Fansided

Ottawa Senators reset their rebuild under Marc Crawford, for now

By Brad Berreman

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 08: Ottawa Senators associate coach Mark Crawford before a game between the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators on October 8, 2018, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins defeated the Senators 6-3. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 08: Ottawa Senators associate coach Mark Crawford before a game between the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators on October 8, 2018, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins defeated the Senators 6-3. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Ottawa Senators are moving into what could be a long rebuild, and Guy Boucher will not finish the season behind the bench.

The Ottawa Senators were clearly a trade deadline seller, with the lowest point total in the NHL. But general manager Pierre Dorion’s commitment to head coach Guy Boucher through the rest of the season did not last the week, as the team announced Boucher has been fired and assistant Marc Crawford will take over as interim head coach.

A 4-2 home loss to the almost as dismal Edmonton Oilers Thursday night appears to the last straw for Boucher, as the Senators have now lost six in a row.

From his first season as head coach, where Ottawa reached the Eastern Conference Final and lost a Game 7 in overtime, to a non-playoff season in 2017-18 (67 points) to this year’s bottoming out, it’s been a fast fall for Boucher. It also mirrors his three-year stint a Tampa Bay Lightning head coach.

Owner Eugene Melnyk has set the plan to be good again, with the suggestion the Senators will spend to the NHL’s salary cap in 2021-2025. To that end, the press release from the team set the criteria as they look for the next permanent head coach after the season.

  • A teacher who will focus on the development and growth of each player on the team;
  • A listener who encourages feedback from players and the coaching staff;
  • A communicator who lets every team member know where they stand and what is expected;
  • A tactician who brings structure and game planning that will enhance our rebuild.

That reeks of a first-time head coach. Troy Mann, the coach of Ottawa’s AHL affiliate, is an automatic candidate. Sheldon Keefe, head coach of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, is another easy candidate. Even Dallas Eakins, the former Oilers’ head coach (for a season-plus) who has had a lot of success as coach of Anaheim’s AHL affiliate, could enter the mix for the Senators’ job if he isn’t tabbed to replace Randy Carlyle.

That said, Crawford adds a bit of credibility behind the Ottawa bench for the remainder of the season. He won a Stanley Cup as coach of the Colorado Avalanche in 1996 and won the Jack Adams Award the previous season when the franchise was in Quebec. Add in stints as coach of the Vancouver Canucks (seven seasons), Los Angeles Kings (two seasons) and Dallas Stars (two seasons) and Crawford has 1,151 NHL regular season games with nine playoff berths over 15 seasons as a head coach.

Next. 5 teams that didn't do enough at NHL trade deadline. dark

But with the template set, Crawford is in line to simply be a placeholder behind the bench for the last 18 games of a lost season for the Senators. The climb back to relevance has just started, with no first-round pick this year and a from-the-top commitment to two more seasons of bad, talent-barren hockey in Canada’s capital city.

Home/Ottawa Senators