| 03 February 2009
When Pat Quinn was the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs – seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it? – one of the things he banged the drum about every time a coach got fired was the need for a coaches’ union.
I've never liked Pat Quinn inspired socialist movements.
Pretty tough to argue with that logic when it comes to the Ottawa Senators firing Craig Hartsburg just 48 games into his tenure in Canada’s capital. If there were a coaches’ union, you can bet it would be processing the paperwork right now for a grievance against the Senators for firing their coach without just cause.
Fuck yeah, a coach's union would be great. The Senators can't even get rid of their players because of the clauses negotiated during bargaining process. I couldn't even begin to fathom a world in which it'd be more difficult to get rid of guys like John Paddock.
What the Senators did today is what drives coaches bonkers and it should. But what it will also do is drive any prime coaching candidates away from Ottawa if they have a choice between the Senators and almost any other organization in the league.
So fucking true. Who the fuck would want to come to an organization where the media is fickle, the owner is a delusional primadonna and the management is as structurally sound as Michael Jackson's nose. And this problem extends beyond coaching candidates. No player in their right mind would opt to sign here this offseason with all the nonsense going on. They'd have to be nuts - I call this the Jarkko Ruutu Rule.
Is there anyone out there who believes that any of the stink from this mess in Ottawa should be sticking to Hartsburg at the moment? Hartsburg is a quality coach who has succeeded at every level of hockey and it’s amazing that over the course of 48 games, he somehow worked in a way that merited him being fired.
Well, some of it should stick to Hartsburg. It's like going to a bar in Hull when you're a teenager. You may not have smoked, but when you came home at 4 in the morning, you still smelled like shit. It's vicarious stench - Muckler started it, Murray's made some decisions that have compounded it, and the players effort is the cherry on top.
The problems in Ottawa go way beyond who’s standing behind the bench. It’s clear the Senators fired the wrong person today. What owner Eugene Melnyk would have done if he had any ability to admit his mistakes would have been to fire GM Bryan Murray. Or at the very least, he could have fired Hartsburg, put Murray back behind the bench where he’s much better suited and waited until the summer to replace Murray as GM.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back the truck up Campbell. Beep, beep, beep. Firing Bryan Murray or stripping him of the GM title and designating him as Coach are both moves that leave me wondering what you're thinking. I think most people can agree that Murray is qualified for the GM job, he's drafted well, he's rebuilt Bingo, but he's also been stubborn enough not to overpay to bring in a quick fix. Murray was qualified enough when he was hired, and he's qualified enough to execute a rebuild. Look at Buffalo, Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff have been there through some trying times. Murray knows the system and the players, but the question should be, Does Murray Have the Stones to Make Some Difficult Decisions.
Murray is a terrific coach and might even be a decent GM, but the fact is no objective hockey observer could possibly come to any other conclusion than pointing out that everything Murray has touched in a managerial capacity has turned to lead. And much of the blame for that has to go right to Melnyk, who allowed Murray to prevail in a power struggle between Murray and former GM John Muckler after the Senators advanced to the Stanley Cup final.
Funny, everything Muckler ever touched while acting in a GM capacity was processed by his liver.
And how ridiculous does it seem now that much of the reason for Muckler’s firing was based on the fact that he was unwilling to overpay the Florida Panthers for Gary Roberts at the trade deadline in 2007? Though Muckler was not without his skeletons, either. He was the one who signed Martin Gerber to a four-year deal and allowed Zdeno Chara to leave as an unrestricted free agent in 2006, instead hitching his hopes to Wade Redden.
Off the top of my head: Chara vs Redden, a poor draft record, drafting a slew of Russians in the 2nd round who never came to North America, Gerber, Varada, Smolinski, Bondra, giving Martin Havlat to the Blackhawks, tolerating Emery's antics the year of the Stanley Cup Run, a 2nd rounder for Saprykin because he couldn't land Roberts, Tyler Fucking Arnason, I could go on.
And now Redden is gone as well, thanks to Murray. It’s amazing a team that has had the likes of Chara, Redden and Joe Corvo at different times is now searching for a puck-moving defenseman. It’s also searching for a goaltender that can play with some semblance of consistency at the NHL level and some players who can provide a modicum of secondary scoring after Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson, who are the only engines on one of the lowest-scoring teams in the league.
Campbell, you got this wrong. It's not thanks to Murray that Redden isn't here anymore. It's thanks to Wade. Murray asked him if he'd be open to waiving his NTC twice, Redden declined. Sure, you could blame Murray for not putting a gun to Wade's head but whatever, what can you do? I do like the word modicum though. Modicum.
When it comes down to it, it wasn’t Hartsburg’s idea to give Ray Emery a three-year deal based on one decent season instead of letting him go to arbitration, then paying him for the next four years not to play goal for them. It wasn’t Hartsburg’s idea to sign Heatley to a six-year deal worth $45 million, Spezza to a seven-year contract worth $49 million, Alfredsson to a four-year deal that amounts to $21.6 million ($19.5 million in contract and a $2.1 million bonus for not playing out his option) and Mike Fisher to a five-year deal worth $21 million.
Like I've said before, if you're going to shit on Murray for Emery's contract, then you're completely ignoring the fact that his buyout is dirt cheap by industry standards. Maybe Murray could have dealt Razor after the Stanley Cup run, but that's revisionist history. Get over it, Emery's not hurting the books right now. Complaining about Heatley and Spezza is easy to do after they've shat the bed for the first time in their respective careers. I think Heatley's been one of the most productive goal players for the past 3 seasons. Some may argue that that's a good investment? It's been my position that paying your best players top dollar isn't going to hurt your cap situation. It's been the lack of development in the secondary players that has hurt this club. None of Fisher, Vermette, Foligno, Lee, Eaves, Kelly, and Neil have been able to significantly improve upon their numbers. Part of me wants to buy into a conspiracy theory that Mlakar and management were convinced that the organization couldn't afford to lose the players (read: Mike Fisher) who've been part of the team for so long. Like they feared some kind of public backlash.
It wasn’t Hartsburg who made Murray address the Senators’ perceived lack of grit by signing an ineffective Jason Smith on defense and an erratic Jarkko Ruutu at forward. Is it Hartsburg’s fault that Fisher has worn down and can’t possibly meet the expectations of his contract? Is Hartsburg to be blamed because Antoine Vermette has fallen off the face of the earth?
No, you can't blame Hartsburg for these things. He's just the coach. He just kept the top line together all year because people bought into the fact that it gave the team the best opportunity to win. It's weird when you think back that historically, prior to the Big 3, Ottawa's never played the top players together. Yashin never played with Daigle, Hossa/Alfie/Havlat were never together. Instead, we were treated to balanced lineups that generated some long-term success.
The Senators are in deep trouble here. They’ve wildly misjudged their personnel and have given far too much money to players who cannot possibly be the heartbeat of their team (Spezza, Heatley) and one who can’t do it all by himself, especially at his age (Alfredsson).
It's true. We've overpaid for some guys to keep them in Ottawa. Even worse, Murray's also limited his ability to trade these guys. Interestingly, people seem to shit on these guys as the heartbeat of the club when things are going bad. If they are as bad as they are rumored to be, you'd figure Bryan Murray would have had the insight as the former Coach to make the right decisions. Has Melnyk handcuffed him? Who knows?
Beyond top prospect Erik Karlsson and goalie Brian Elliott, the Senators’ constant production of top young players has slowed to a trickle. The fact that Heatley, Spezza, Alfredsson and Fisher take up more than $23 million in cap space proves that after making the Stanley Cup final, they failed to learn from the mistakes the Tampa Bay Lightning made after winning the Stanley Cup.
Blame Muckler. Murray's draft picks are panning out quicker than Mucklers. Had Muckler selected Kopitar, at least Murray would have had the opportunity to make a tough decision to retain either of Spezza or Fisher when they were eligible for FA.
And by the way things are going, it looks like the Pittsburgh Penguins, who made the final last season, could be next in line as NHL salary cap casualties.
Good. Somehow I feel much better about our team. Except for the fact that Malkin and Crosby are infinitely more talented and complete and have more upside than the guys we currently have. My apologies to Alfie.
The good GMs in this league have figured out that you can’t throw all your cap room at a couple of players. The Senators, under Murray, have yet to grasp that concept.
I thought all the good GMs have figured out that the best way to build a team is to maximimize your value for your dollars. Isn't that why Detroit's so successful?
And in the end, a good man and a good coach ended up paying for the mistakes of those who operate above him.
Above and BEFORE him. Fucking Muckler!
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