By Jordan Long
The Ottawa Senators are coming off one of their worst seasons in recent memory. They ended at 29-47-6 for a league low 64 points. Ottawa decided to let go of Head Coach Guy Boucher on March 1st. At the time Ottawa was 22-37-5. Marc Crawford took over for the final 18 games. He didn’t have better results with a record of 7-10-1. Ottawa started a coaching search. There are plenty of candidates they will interview. One is former legendary NHL goaltender Patrick Roy.
Roy isn’t a bad choice. At least he has NHL coaching experience with the Colorado Avalanche. He was with Colorado from 2013 to 2016. Colorado played some of their best hockey in recent memory in 2014 with him behind the bench. They ended the regular season at 52-22-8, winning the Central Division.
The regular season success didn’t carry over to the playoffs. Colorado faced the Minnesota Wild in the 1st-round. The Wild ended up winning the series in 7 games. The Avalanche never recovered from that loss and missed the playoffs the next two years with Roy behind the bench. Roy decided he was done coaching the Avalanche on August 11, 2016 due to differences with General Manager Joe Sackic. Roy finished with a record of 130-92-24 and hasn’t coached in the NHL since.
Ottawa could use Roy as Head Coach. Roy helped a young Colorado Avalanche team make the playoffs in 2014. The Senators hope he can do the same for them if he is hired. Ottawa is in a rebuild mode and has decent young talent in Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot. Both of these skaters will improve their game for years to come.
Roy shouldn’t take the job even though it is in the NHL and head coaching positions are difficult to come by. Ottawa is not going to be a playoff team next season or maybe even the year after. It may take them at least 3 years to make the postseason. Who knows what high profile free agents will want to come there if Roy is the coach due to his fiery attitude. Roy might not be patient enough to stick around. Ottawa is better off finding a coach who will help make this franchise back into a winner. f
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