you know, you've got to go in there with good intentions. And I think they understand what our fans need.” Whether the Sens’ next home is at LeBreton or somewhere else, there are many obstacles to overcome and pitfalls to avoid. As the September deadline for an agreement fast approaches, it now seems like LeBreton remains the number one priority for all parties involved, and it makes sense. Conveniently located near two bridges to Gatineau and less than 2 km from Parliament Hill, LeBreton has been undeveloped (and contaminated due to decades of industry on the site) for 60 years. Other than limited highway access and surrounding parking and business space, it’s an ideal site for drawing a more diverse crowd of fans, encouraging walk-ups, and positioning Ottawa as a world-class city. Visiting players and fans to a downtown arena will see what Ottawa has to offer other than an empty commute from the Brookstreet Hotel to the arena. Fans will be able to plan more activities that are more easily accessible around the game itself, much like they do for the 67's and REDBLACKS at Lansdowne. It will make Ottawa a more attractive place to play, show off the city, and make the team a more attractive destination for top players. But this will come at a cost. The expected price for a new building is estimated to be around $1 billion, and it’s not all going to come from Michael Andlauer’s pockets and generosity. The club will likely need help from all levels of government – federal, provincial and municipal. Historically, using public funds for a new arena to support private interests like a sports franchise has been fraught with pitfalls and cautionary tales, and it's rare that municipalities fully recoup their costs. An exception appears to be Edmonton, where a ticket surcharge going back to the city seems to have been a huge success for both parties. Of course, tickets for an Oilers game have skyrocketed, making them less accessible for families and young fans. Calgary has recently entered into a similar arrangement and is hoping for similar success as it replaces its ancient and crumbling Saddledome. The Toronto Blue Jays recently spent $300 million on renovations at Rogers Centre, and as the Jays crater in the standings, ticket prices have doubled, and this is just with renovations instead of a whole new building. Meanwhile, Ottawa fans are used to being stuck in the parking lot after games and travelling long distances in blizzards to get to the building. It’s a pain. But once you’re there, Ottawa actually has a pretty great building and affordable tickets. This isn’t a race against the clock to survive in a crumbling arena like Calgary’s. The CTC building itself has aged very well. Sightlines are outstanding in every seat, the audio quality is excellent, and the concourse is nice and wide. At the front entrance, lower and upper bowl fans are herded in different directions. Any able-bodied fan can easily walk a lap around the entire arena during a single intermission. The seats are comfortable, and the aisles are spaced well. A family of four can attend a Sens game for under $200. This will not be the case with a new arena. It’ll be designed with exterior space limitations, and tickets will be priced with recouping costs in mind. Parking will be far more limited, and roads will be jammed. The success of a new arena will depend heavily on Ottawa public transit and light rail getting their act together, a dodgy proposition given their long history of… well, not getting their act together. Some fans like to take their vehicle everywhere and have little interest in taking a February train after the game. Look at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, which was built with basketball and a very tight footprint in mind. The sightlines are atrocious, the bowls are steep, and the boxy design leads to poor audio quality with reverb and echo. Fans who spend $400 for a pair of nosebleed seats near centre ice in Toronto might face a wall from the suspended luxury suites, with no view of the jumbotron and no ability to hear the sound system. Toronto games are so expensive that the average fan has been priced out, creating a quiet hockey experience. But at least it’s next door to Union Station, there are attractions nearby, and you can get in and out easily by Toronto traffic standards. They did succeed in their goal of cramming the building into a tiny space in downtown Toronto. You can ask fans in New York if they would trade Madison Square Garden for a new building. Ask a Leafs or Habs fan of a certain vintage if they had a better experience at Maple Leaf Gardens or The Forum compared to their current buildings. These buildings are and were part of the historical fabric and identity of their teams, an imposing challenge for visiting teams to overcome. What identity do Bell Centre in Montreal and Scotiabank Arena provide now? Of course, in a vacuum, the Senators should be downtown; it would be a great win for the city and organization, but fans should also be aware of how such a move will fundamentally and permanently alter the gameday experience they’re used to. There’s much to gain, but some things will be lost, and it’s unlikely the building itself will be better than what they currently have. A lot has to go right here and fans should be careful what they wish for. Be sure to Bookmark The Hockey News Ottawa Senators team site to never miss news, interviews or any other updates on the Senators. And hear some great discussion on the team twice per week on our Ottawa Senators podcast.

Andrew Sztein·Aug 2, 2024·Partner

Ottawa Senators: Four Major Organizational Changes That Go Way Beyond Their Player Transactions

With quality hires throughout the organization, the Senators have their house in order to start making gains in the standings and rebuild fan trust. The recent hiring of longtime Sens reporters Ian Mendes and Sylvain St-Laurent to prominent communications roles for the Ottawa Senators organization is a reminder of all the subtle ways the organization has changed behind the scenes in the past year. After a year of confirmation and 10 official months under Michael Andlauer’s ownership, things are changing for the positive in numerous ways. We may or may not see more immediate results on the ice, but it’s clear the Senators have taken major steps towards being a professional, tightly run franchise that respects the fanbase, history, and community that it's representing. Dare we say that we’ve reached an era of stability? So how have things changed? Bridges have been rebuilt: Nearly as frustrating as the exodus of talented players in the twilight years of Eugene Melnyk’s ownership has been the exodus of good people in terms of alumni and longtime professionals in the executive suite. Senators fans saw legends like Daniel Alfredsson, Chris Phillips, franchise co-founder Cyril Leeder all go out the door to be replaced with either no one at all, or a rotating cast of executives on a nearly annual basis. All of these beloved figures are back in one role or another. Other former players also popped up at various points last season, like Craig Anderson and Alexandre Daigle, in addition to Wade Redden in a player development role and a spot in the ring of honour. Alumni like Mark Borowiecki and Kyle Turris have gone on podcasts to rave about Ottawa as a market and reminisce about good times here. It seems the door is open and players are happily walking back through them at the Canadian Tire Centre. Speaking of rebuilding bridges, Mendes said last December he was blacklisted by the organization for the better part of four years during the Melnyk years. Now he's running their communications department. If that doesn’t speak to rebuilt bridges, what else does? Accessibility and outreach to the community and embracing new media: Going back to the recent communications department hires of Mendes and St-Laurent, the Sens organization has emphasized a connection to the community, only this time the call is coming from inside of the house. While these two hires do leave a gaping hole in fan-facing Senators coverage, it will likely create stronger internal connections and understanding of the fanbase temperature and community concerns since both these men wrote countless articles from those perspectives. These men understand the current media landscape better than anyone in the Ottawa region, and in both official languages. I have never seen a Senators team that is this open and accessible for communication. Current players like Captain Brady Tkachuk, Claude Giroux, Drake Batherson, along with new additions like head coach Travis Green and players David Perron, Nick Jensen, Michael Amadio and goalie Linus Ullmark have all made the rounds on various Senators podcasts of all sizes and listener bases in the past month. GM Steve Staios has done the same. Owner Michael Andlauer is seemingly always available for a quick interview and to share his unfiltered yet properly curated thoughts. What’s encouraging is how most of these players and managers seem to be seeing the same things and communicating a shared vision for this team in the short and long term. If you need more proof of this new approach, check out the draft floor video on the Senators' YouTube channel. It included footage of 2024 first-round pick Carter Yakemchuk’s pre-draft interviews and other behind-the-scenes goodies. It’s actually a riveting short documentary. This team now understands how to put together a strong public face and perception. The Senators have an actual poker face now: Senators fans will probably run out of fingers when they recall how many times in the past this team put their foot firmly in their mouths on things that should not have been public: - Melnyk openly musing about moving the team - Melnyk's cringe-worthy “Between Two Ferns” interview - Heated public battles over doomed arena plans. - Promising “Unparalleled Success” without fully investing in that future. - Players getting caught on an Uber video complaining about their coach. - Pierre Dorion quotes like “My proudest day as general manager” or “We’re a team.” These moments have left this team with egg on its face and fractured relationships. These quotes and open negotiations did massive damage to the perception of the Senators across the league. It always seemed like their dirty laundry was hanging out for everyone to see. Andlauer’s dominant sound bite during his ownership has been “We want to be best in class.” Not bad, certainly better than “We’re a team,” isn’t it? Especially when it’s followed through with measurable action. Work is underway to get a new arena deal in place, and it’s being done quietly and professionally behind closed doors. Every major player contract has been taken care of before the season, with no unsigned RFAs or nasty arbitration hearings. The team stayed quiet about roster plans throughout last season and didn’t tip their hand for moves like the Ullmark trade. Previous regimes showed their cards to everyone and then proceeded to fall face-first into the poker table. Dorion was once quoted that “teams saw (him) coming a mile away” when we was trying to fill needs on the roster. Of course they did. That’s what happens when you tell everyone your plans and roster needs. Good communication also means knowing when to keep your mouth shut, and this new management team knows how to do that too. Quality hires in important support roles throughout the organization: It’s no secret that the Senators used to run the smallest front office in the NHL. Rumours persisted that part of the reason Ottawa lost a first-round pick in the Evgenii Dadonov trade was due to Dorion not having proper support to ensure that information got to the other team. Those days are gone. The Senators hired Rob DiMaio, who spent 13 seasons with the St. Louis Blues, serving as their director of player personnel from 2015 to 2022 and helping the franchise win a Stanley Cup in 2019. They brought in decades of hockey experience in Dave Poulin to be Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations to support Staios. They brought back Jacques Martin to be a senior advisor to the coaching staff when he wasn’t required to actually coach last season. The new coaching staff, led by Travis Green and Mike Yeo, has previous head coaching experience and has said all the right things about identity and accountability. They hired a highly regarded analytics expert in Sean Tierney. Matt Nichol is the Player Health and Performance Guru this team never had before. If you head to the team’s website and scroll down the team’s hockey operations page, it’ll actually take a few swipes to get to the bottom, which was not always the case. These quality hires also extend to proper attention being paid to the minor league squad in Belleville, which just recently won its first-ever playoff series. Proper AHL veterans with some good NHL depth upside have been retained or signed, such as Adam Gaudette, Matthew Highmore, Jan Jenik, Jeremy Davies, Garrett Pilon, and Max Guenette, in addition to coach David Bell, which means that the young prospects going through Belleville on their hockey journey will have proper support and a chance at being competitive. It’s a new dawn in Sens Nation. This team has shown that you can’t win in a league with only talented young players and operating with a skeleton crew everywhere else. It truly takes a village to execute visions of “unparalleled success” from a multitude of different angles. The Sens may or may not take a step forward on the ice this season, but you can’t build a house without installing a good foundation. As an organization, they’ve advanced by leaps and bounds in the past year, and that bodes well for better days to come in the standings.

Andrew Sztein·Jul 17, 2024·Partner

For the New Ottawa Senators Regime, The Clock Starts Now

Following some big off-season moves, Steve Staios and Michael Andlauer have taken their first major steps toward creating a new Senators’ culture. It's now officially their team. In the dog days of summer, after a winter of patience and evaluation, the Ottawa Senators' new ownership and management team have finally put their own stamp on the club and given fans something to talk about. A vision for this team is now forming – a roster that combines hope, balance, reliable goaltending, and the right players slotted into the right roles. GM Steve Staios and his management team have cleared the decks of pretty much every ill-fitting prospect or roster player; cost be damned. Some off-season moves, like the trade for Linus Ullmark, have been slam dunks. Others, like the Jakob Chychrun deal, have been underwhelming, at least on the surface. Online general managers love to declare each trade a winner or a loser based on statistics, free of any context like cap space, roster fit, upcoming contract negotiations, or overall team need. So instead of going through each trade, signing, and draft pick one by one and stamping it with approval or disdain, let’s imagine that every move this off-season was part of one giant trade, and let’s see if the Senators are better off now than at the end of last season. For the sake of simplicity, we've ignored some of the smaller or minor-league moves. Out ($20.885 Million in Salary, 15.885 million not counting buyouts and retention): - Dominik Kubalik ($2.5 million last year, left as a free agent) - Erik Brannstrom ($2 million qualifying offer (not given), signed for $900,000 in Colorado) - Mathieu Joseph ($2.95 million X 2 years) - Jakob Chychrun ($4.6 million X 1 year + whatever his next contract will come to) - Joonas Korpisalo ($3 million X 4 years after %25 retention) - Mark Kastelic ($835,000 X 1 year) - $5 million in dead cap space for multiple expiring buyouts and salary retentions. - 25th overall first-round pick In ($16.5 million in salary): - Michael Amadio ($2.6 million X 3 years, Stanley Cup winner) - David Perron ($4 million X 2 years, Stanley Cup winner) - Noah Gregor ($850,000 X 1 year) - Linus Ullmark ($5 million X 1 year) - Nick Jensen ($4.05 million X 2 years) - New coaching staff in Travis Green, Mike Yeo, Nolan Baumgartner and Daniel Alfredsson - Several new draft picks who all bring size to the prospect pipeline. So whether you think this is a good change or not, it’s clear that management has prioritized acquiring role players and steady veteran leaders who play the right way and are appropriately slotted throughout the lineup. Could they have gotten more for Chychrun? Did they have to let Brannstrom go for nothing? Did they have to add a sweetener for St. Louis to take a useful speedster like Mathieu Joseph? Maybe not, but the moves still look like a major step in the right direction for a cohesive unit that plays the right way. The team now has the 2023 Vezina winner in net, proper veteran leadership in the bottom six, a steadying right-shot defenceman, and a coach with no interest in country club shenanigans. There's even a little cap flexibility if they need another body or two. The new regime has shown that patience, process, and low-key moves are the order of the day now. It’s a welcome change from making splashy, impulsive moves that don't fit. Patience is a tough ask of this fanbase, one that watched their team be mostly competitive for a 20-year span from 1996-97, when the Sens made the playoffs for the first time, to the magical run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2017. In that 20-year window, the Senators made the playoffs 16 times, including 11 in a row. They won a President's Trophy in 2003, made three conference finals, and one Stanley Cup final. These are startling numbers for a franchise that has become the poster child for mediocrity since then. Only missing the playoffs four times in 21 seasons sounds pretty good after sitting out the last seven. That’s to say nothing of the countless “this could only happen to the Senators” moments like Ubergate, criminal charges against Alex Formenton, a gambling suspension for Shane Pinto, losing a first-round pick in the Dadonov trade boondoggle, and the long, dragged-out sale of the team that helped derail the season. With all that, one of the great sins of the Senators franchise in the last several years has been an odd mix of procrastination and not being patient enough. The Sens probably waited too long to sign Mark Stone, then made a poor trade. They kept DJ Smith and Pierre Dorion for about two seasons too long. The Sens were eager to go big-game hunting, so they traded multiple high picks for Matt Duchene, Alex DeBrincat, and Chychrun without really confirming they had any chance to keep them or how they would fit on the roster. In hindsight, no one would trade a 4th, 7th, and 14th overall pick for less than a year and a half of each player and the returns they brought back on the way out the door. The Sens bet big on large contracts for Joonas Korpisalo and Matt Murray, all while losing multiple goalies who became useful somewhere else. Meanwhile, their own crease imploded season after season. It seems like every bet and big swing, outside of the Erik Karlsson trade, quickly blew up in their face. So what happens when an impatient fanbase collides with a brand new management team that's committed to patience, process, making decisions based on sober observation, instilling a vision and culture, willing to torch the season in the name of research, and not scrambling for change-for-the-sake-of-change after a protracted sales process? You get online discourse that essentially amounts to fans screaming, “Do something!” With all due respect to interim coach Jacques Martin and fourth-liner Boris Katchouk, their additions didn’t really count as "doing something." Unfortunately, this team’s Achilles heel in this sorry stretch has been that they’ve been all too willing to “do something” without an eye for the future. Now, a vision is taking shape, and the judgment can truly begin this season. This management has now put its stamp on this team...with a sledgehammer. So, they shouldn't be judged for taking their time. They should be judged only by results. Does that mean playoffs next season? Who knows? But there’s a clearer path to them now than there has been. The stock has been taken, the expendables have been exiled, and new players and staff have arrived to foster a more clearly defined paradigm of winning culture. Steve Staios and Michael Andlauer’s vision has now taken its first step towards reality, and the clock starts now.

Andrew Sztein·May 31, 2024·Partner

Four Things the Ottawa Senators Should Copy From the Four Conference Finalists

There's plenty for the Ottawa Senators to learn from the last men standing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The NHL is a copycat league, and has been for its entire existence. Of course, why wouldn’t you want to attempt to emulate what recent winners have done? Everyone wants to do what Vegas, Colorado, Tampa, Washington, St Louis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Los Angeles have accomplished in the last ten playoff seasons, and most of these teams took rather different approaches to drink from Stanley’s silver chalice. When it comes to Ottawa, there’s enough not going right with this franchise that they need to take the multi-pronged approach to climbing out of the abyss. Each of the final four teams remaining in these playoffs is guaranteed a 6 game series or beyond and there is no remaining favourite – just four elite teams with as good a shot to win it all as the other three. Let’s see how the Senators can fast-track their route to greener pastures by combining what these four teams have accomplished into an identity of their own.New York Rangers: Defence corps constructionThe Senators have a problem with too much of a good thing on the left side and a mess on the right side. The Rangers have figured it out. They have two high-priced right-handed studs in Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba playing on different pairings. Each is at the top of their game with smooth puck control, offensive flair, and elite physical defence. Norris winner Fox and Captain Trouba make $9.5 million and $8 million. Behind them is one $4 million defenceman in K’Andre Miller, a 32-year-old depth guy in Erik Gustavsson making under a million, and a few guys 26 and under on cheap or rookie contracts to fill out the corps. Ottawa has a similar framework. If you squint, you can see a similar construction with Thomas Chabot ($8 million), Jake Sanderson ($8.05 million) and Artem Zub ($4.6 million) filling similar roles to Fox, Trouba and Miller. Most winning teams don’t have a defence corps with more than two highly-paid defensemen, and unfortunately, that doesn’t leave room for Jakob Chychrun to return. You can win with a top-heavy defence, smart acquisition of complementary depth pieces, and younger players, but few teams have found success by overloading their D-corps with similar pieces making loads of money like Ottawa has. It also doesn’t hurt to have an all-world goaltender in Igor Shesterkin to get through once you’ve survived Trouba’s elbows to get there. Which leads to our next team. Edmonton Oilers: You can win with average goaltending if you have team buy-inBoth Edmonton and Ottawa devoted five years and $4-5 million on goalies who were supposed to be the answer as a starter (Jack Campbell and Joonas Korpisalo), only to watch them implode immediately. Stuart Skinner has been good when the pressure is on (Edmonton’s early season swoon notwithstanding), but can also implode on any given night. Calvin Pickard has Adin Hill vibes as the goalie who came from nowhere to save the season when called upon. None of these goalies are world beaters, and if they were Senators, most would do just as poorly as Korpisalo, Anton Forsberg, or the endless parade of Ottawa goalie graveyard candidates. Edmonton has found success with high end offensive talent, defensive buy-in from forwards not named McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman or Nugent-Hopkins, and play a good hybrid system. This system focuses on scoring their way out of trouble, but also tightening up to preserve leads. Doing the squinting exercise again, you could sub in Stutzle, Tkachuk, Giroux and Batherson in similar roles, but you need buy-in across the forward corps (especially in the bottom six) to make it work, especially with a more pedestrian defense corps like Edmonton has. Depth players like Warren Foegele, Connor Brown, Mattias Janmark, Corey Perry, and Adam Henrique provide timely scoring while making life miserable for opponents and supporting their defence and goaltenders. Dallas Stars: Surround young studs with hungry veteransThis one is easy. It’s no secret that Ottawa has a lot of great young pieces with loads of talent, but the organization to date has done a poor job of bringing in solid and hungry veterans to support them and show them the way to winning. Claude Giroux is all well and good in that role, but you can see the effect of players in the “32 and over but can still contribute” club. That includes vets like Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene, Tyler Seguin, Evgeni Dadonov, Ryan Suter, Chris Tanev, and Jani Hakanpää. They've done an incredible job of supporting the 28 and under crew of Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Mason Marchment, Wyatt Johnston, Miro Heiskanen, and goalie Jake Oettinger. Only Seguin, as a 20 year old depth player in Boston, has a ring. This is winning experience that is eager to take that last step. Dallas GM Jim Nill has created a master class in roster construction and balance across age and role. There’s just a little bit of everything on this roster, and the Senators would do well to follow suit. Florida Panthers: Resiliency and even keeled approach and winning cures all One of the biggest issues in Ottawa in recent years has been the mental side of the game – when they get down, they stay down for long stretches. Too many times in recent years, a two game losing streak turned into a seven gamer, and the frustration and defeatist “here we go again” body language becomes plain to see. No franchise in the NHL has shown more of a “it ain’t over 'til it’s over” attitude than the Panthers. - Win the President’s Trophy and then get swept in the second round like they did in 2022? All good. Just go on a run to the finals the next year. - Scrape into the playoffs and go down 3-1 to a record-setting Boston Bruins team? No problem, we’ll comeback and win in 7! - Lose 9-3 to Vegas for the Cup in game five last year? Look what team is still playing while Vegas is reminiscing about last year’s Cup on the golf course. - Oh, we’re facing an imposing Rangers team that started the playoffs on a 7-0 run? Look who’s handed them three losses in the Conference finals so far. This is a team that learns from adversity and is never intimidated by a challenge. I’m not sure how Florida does this, but the point is they’ve found a way to keep pushing, even after crushing defeats and long odds. Maybe it’s a crack team of sports psychologists and a “been there, seen it all” coaching staff led by Paul Maurice. Whatever it is, emulating this kind of “one obstacle at a time” and a “you can’t beat us on the psychological side of the game, so you’d better do it on the scoreboard” mindset has made the Panthers the envy of the league. Side note: The Panthers’ arena is located 57.5 km from downtown Miami, more than double the distance from 26 km from Parliament Hill to the Canadian Tire Centre. Fans will show up to support a winner with a great attitude and resiliency, no matter how far the trek might be to get there.

Andrew Sztein·May 9, 2024·Partner

Ottawa Senators Fans or Toronto Maple Leafs Fans? Who Has it Worse?

It's a Battle of Ontario title that neither side really wants to lay claim to. NHL hockey is experiencing a heck of a dark age in the province of Ontario. Whether you’re an Ottawa Senators fan, who just finished watching a seventh straight year out of the playoffs, or a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, whose team just bowed out in the first round for the eighth time in their last nine tries, the battle for bragging rights between these two franchises has been a depressing comedy of errors. Let’s see which team’s fans can truly claim the title of Ontario’s most miserable fanbase. Recent success: The Leafs have made the playoffs every season since 2017. Ottawa hasn’t made the dance since that same year. By any conceivable metric, the Leafs are the winner here. One cursory glance at Leafs' Twitter will also show you that the media and fan base will happily use “better than the Senators” as a bragging point, even though 80 percent of the league could claim the same. The Leafs get bonus points for coming back to make a series of it against Boston as well. Who has it worse? Sens fans, by a mile. The head-to-head battle: You wouldn’t expect it, but the Senators franchise is the clear winner here. Ottawa boasted a 3-1 record against the Leafs this season, and the Belleville Senators just won their first ever playoff matchup in franchise history against the Marlies. The Senators not only won these battles on the scoreboard, but also broke Leaf players’ brains in the process. Twice this season. No one can forget how Morgan Rielly cross checked Ridly Grieg in the head after scoring an empty net goal with a slapshot earlier this season or how two months later, the Marlies’ Kyle Clifford attacked Belleville’s Boko Imama during the handshake line after their AHL series. Bonus points to the Senators for beating the Bruins in their only playoff meeting in 2017, something the Leafs haven’t accomplished since 1959. Who has it worse? Leaf fans. Ownership: Would you rather your team be owned by a distant corporate monolith with unlimited resources but little in the way of hands-on passion? Or would you rather an owner with a more individualistic role who put up a ton of their own money to buy the team? Michael Andlauer certainly has deeper pockets and previous successes than the outgoing ownership in Ottawa, and spends more time communicating with fans and media than any MLSE executive. Andlauer also has the double-edged motivation of having revenue tied into team success, compared to the Leafs who can charge a month’s rent for a ticket regardless of whether they’re in first or last place and still be guaranteed a sellout. Leafs ownership has shown too much willingness to take a backseat and run it back over and over again. Andlauer gets extra points here for navigating ridiculous situations like losing a first round pick for the botched Evgeni Dadonov trade and the Shane Pinto gambling suspension with class, both situations out of his control that were set in motion before he arrived. Who has it worse? Leaf fans. Roster decisions and former player success: Sens fans have watched two beloved former players captain their teams to cups in Zdeno Chara in 2011 and Mark Stone in 2023. Useful players like Mika Zibanejad, Alex Debrincat, Matt Duchene, Vladimir Tarasenko, Dylan DeMelo, Nick Paul, and two top 15 picks have gone out the door in trade for meagre returns in recent years. Ottawa did at least acquire two 30+ goal scoring centres in Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle in exchange for franchise defenseman Erik Karlsson. The Leafs have seen Nazem Kadri, Tyler Bozak, Phil Kessel become Cup champions after leaving, and Zach Hyman became a 50 goal scorer for Edmonton this year. Countless useful depth players like Ryan O’Reilly were sacrificed for cap space. All these players brought back little to nothing in return. Both teams have been cursed by a goaltending carousel for years that included overpaying Matt Murray to sit on LTIR when he wasn’t actively terrible in the crease. Ottawa has seen Cam Talbot, Filip Gustavsson, Joey Daccord, Ben Bishop, Robin Lehner, Chris Driedger, and even franchise goalie Craig Anderson find various levels of success after leaving. The Leafs have fared a little better, but still watched Tuukka Rask and Freddie Andersen become reliable goalies elsewhere. Leafs get bonus points for pulling the parachute on Jack Campbell when they did. Who has it worse? Senator fans. Hope for the future: Ottawa just hired a coach in Travis Green with 141 wins in 335 games coached, so already the Sens are behind the 8-ball here. Even if Green has improved as a coach, his 8-12-1 record in New Jersey to close out the season doesn’t inspire confidence at first glance. While management could very well know something the rest of us don’t, a major priority for Ottawa should have been to generate excitement this off season for players and fans alike, and this hire does not accomplish that. Sheldon Keefe in Toronto might not be behind the bench much longer either, so the Leafs win the hope check behind the bench by default here either way. Beyond coaching, the "hope for the future" debate starts to get more interesting. Both teams have most of their top talent locked in for big paydays. The Leafs have a generational talent in Auston Matthews who put up 69 goals this season and will be the highest paid player in the league next season. William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares have proven capable of 100 point seasons, but have handcuffed management with iron clad no-movement clauses and $11 million+ salaries. Morgan Rielly is a fine top pair defenceman at $7.5 million. Ottawa has some really nice pieces of their own, but the pieces haven’t fit together into a cohesive unit. Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson and Josh Norris are all signed for several seasons. While Toronto way overpaid on regular season success, Ottawa overpaid on potential. The Senators do have a little more flexibility since their stars are mostly signed in $8 million range, versus half the cap space tied into five players in Toronto. We say this every year, but the Leafs can’t possibly run it back with this crew again, can they? Ottawa has a little more runway with a younger roster, smaller top end contracts, a 7th overall pick, and Boston’s first rounder in the upcoming draft, but a much larger gap to close. Either team could be on the cusp of resuming a bleak era, or a fascinating turnaround. Who has it worse? Senator fans, but not by as much as you might think. Results vs Expectations: Here’s a trivia question: How many teams in the NHL have won more second round playoff games in the salary cap era than the Leafs? The answer is, bafflingly, all 31 teams. Even historically bad teams such as Buffalo, Arizona/Utah, Columbus and recent expansion Seattle have won more games in the second round than the Leafs have in the past 20 years. With all their advantages, resources, talent, and record-setting regular seasons and individual success, they’ve only won one game past the first round since the 2004-05 lockout. The Leafs are the rock-bottom worst playoff team of the salary cap era, but at least they make it to the dance. Ottawa on the other hand, has had more meagre expectations that they haven’t been able to live up to either. Their most successful season since the magical 2017 run has been missing the playoffs by six points in 2022-23. So is it worse to be a contender with top talent who embarrass themselves every single year in the playoffs, or is it worse to root for a team who can’t climb out of the abyss? Is it worse to feel hopeless in November, or frustrated and let down in April? I suppose a Leaf fan who watched Toronto miss the playoffs nine out of ten years between 2006 and 2016 (with a historic 2013 collapse of a 4-1 lead in the third period of game 7 squeezed in), could compare that to the frustration they feel now and tell you which feels worse. So could an Ottawa fan who watched the talented Sens lose 4 out of 4 against the Leafs from 2000-2004 versus this current seven year itch of futility. Who has it worse? The answer is in the eye of the beholder. So, overall, who has it worse? The Senators lost 3 categories, to the Leafs’ 2, with one being a tie. With that said, My cop out answer is all hockey fans in Ontario. Not a single home team hockey fan in Ontario (and since misery loves company, let's include Montreal fans in here too) is happy with the current state and recent performance of their team. Fans not only want success from their own team, but need their main rival to provide formidable resistance to overcome. That has not been the case for these teams at the same time in over 20 years. The loser is both of these franchises, and sadly, the Battle of Ontario has been a laughable slap fight ever since.

Andrew Sztein·Feb 28, 2024·Partner

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance and Ottawa Senators Fandom

A fan's view on the state of Sens Nation as their club limps toward the end of a seventh straight season without making the playoffs. Please allow me the opportunity to tie a personal anecdote into this tale of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These things usually go in stages, but for a fanbase that has been through the wringer like this one, we're experiencing all five at once, all the time. It was August 2017 when I went on a date with a girl who made it clear in her dating profile that she did not like sports (unless you consider playing Pokemon a sport). While I steered the conversation to more mutually exciting topics, I couldn't help bringing up my Senators fandom, the magic of watching Erik Karlsson, and the incredible experience of cheering on our team to within one heartbreaking goal of the Cup final. This was my denial phase, the denial of the bleak era of Senators hockey to come. Just one more step to go for championship glory. As experts predict the Senators to be at the bottom of the division year after year, we deny that maybe, contrary to all evidence, this team just isn't very good. In the seven years since, this disinterested-in-hockey girl became my wife. We've bought and renovated a house together and visited multiple provinces, states, and countries. We adopted a hyper puppy that's now a relaxed 5-year-old, 65-pounder. She's even befriended all my fellow Senators fan buddies. My hockey-indifferent wife can name more Sens players than I can name Pokemon at this point. But there's one thing our relationship has never seen or endured: A Sens playoff run. It's been seven years without one. Not a short in-and-out sweep, not the ups and downs of a long run that ends in heartbreak, and certainly not tasting championship glory. Not even a single "meaningful" game in the spring time. My wife has seen my stages, such as denial about how this might not be our year. Bargaining about what needs to go right this year. Much anger towards the organization, ownership, players, and even the league for fining the team first-round picks and suspending good young players for half a season for vague reasons. Depression after spending hundreds of dollars to see the Sens cough up a 5-0 lead in the first period. This, after growing up in an era where they made playoffs every year, to when I was in the seventh grade to wrapping up my sixth and final year of post-secondary education in 2009. When you measure eras of success and failure relative to your own milestones in life, they can seem to stretch on forever in the eye of retrospect. Senators fans are familiar with the stages at this point when it comes to an individual season. Depression as the team loses in embarrassing fashion to the Chicagos and Anaheims of the league and gives up six goals on 20 shots against the Caps. We bargain that if we only had a goalie, one more top 4 right shot D, if we just got rid of this guy or that guy, or if this team could just summon a little consistency and commitment to a system that got 7 of 8 points against Dallas, Vegas, Tampa, and Florida, they'd be right there. Then comes acceptance, which is tied directly into the denial of how a team spending to the cap with this much talent can be this bad, the bargaining of if they win 25 of 30 games, they can still make it, the anger of another lost season, and the depression of spending three hours of your time watching the team lay another egg. At the same time, Toronto-centric announcers take every opportunity to fawn over Auston Matthews. One look at the standings with a point deficit that even a Hamburglar run wouldn't overcome, and most accept the inevitable fate of another playoff season without the Senators in it. Some hit this acceptance during the annual losing streak in November; others don't hit it until the Senators drop a dud with zero shots in the third period against Nashville. With all this denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, there's another element of acceptance in sports fandom. Things can change fast, sometimes with the most innocuous of moves. Ask the Vancouver Canucks, who spent a decade after their 2011 finals loss as a middling team with meddling ownership and more playoff misses than appearances, who all of a sudden find themselves at the top of the standings after trading their captain and replacing him with non-name brand players like Filip Hronek and Sam Lafferty and bringing in a new coach. Consider the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Chicago Cubs, and countless other examples of markets big and small that were inept for long stretches but then won championships and turned it around quickly when they did. We accept the possibilities of a turnaround because what's the fun in cheering for a team you don't believe in? It goes the other way, too, when things are bleak. We deny that things will ever get better. We're angry about losing streaks, that brutal giveaway that ended up in the net, and wasting good performances let down by shaky goaltending or vice-versa. We bargain with ourselves about the changes we need to see, obvious to all except management. We get depressed about blocking off another three-hour window to watch our favorite team not show up in a lost season. But among all that, you can also accept that you'll be right back there early next season, excited about the possibilities, convinced the changes made were the right ones. Acceptance of the ebbs and flows of success and failure in sports fandom can save you a lot of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression along the way. After all, it worked for the Chicago Cubs. Eventually.

Andrew Sztein·Dec 19, 2023·Partner

New Sens Management Deserves Time and Runway to Put Vision in Place

Yes, the Senators may have been slow to make a coaching change, but new management has also had a lot on its plate. So, one week before Christmas, the Senators pulled the trigger on a move that fans have literally been screaming about for months. Much like all of you, the news of head coach DJ Smith’s firing on December 18, immediately after running a “fun” practice after a series of dispiriting losses, has caused me to think about what comes next. This was a move that was long overdue. At least months, if not entire seasons overdue. By all accounts, Smith is a quality human being – a man who had the respect of his players and all those he came across. But that didn't translate to being a good head coach in Ottawa. Under Smith and the similarly dismissed Davis Payne, this team had no structure, no consistency, no vision, no accountability, no new ideas, no ability to calm the players down when they're up or down, and no ability to make adjustments in real time. Smith's kind and affable nature didn’t result in acceptable defensive play, or a higher number in the win column. His repetitive and cliched answers during his dour post-game press conferences in his final months did him no favours. This should not be the end of his career, however. Smith could thrive as a "good cop" assistant coach to a "bad cop" head coach. When the boss is mean to the players, DJ can be there to pick them up. For his positive attributes, this road trip has forced the team's hand. I will forever believe that Smith did his best, but you can’t execute your best when you don’t have tangible ideas to get there. Smith himself said a few weeks ago "This isn't rock bottom" after a lifeless 5-0 to the Panthers. It turns out he was right. Rock bottom was the current road trip the team is on. But, what coach would take this team over with no GM in place, at their current place in the standings, and in the middle of the season? Fortunately, the team had the perfect interim candidates in Jacques Martin and Daniel Alfredsson – quality men with decades in the game, a history of winning, and no designs on being the full-time guy heading into the off-season, when the candidate pool will be well stocked. These two gentlemen will likely impart their wisdom and good habits, and then return to the more supervisory roles they were doing before. At least I hope so, because hiring Alfredsson in particular for a role with a shelf life is guaranteed to blow up in the team’s face down the line. Never hire your franchise legends for roles that require replacements every few years. Even the mighty and legendary Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina will be fired some day, despite his fantastic success to date. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and bringing in two of the winningest names in franchise history buys time and goodwill from a fan base that, in the status quo, had none left to give. The duo can start building up a new vision for this roster in the coming months, and stick around to supervise it from the press box once the new coaching staff is in place. Any good full-time coach with pedigree will want to know who the GM is, what the overall organizational vision is, and to have some security in the role – questions that the Senators organization can't answer today with any certainty. You're not getting Craig Berube or Patrick Roy or Claude Julien under those circumstances until next year when proper management and vision is in place. The goal for the rest of the year is quality table setting for the next coaching staff. Fans would be wise to not expect immediate miracles. History remembers Martin as the guy who took a perpetually dead last team straight to the playoffs in one shot. But people forget that when he replaced Dave “Sparky” Allison in January of 1996, Martin’s Senators went 10-24 the rest of that season. Sure, that was a 5X increase over Allison’s two wins to date, but it took time to instill those winning habits in Ottawa, where they made the playoffs with a mere 77 points in 1997. While even Smith was better than a 10-24 record, Martin has had roughly two weeks to get acclimatized. He needs time to analyze the roster, their shortcomings, and come up with a plan before the results come. There's a lot to fix. His role is to set the table for a new staff next year. So why did it take so long for new ownership to wake up and smell the terrible defense, sub par goaltending, and second period implosions? Many Senators fans on social media have already turned on the team’s new ownership and management, some three months after the sale. I have not. Michael Andlauer and Steve Staios have a major task in front of them that takes way longer than 3 months to fix. Andlauer, in particular, inherited damaged goods, and how damaged those goods actually were was clearly hidden from him during the purchase of the franchise. This is to say nothing of the fact the sale closed so late they couldn't make any reasonable changes before the season, or properly react and prepare for forfeited first round picks and 41 game gambling suspensions that were part of the package. While I'm a little annoyed that two months after the firing of Pierre Dorion, the Senators don't have a new GM, I can sympathize with the Lord-only-knows-what Melnyk era messes they're cleaning up behind the scenes. That needs to happen before you can even start looking at the on ice product. A new coach is a band aid to a symptom, while fixing a broken down organization to run properly is actually curing the disease. A lost season is small potatoes compared to the enormity of that task. Especially after spending $950 million to get the team. The carry-over issues have allowed us to see truly how poorly run this organization was from top to bottom, and three months and a new interim coach likely won't fix those issues. I think they took the gamble that they could focus on those organizational tasks and DJ and company could adequately hold down the on ice stuff while they fixed the actual structure of the organization. That includes: fan and business outreach, hiring good people for important roles (which they've done with the hiring of Alfredsson, Cyril Leeder, Sean Tierney, et al), getting a new arena going, holding Pierre Dorion accountable for an egregious error in judgement, and opening up all the windows to air out the stink of the Melnyk years. Obviously that was a bad gamble, based on recent results, but a reasonable one to make while they hoped they could focus on actually fixing the foundations. It's easy to forget that this is three months into Year One for those two, and they perhaps underestimated the high level of patience Sens fans have shown in the previous six years. If that's their biggest error in judgement so far, that's forgiveable. Fans should be grateful that the new regime is not interested in band-aid solutions or knee-jerk reactions and we haven't even started seeing the execution of their actual vision. I think we can confirm that the firing of Smith was forced by results, not by flying off the handle like previous ownership would have. The season is likely already lost, but the future can be built properly. Yes, we're at another wasted season, and they deserve criticism for Smith keeping his job as long as he did and another season in the basement at Christmas time. But I can't agree with opinions that say Andlauer or Staios don't know what they're doing. If you buy a broken down home covered in mold with holes in the wall, leaky pipes, rotten floorboards, and crumbling concrete, you don't criticize the homeowner because they're not ready to throw a house party in three months. I've seen several opinions that say this is the worst it's ever been for this franchise, that it's embarrassing to be a Senators fan these days. It's not. Hope burns brighter for this team than it has in decades. The club finally has a sharp, reasonable, empathetic, and intelligent owner who cares, it's just a shame he can't speed up the process. Andlauer and Staios are sharp minds who have won at every level across multiple endeavours, and three poor months of Sens hockey isn't going to change that. They're not miracle workers, but they are smart and passionate hockey men. This ownership/management group hasn't even made a draft pick, signed a free agent, or made a trade yet. It's been all damage control from the previous regime from day one. You can't calmly build when you've had crisis after crisis to manage right from the starting line. Of course, fans wanted a new coach under the Christmas tree this year, and the organization finally delivered on that. Now they hope, with the interim solutions in place, they can start to see that vision come to fruition in the new year as Andlauer and company continue their renovations of the $950 million broken down house. There’s a lot of drywall to patch and floorboards to replace. It's always darkest before dawn, and we do have hope that this is the last of the pitch black moments before the sunrise. The Sens have good people in charge of things who are bringing in more good people, and they deserve a runway to put that vision into place.