It's ironic that the Senators fired coach Craig Hartsburg on Groundhog's Day, as the club has been consistently awful day in and day out for what now seems like forever.
With the dismissal of Hartsburg and promotion of Cory Clouston from their AHL affiliate on an interim basis, the club is on their fourth coach in just two years. The club was easily ousted in the first round of the playoffs last season, and with the third-worst record in the league, in danger of not making the playoffs at all this year. Regardless of whether its Hartsburg or John Paddock or Bryan Murray or now Clouston, the club is still a mere shell of the team that was in the Stanley Cup finals just two seasons ago.
Senators' Slump Not Hartsburg's Fault
Hartsburg did his best behind the bench, but clearly it wasn't good enough. He inherited a club with too many unresolved issues: mediocre-at-best goaltending, a lack of a puck moving defenseman, uninspired play by and declining offense from the club's top scorers. Despite lineup juggling and publicly calling out players and demanding accountability, Hartsburg was the right man for the job, but he was in the wrong place at the worse time. But then again no coach could probably rectify a team like the Senators.
Will Bryan Murray Be Fired Next? Spezza To Be Traded?
The old adage is you can't fire all the players, but you can fire the coach. So now that the Senators' have a new coach-of-the-week, if the club still fails to improve, what's next? It will up to G.M. Bryan Murray to somehow shake up this club via a trade or two, with the likes of Jason Spezza or Dany Heatley (if he waives his no-trade clause) the most glaring targets to be moved. Easier said than done, since in this post-lockout NHL, general managers no longer trade players, but rather they deal contracts. Both of their contracts, as well as those of Daniel Afredsson or Chris Phillips (also with a no-trade clause), will be difficult to shop around the league.So the next logical step is for Murray to blow this team up, despite what owner Eugene Melnyk says, and rebuild the Senators or his head will be the next one on the chopping block.
Senators' Future
If there is a silver lining in Ottawa, it is that at the very least, the Senators should get a lottery pick in the 2009 Entry Draft, and that for a team this dismal, the only way is up. Or lateral, because in Ottawa, the proverbial groundhog saw his shadow and predicted six weeks of dismal and dreary conditions for the once-mighty Senators.
