The Ottawa Senators ended the season at 38-36-9 for a total of 85 points, 11 points behind Philadelphia for the second Wild Card spot. They will miss the playoffs after making them last year. The Senators made the tough decision to fire Head Coach Dave Cameron for the failed season. Was this the right decision?
The Senators hired Cameron to be the Head Coach on December 8th 2014, 27 games into the season after serving as the assistant coach. He coached Ottawa to a record of 32-15-8, reaching the playoffs as a Wild Card team. They lost to the Montréal Canadians in the first round in six games. This year, Ottawa expected to be in the playoffs, but fell short. According to ESPN.com, Senators’ new General Manager Pierre Dorion said, “We just felt we needed to make a whole change. At the end of the day, this was my call and I felt it was the right thing to do.”
Ottawa is making the right choice. Under Cameron they couldn’t stop the opponents from scoring, allowing 2.94 goals per game. Their special teams were poor. On the power play they scored on 15.8% with the man advantaged , 26th in the NHL. They had the second worst power play kill at 75.8%, only the Calgary Flames were poorer at 75.5%.
Ottawa will begin to search for a new head coach. Yahoosports.com stated that Dorion wants a coach with NHL experience saying, “We’re definitely going to look at someone who can make a commitment to have our players play defense. This isn’t just on the coaches, it’s on the players, too”. The Senators should have a coach in place for the NHL draft, which starts June 24. The Senators need a coach who will help them on defense. Ottawa permitted teams to dictate the pace of play.
Dave Cameron will get another chance to coach in the NHL. This was his first ever head coaching job and he didn’t coach for two full NHL seasons. The best option for Cameron is to be an assistant coach again.
What do you think of the Ottawa Senators firing Dave Cameron?
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