HARD WORK ON HORIZON FOR SENATORS
New head coach Smith won’t tolerate lack of effort from any player on roster
The Ottawa Senators might not be the most talented team in the NHL next season. But following the hiring of new head coach D.J. Smith, you can be assured that they will be one of the hardest working, even if it means Smith has to drive the players to the gym himself this summer.
After all, it’s what he’s done as a coach in the past.
“During the off-season, he trained me and a couple of the local guys for free,” said Flint Firebirds head coach Eric Wellwood, who played for Smith for four years in Windsor and then coached alongside him for two years in Oshawa.
“Every day, he was at the gym with us at 9 a.m. We didn’t have any money, so we’d get him a bottle of whiskey at the end of the year. That’s a testament to how much he cares about the players. He’s not a coach who’s just a coach. He really wants his players to perform at their highest level, for themselves.”
As a player, Wellwood won back-to-back Memorial Cups while Smith was an assistant coach with the Spitfires. Wellwood was an assistant coach when Smith, as head coach, won a Memorial Cup with the Generals in 2015.
Smith’s ability to develop players at the junior level — along with his experience as an assistant coach on a young Toronto Maple Leafs team — were big reasons why the Senators chose him over other candidates, such as Patrick Roy, Marc Crawford and Jacques Martin.
Ottawa, which finished with the worst record in the NHL last season, is where Toronto was not too long ago. The challenge for Smith will be to get the Senators’ young core, which includes Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot and Erik Brannstrom, believing they can take those next steps and compete for a playoff spot and then a championship.
“I think he’s going to inject a lot of enthusiasm into that group,” said Wellwood. “I think he’ll have a vision of where he sees the group in a couple of years and give them something to work toward. There’s no black and white with him. If you don’t work, you don’t play. He doesn’t care who you are.” VOYNOV TO EDMONTON? Shortly after the NHL announced that Slava Voynov’s suspension for domestic assault would be lifted at the midway point of next season, the Los Angeles Kings released a statement insisting that they won’t bring back the former defencemen.
Expect several other NHL teams to have a similar stance when it comes to Voynov, who has gone five years since he last played in North America. But if the Houston Astros were willing to trade for Roberto Osuna last year, then you can also expect that someone will take a chance on the 29-year-old.
Don’t be surprised if the Edmonton Oilers are one of those teams. For one, the Oilers could use all the help they can get on the back end. And secondly, GM Ken Holland is a big believer in second chances. While in Detroit, he witnessed Scotty Bowman’s decision to bring back Joey Kocur. Twelve years later, Holland gave a similar opportunity to Darren Mccarty after the fourth-liner had drank himself out of the league.
“At the time, I thought it was nutty to bring back a player who had been playing in the beer leagues,” Holland, referring to Kocur, told me in a 2008 interview. “But he helped us win a Cup.”
Voynov’s situation is much, much different than Kocur’s or Mccarty’s. But if his addition leads to a playoff spot, it could offset the potential PR firestorm of adding a player with his off-ice reputation. PHIL THE CUP WINNER
Four years later, Phil Kessel is on the move again. It’s just a matter of when and where, although all signs seem to point to Minnesota.
But contrary to popular opinion, the fact that Kessel is about to join his fourth team in 12 years doesn’t mean he was a bad teammate or a bad player for the Penguins. It’s quite the opposite. There are eight million reasons why the Penguins are trading Kessel. All of them begin with a dollar sign.
It’s easy to forget that before getting traded from Toronto to Pittsburgh, the Penguins had won just two playoff rounds in the previous six years. In Kessel’s first season, they won the Cup, with Kessel losing out on the Conn Smythe Trophy to Sidney Crosby by just a couple of votes.
The following year he had 23 points in 25 games as Pittsburgh repeated as champions.
Simply put, Crosby would have only one championship ring if it weren’t for Kessel. AND ANOTHER THING
William Nylander is back looking like his old self at the world championship, which is good news for him, but even better news for the Maple Leafs, who now won’t have any trouble moving his contract in the summer … What head coach Sheldon Keefe is doing with the Marlies during the Calder Cup playoffs is impressive. But let’s pump the brakes a bit. The last time I checked, Toronto’s AHL team had one of the highest payrolls in the league … There have been four sweeps and five Game 7s in these playoffs so far. Based on what Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said of the Blues, expect the Stanley Cup final to go the distance. “I think they’re a bit of our twin,” he said. “I expect the games will probably be lower scoring, more physical.” … It’s worth noting that Dave Tippett, who is expected to be the next head coach of the Oilers, missed the playoffs in each of his final five seasons in Arizona. It’s also worth noting that he spent eight years coaching the Coyotes, so he must have been doing something right.
He’s going to inject a lot of enthusiasm into that group . ... There’s no black and white with him. If you don’t work, you don’t play. He doesn’t care who you are.