It shouldn’t be controversial to say that the Ottawa Senators boast one of the worst rosters in the National Hockey League today. That, of course, was the plan all along; this team is tanking for draft position, and being bad is part of that equation.
Most publicly available models projected the Senators to finish dead last in the league, and nothing we’ve seen to date suggests that those models were too far off base. What has been surprising, however, is the *way* in which the Senators are tracking towards a lowly finish. It’s been exciting, it’s been fun, and it’s been high-event/meaningful-event hockey. The greatest skill in sport is arguably the ability to make something out of nothing, and that is basically what DJ Smith has been able to do in his limited tenure with Ottawa to date. He's made an entertaining product from a bunch of ingredients that should combine to create anything but.
Sean Tierney of ChartingHockey publishes some really effective visualizations that help to show just how “fun” the Ottawa Senators have been this year:
Game pace
I struggle to avoid talking about SJS on the reality vs expectation chart and I struggle to avoid laughing at NYR on this chart every day too. pic.twitter.com/droV1C2ovu
They’ve been bad in terms of points in the standings, sure, but what DJ Smith & Co. have managed to do is make the product appointment viewing every night. Fans who have spent their hard-earned disposable income on tickets to the Canadian Tire Centre this year have rarely gone away bored or disappointed. During a season in which draft position is of the utmost important, enjoyable losses are exactly what the doctor ordered.
On that basis alone, I think the coach deserves some credit. The Senators have traded away Mark Stone, Erik Karlsson, Matt Duchene, Kyle Turris… the list goes on. The number of offensive pieces left on this roster is relatively limited, and yet the Senators are generating shot attempts at a middle-of-the-road pace, and scoring chances at a top-10 pace. They don’t have the roster skill to capitalize on those chances yet, but the system DJ Smith has put in place is at least helping to create them.
With that in mind, and knowing that the team was not expected to compete in the standings, how satisfied are you with DJ Smith’s start to his NHL coaching career? Are you willing to look past some of the questionable roster/lineup decisions to a point that leaves you happy with the bigger picture? Let me know in the comments section and poll below:
How would you grade DJ Smith's coaching career with the Senators to date?
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