Ottawa Senators Boucher & Crawford Bring Needed Experience
By Rob Eamer
The Ottawa Senators new coaching duo satisfy need for more experience
When the Ottawa Senators fired head coach David Cameron back in April, it was clear that they wanted to bring in coaching staff with more NHL experience to try and stop the revolving door that has been the Sens head coach position since the Jacques Martin era of 1996-2004.
On May 8th 2016, GM Pierre Dorion announced that they hired former Tampa Bay Lightning coach Guy Boucher as the new head coach of the Senators. Then on May 9th 2016, it was announced that Boucher had brought in Marc Crawford as his associate coach.
The coaching duo combine for 18 seasons of NHL coaching experience which has satisfied Senators management and fans who seem to agree that a coach with plenty of NHL experience is the key to re-establishing the Senators as a postseason competitor. They have a combined 1,346 games of NHL experience, 9 playoff appearances and one Stanley Cup.
The big question remaining is how this tandem will work together towards advancing this team, especially given that both coaches have reputations as being volatile in key situations. “I know that I’m going to have to obviously dial it down a bit and that’s always what the assistant coach has to do.” Crawford said May 11th 2016 at the Canadian Tire Centre. That kind of passion can be enough to spark a fire under a team that is slumping, but also could hinder them if used in excess or at inappropriate times.
With their combined experience, it’s reasonable to believe that this can only benefit them when they hit a bump in the road this fall. However, it’s important to work as a team and compliment each other’s skills and wisdom. Since Crawford has no NHL experience as an assistance coach, this could create a learning curve that hopefully will be sorted out by the time the season starts.
With a few roster tweaks sprinkled in, Sens fans are hoping that this is the recipe for returning to the postseason in 2016-2017.