Written by Graeme Nichols | 19 March 2009

This morning I received a hilarious email from our friend Senators Lost Cojones, author of my favorite Senators blog Five For Smiting:

Something to chew on...if you do the math since Clouston took over, we'd be looking at a 104 point season, based on win % if he had been given the job back in October. GAWD I hate hindsight. ~ SLC

It's fitting that at a time when people are lauding the accomplishments of the legendary Brian Kilrea, another coach, who's trying cutting his teeth in the NHL is getting his due. Yes ladies and gentlemen - Cory Clouston is no longer looking like the temp.

On March 17th, Ken Warren wrote a piece that does a great job articulating the impact that Clouston has had since he's taken over.

Since Clouston arrived, however, Phillips is a plus- nine in 20 games. There are similar spikes in the numbers for Nick Foligno (minus-19, Hartsburg; plus-nine Clouston), Mike Fisher (minus-seven Hartsburg; plus-nine, Clouston) and Anton Volchenkov (minus-13, Hartsburg; plus-seven Clouston)

The simple answer is that Clouston has brought with him to Ottawa a style -- he used a similar game plan with the American Hockey League's Binghamton Senators before being promoted -- that pressures the opposition into more mistakes, causing turnovers that eventually result in more scoring chances for the Senators and more goals.

The defencemen are part of the forecheck, being asked to support the forwards by keeping the puck inside the opponent's blue-line whenever possible. They've also been asked to stand up other teams' forwards at their own blue-line rather than backing up. In addition, forwards have been asked to support the defence on breakout plays by coming deeper into their own zone, which wasn't always happening with Hartsburg as coach.

Even though Ottawa's 12-6-3 since Clouston took over and the chances for the team to make the playoffs are still remote, in the greater scheme of things, Clouston's done something more important - He's likely saved Bryan Murray his job.

As a GM whose biggest criticisms have stemmed from his coaching choices, there's no doubt that Murray's detractors will retrospectively shit on his insistence to stick with Hartsburg for as long as he did. Or, these same revisionists can bemoan how long it has taken the organization to rid themselves of Martin Gerber.

For the first time in years (ever?), Ottawa's goaltending situation looks resolved. Even if Leclaire falls victim to the IR, Elliott's demonstrated that he can carry the bulk of a workload. (And don't look now, but he's also 6-0 since the Trade Deadline Day.) With the goaltending and coaching concerns put to bed, a farm system that's restocked and prospects who are on the horizon, the only question that remains unanswered is how many years we can lock Brendan Bell up for. Hi-yo!

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