It’s possible that when the Ottawa Senators first heard Everything Must Go, by Welsh rockers the Manic Street Preachers, they thought it was a business plan. Having already off-loaded their three top scorers in the trade window, the Sens waited until today, Saint David’s Day, to fire head coach Guy Boucher. And thus ends the tenuous Welsh connection.
Ottawa Senators cap off bad week by firing head coach Guy Boucher and appointing Marc Crawford as interim coach pending a hiring process. Release says Crawford 'will bring a different perspective along with a wealth of head coaching experience.' pic.twitter.com/pqs6fAgYIn
— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) March 1, 2019
If anything ‘relieved’ is the right word. Boucher is relieved that he no longer has to try and get points from the picked-apart carcass of the Senators bench. With the trade window fire-sale, it’s going to be a challenge for interim coach Marc Crawford to even dress 20 NHL calibre players.
The statement released by the Sens reads less like a statement, and at best like a job posting. Wander around Canada’s capital city sometime soon and you might see that hanging in the windows of recruitment agencies! Not only that, but the statement is essentially a list of all the skills that Boucher didn’t have. Way to throw the dude under a bus.
So what happens next for the team that keeps on failing to give? Well, they’ve got Crawford until the end of the season. Then they just have to find someone who ticks all the boxes on the above job posting, and desperately wants a job in the NHL. Don’t be surprised if Crawford takes the job permanently come the end of the season.
All in, Boucher was always going to go at the end of the season, Melnyk and Dorian are cleaning house and anyone or anything that doesn’t fit the new style of rebuild has to go. What that rebuild looks like is yet to be established, it feels like the Sens are aiming to be a team capable of cup contention in about 2028.
Did it make sense to fire Boucher now instead of in 18 games’ time? May as well. Nothing else is working, so I’m not going to wail on the organisation for letting him go. But the classless statement that accompanied that dismissal? That’s embarrassing.