NHL Rumors: Is it time for a change behind the Ottawa Senators bench?

TSN: Martin Biron when asked if it’s time for the Ottawa Senators to move on from head coach DJ Smith and have a new voice behind the bench.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Host: “For much more on another Senators loss, we’re now joined by NHL analyst Marty Biron. And Marty, the Sens began their five-game road trip with a loss in St. Louis. Now just three wins in their last nine games to sit last in the Atlantic.

Now Marty, do you think this is a team that’s in need of a new voice behind the bench?

Biron: “Well, first of all, I’ve never been part of an in-season coaching change because I felt like the players inside the room always feels it’s on the player, right? The coaches give you the tools to succeed, but it’s on the players. And when I watched the Ottawa Senators, I don’t see the compete and that’s on the players.

I understand that you have to coach your players to be able to be good on the powerplay and on the penalty kill and obviously with Ottawa, that is two areas of concern. Five-on-five play, defensive zone coverage.

It was a concern against the St. Louis Blues in this game. But more importantly, where’s the compete you start the season, the game? The shots are 11-0 for St. Louis. I know you’re sitting on the bench, you’re looking at the shot clock and you’re thinking, ‘hey, let’s throw some pucks at the net.’ And that didn’t even happen. It took your captain to show frustration. I mean, there’s a fine line to walk when you’re the captain and you want to show frustration but you want to show compete. You want to show heart. You want to wake your team up and he got in the fight but he took a bad penalty earlier on.

So you know, but the one thing that kind of works against DJ Smith right now is that well, the team that they face, the St. Louis Blues, just made a coaching change and look at how hard they competed in the game, especially at the start again. How about the Minnesota Wild? They made a coaching change, and look, it’s like I tail if two different teams in Minnesota after the coaching change.

So that’s definitely working against DJ Smith right now. But for me, it’s all in the players and I was in that room, and we always felt responsible as players when things didn’t go well.”