Ottawa Senators: The Extra Benefit of a Thorough Coaching Search

The Senators have a long list of coaching candidates they need to power through and it's a wise hiring tactic in more ways than one.

By the time the Ottawa Senators make their head coaching selection, fans will be sick and tired of hearing about all the speculation. Maybe they are already. But as it was with the long journey to find a new owner, there are many good reasons to cast a wide net and talk to as many candidates as they can.

One reason is obvious. When making a critical hire like this, you want the best coach available, not just the best of the three or four guys you bothered to speak with.

The list of people the Senators have and still want to speak with is long. They'll evaluate each candidate on several factors. The caliber of their coaching resume won't really be part of it. If Steve Staios and company deemed their resume unacceptable, they wouldn't be getting the interview.

They will evaluate the fit. How do this candidate's vision and character align with the views of what seems like a pretty tight hockey operations group? Does he feel like "one of them?" Do they like the cut of his jib?

To uncover this, they'll assess his communication skills and ask about his coaching knowledge and tactics. They'll want to hear about what happened in his last coaching job. Most of all, they'll want to hear how the candidate will fix the perennially broken Ottawa Senators.

This leads us to the other reason for an extended search: it makes for the best focus group in the world.

Businesses commonly use focus groups to hear what people think of their products. For example, Hollywood studios show their movies to people before the release date to see how they test and listen to what people like and don't like, along with their suggestions.

Now apply this to the NHL coaching search, where you can gather information, opinions, and ideas about your team, not from random people but from the best hockey coaches in the world. Great data leads to great decisions. If Staios and his crew wonder if the Senators' blue line is physical enough, and then ten coaching candidates come in with strong opinions on it, that helps galvanize decisions or opens the group to a new train of thought.

In the bigger picture, Senators fans should be thrilled that, for the first time in recent memory, ownership will pay fair market value for the best coach available. The new management group won't be derailed by a cheap owner who sees the next coach's salary demand and asks, "Does he walk on water?"