On Wednesday night, Jacques Martin passed the 20-game mark in his Ottawa coaching sequel. What kind of impact has he had on the Senators?
Now that Jacques Martin has officially coached a quarter of the Ottawa Senators' season, it’s time to assess the first 21 games of the post-DJ Smith era behind the bench.
GM Steve Staios is already on record in saying he's examining all options to find the team’s next head coach and it sounds like it won’t be Martin.
Obviously, Martin’s first 21 games were nothing like Kris Knoblauch’s in Edmonton. At 9-10-2, Martin has the team in pretty much the same spot he found them.
Does that mean he's had no impact or that there's been no improvement? Let’s let the numbers do the talking and see if they pass the eye test.
1) PROTECTING LEADS
In 21 games, the Senators have blown nine third-period leads and lost five of those games without earning as much as a loser’s point.
The hallmark of Martin’s coaching era twenty years ago was the ability to close games. There is no Phillips/Volchenkov to lock it down and, to be fair, there was still a two-line pass rule back then.
2) SHOTS FOR AND AGAINST PER GAME
In the first ten games of Martin 2.0, the Senators surrendered 30 shots against or more eight times. By the same token, in six of those games, they also generated 30 or more shots on goal.
They sported a record of 3-7.
In the next 11 games, they gave up 30 shots or more only twice while generating more than 30 seven times. Oddly enough, they won the 5-1 game against Buffalo despite surrendering 45 shots.
They sported a record of 6-3-2. The games seem to be getting quieter statistically.
3) GOALS FOR AND AGAINST PER GAME
In the first ten games, the Senators averaged 3.1 goals for per game and 4.2 goals against. They averaged a losing outcome, and their record obviously supports that statistic.
In the next 11 games, they averaged 3.55 goals for AND against per game. If you extrapolate the data, 19 of the 39 goals against were scored in the three losses. When the lost, they lost big.
In the victories, they averaged 2.5 goals against per game.
4) ROSTER HEALTH – GAMES MISSED
In fairness to his predecessor, Martin has enjoyed a much healthier squad by comparison.
In the first 15 games, there was no Shane Pinto and the team is 4-1-1 since his return. DJ Smith never had Stutzle, Norris, Pinto and Greig in the same lineup this season.
Josh Norris missed four games with an upper body injury. The Senators went 2-2-0.
Anton Forsberg came up lame in the Buffalo game on January 11th. He has missed ten games since, and while he's now eligible to return from LTIR, his status is uncertain until the Senators play again February 10th.
Beyond that, Travis Hamonic’s absence is the only one of note and hopefully ten days will be long enough for Jake Sanderson to recover from whatever knocked him out of the Red Wings game on Wednesday.
The Senators have not had to tap into the farm the way they did under DJ Smith.
5) SPECIAL TEAMS
In the first ten games, the Senators scored three power plays goals while never getting more than one in a game.
By the same token, they yielded nine power play goals in those same ten games and twice gave up multiples.
Not only is the record consistent with the results, but it also passes the eye test. The power play looked as bad as it was.
The next 11 games saw only one additional power play goal scored and they scored two in the same game once. Oddly enough, they lost those games.
They did, however, only surrender five power play goals in those 11 contests.
The Senators continue to lose the special teams battle, strictly on goals for and against.
CONCLUSION
It would be easy to look at the results and point to Jacques Martin and his attention to detail as the reason. Structure is becoming more evident and that is his calling card.
A healthy lineup has also factored into the turnaround. There is reason for optimism, but it must be tempered with the knowledge that special teams make a massive difference.