Hartsburg Fired..... FINALLY!!

Thank the lord above, Murray finally woke up and fired coach Craig Hartsburg. As this blog has mentioned for months now, this coach was simply not suited to this team. He
was trying to force feed a system that was not only boring as hell to watch but it was not suited to the team he had before him.

"You can't coach the players you wish you had. You have to coach the ones you have." - Brent Sutter

Having one guy go in on the forecheck only to have his linemates wait inside the blue line for him to gain possession BEFORE going on the offensive was ridiculous. Having all the forwards backcheck at the same time gives the defense no one to spring the breakaway pass to once they gain possession. No puck moving defenseman? What good is one when he has no one up ice to move the puck to? Antoine Vermette scored many, many goals on the breakaway over the past two seasons. Hard to start a breakaway from your own faceoff circle.

Bottom line: the players hated the system, knew it wouldn't work and quit on their coach when he refused to adjust.

Cory Clouston is a band-aid for this season as for as coaching goes, but I suppose there was no sense paying for a big name NHL coach like Quinn or Hartley when the season is already toast and Sens owner Eugene Melnyk is already paying two coaches NOT to coach on top of two goaltenders NOT to tend goal.

Let the rebuild begin in earnest. This should be a very interesting trade deadline, Sens fans. Stay tuned.