Los Angeles decided to pass on interim head coach D.J. Smith, announcing the hiring of veteran Peter Laviolette on Tuesday.
When you're an interim head coach in the NHL, it's not a great sign to be a month and a half into your offseason with the word interim still attached to your title, hanging around like a bad party guest.
DJ Smith was the Senators' head coach for four and a half seasons (2019-2023) and had hoped to land the Los Angeles Kings head coaching job full-time for this fall.
"That's a question for Ken (Holland)," Smith said shortly after the Kings lost in round one. "All I know is, as a coach and as a coaching staff, is your team prepared? Are they detailed? And do they show up every night in the answer to that question? Yes, they did, under me.
"Ken's been around a long time. He's won Stanley Cups; he's one of the best in the business. He's a Hall of Fame general manager. He's gonna make that decision. So that's not up to me to decide. I know I did my absolute best."
Apparently, that wasn't enough. On Tuesday, the Kings hired Peter Laviolette for his seventh tour of NHL duty.
The 61-year-old has been a head coach for 1,594 career games with the New York Rangers, Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators, Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders. He won a Cup with Carolina in 2006 and made it to the final with the 2010 Flyers and 2017 Predators.
Until now, Smith had a chance to end the ex-Senators coaching curse. Instead, he will remain part of a 22-year run of head coaches who left the Senators organization and never found another NHL head coaching job elsewhere.
The last one to do so on a non-interim basis was Jacques Martin. He was fired in 2004, then found head coaching jobs in Florida and Montreal.
Since Martin parted company with the Sens the first time, the Sens' list of head coaches who've come and gone includes Bryan Murray, John Paddock, Craig Hartsburg, Cory Clouston, Paul MacLean, Dave Cameron, Guy Boucher, Marc Crawford and, of course, Smith.
Murray stayed with the Senators, moving away from coaching to take the club's GM job. However, everyone else on the list left the organization, continued to pursue their coaching careers, but never again became a full-time NHL head coach.
After leaving Ottawa:
Paddock coached nine more years in junior, the AHL, and as an NHL assistant. His final year was with Regina, coaching Connor Bedard.
Hartsburg coached for seven more seasons in junior as a head coach and an NHL assistant. His swan song was 2015-16 with Columbus, where he was let go when John Tortorella took over, as he inevitably does everywhere.
Clouston coached three more years in junior, the last in 2015 with Prince Albert. After he was fired, little did the Senators know he'd coach Mark Stone, a prized future asset, the following season in Brandon.
MacLean got work as an NHL assistant for a bit and now makes the odd appearance as a TSN Sens analyst.
Dave Cameron has coached for the last seven seasons, been an NHL assistant, a head coach in Austria, and, for the last five years, the head coach of the Ottawa 67s. He just signed a two-year extension.
Since his firing, Guy Boucher has only coached for one year at a top level as an assistant with Toronto, then one year as a KHL head coach.
Crawford coached for four more seasons as an assistant in Chicago then worked for a while as a head coach in Switzerland.
And with a clearing of his throat, Smith rounds out the list.
There's no word yet on the immediate future of Smith. He may return to his spot as a Kings' assistant, but it's certainly true that, more often than not, new head coaches like to handpick their own guys.
And so the curse of the ex-Senators' head coaches continues.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
