Sens Record to Begin March is Way Worse Than This Time Last Year With the New Jersey Devils firing head coach Lindy Ruff on Monday, he becomes the seventh head coach to be dismissed in the 2023-24 NHL season. The first six were, in order, Jay Woodcroft (Edmonton Oilers), Dean Evason (Minnesota Wild), Craig Berube (St. Louis Blues), D.J. Smith (Ottawa Senators), Lane Lambert (New York Islanders), and Todd McLellan (Los Angeles Kings). In some cases, coaches are scapegoated by skittish general managers trying to take the heat off of themselves. But the new coach bump is real, even if sometimes his greatest virtue is that he's not the old coach. So let's see how Ottawa's coaching change stacks up. #1 Edmonton Oilers (Nov 12 coaching change) Record under Jay Woodcroft: 3-9-1 (.269); final ten games (2-7-1) Record under Kris Knoblauch: 34-11-1 (.750) #2 Minnesota Wild (Nov 27 coaching change) Record under Dean Evason: 5-10-4 (.368); final ten games (2-6-2) Record under John Hynes: 24-17-2 (.581) #3 St. Louis Blues (Dec 13 coaching change) Record under Craig Berube: 13-14-1 (482); final ten games (3-7) Record under Drew Bannister: 18-12-2 (.594) #4 LA Kings (Feb 2 coaching change) Record under Todd McLellan: 23-15-10 (.583); final ten games (3-5-2) Record Under Jim Hiller: 8-4, (.667) #5 Ottawa Senators (Dec 18 coaching change) Record under D.J. Smith: 11-15-0 (.423); final ten games (3-7) Record under Jacques Martin: 14-16-3 (.470) #6 New York Islanders (Jan 20 coaching change) Record under Lane Lambert: 19-15-11 (.544); final ten games (2-6-2) Record under Patrick Roy: 7-5-3 (.567) So, to varying degrees, everyone has had that new coach bump, the Senators included. While the Sens have improved, and may be playing with more "defensive details," they're also the only team that fired their coach that hasn't been able to climb back over .500. But all of the new coaches have better records than their predecessors and the change stopped the bleeding in every case. Now, as the Sens search for a new head coach for this fall, certainly one or two of the men who hit the unemployment line this season will be on their list of candidates. Statistically speaking, for what it's worth, the coach that least deserved to be fired was McLellan. He had the best overall record at .583, eight games over .500, and the best ten game record before his firing at 3-5-2. Meanwhile, to summarize, there's a reason that so many NHL teams fire their head coach every year. Because it's a strategy that so often works.
