D.J.. Smith came on the telephone from his hotel room in Tempe on Tuesday morning.
Sports
EXCLUSIVE: Fired coach D.J. Smith leaves Ottawa Senators with his head held high
At some point or another Monday, one-by-one, every player and staff member that worked with Smith dropped by the bar to say thank you and wish him nothing but the best.
The going away meant a lot to him and he wanted that chance instead getting out of dodge immediately.
“It just shows they appreciated the time and effort I put in with them in building relationships,” Smith told Postmedia on Tuesday. “That’s 90% of coaching. As much as you want all the cut-outs, duotangs and the flashy stuff, at the end of the day, it’s about getting guys to give you everything they had.
“You can bring in other guys to help you with the details and the structure and all those things. If you can’t get your top players to play, and to play every day, it’s hard. Those guys played hard for me. They didn’t cheat me on effort. At the end of the day, that they came to say goodbye showed that they respected the effort and the time I put into them and their families.”
“I’m disappointed that we couldn’t turn the corner with this group for whatever reason,” Smith said. “Whether it was injuries or whatever the case may be. When we got it back to .500, you had to see that we needed to make a step and not continue to drop lower.
“I’m disappointed in that, but not disappointed in the whole body of work. I think I did my job in developing these young guys and turning them into real NHL players by giving them the confidence every day.”
Smith wanted to see players like captain Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Josh Norris, Thomas Chabot, Jakob Chychrun and Jake Sanderson take the Senators to the next level.
But he can leave with his head held high.
“Absolutely, I’m proud of the amount of work that we put in, the amount of people we met and I’m proud of a lot of the players that we brought from young kids to what we think are really good NHL players,” Smith said.
“That job was to come in and do that. I think I leave with a lot of guys that are much better NHL players than when they came in. One of the most unfortunate part of this job is the injuries and you can’t control those. We had insurmountable amount of injuries over my time here.
“Whether it was goaltending, star players or centres. It’s not an excuse, but you need the tools to win in this league. The timing of these injuries were crushing.”
“The expectations were I was going to have Stutzle, Norris and Pinto down the middle. I thought that was outstanding depth, drafting, trading and everything that went into it. That’s outstanding building that group of three centres,” Smith said.
“I don’t know that I coached 10 games with those three guys in the lineup, there were lot of games with only one of those guys playing. When this team gets those three guys in the lineup with a healthy Chabot, they’re capable of winning every night.
His No. 1 goal coming into this season was to help the Senators turn the corner. He’s still confident that can happen under interim coach Jacques Martin with former captain Daniel Alfredsson as an assistant.
“For sure, I love players and I always have,” Smith said. “I don’t only want them to be successful for themselves, but also for the city to experience a winner again. It’s really close and unfortunately my time came up but this team is going to be really good.
“They have good leadership, players that care and like each other, and for a lot of reasons we didn’t find a way to win early in the season. That doesn’t mean this team can’t get it going. There’s too much in that room. I have no doubt that if I had stayed right to the end, we’d be right close to the playoffs.”
“My mom is a diehard D.J. Smith fan,” he said. “Wherever I am she’s watching the games and that is the hard part. She sees her son being fired and especially last little bit here. I don’t go on the social media anymore. I’ve cut that off probably a year ago.
“You could tell by the phone calls she was worried and also it’s a double-edged sword because her and my wife are probably sad, but they’re also probably happy they won’t be getting phone calls about what people are saying about you. That’s why your family is your crowd and regardless of how you’re doing, they are there to support you.
Those ridiculous “Fire D.J.” chants didn’t bother him as much as they were hurt his family. Yes, it’s a tough business, but it’s not just about Smith, it’s the people around him.
“I get the fans, they want to win, they have right to be mad. They want that and we should have been better. It’s on the coach to make them better. I was more worried for my family, not for me,” Smith said.
“My job is to fix it and win games. I thought we had it going. It looked like we had it back on the tracks. This road trip has derailed us more than we thought. I take this experience and I’m better coach and I will be a better coach going forward.”
I thought we had it going. It looked like we had it back on the tracks. This road trip has derailed us more than we thought.
D.J. Smith
Smith won’t let the decision ruin his Christmas. He’ll spend time with Christie along with Brock, 7, and three-year-old Mickey. They’ll head back to Windsor for the holidays and Smith will be able to watch his son, Colton, 19, with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires.
“My younger children desperately miss Dad when he’s on the road and I don’t get to watch their hockey. That’s the positive and I can watch Colton,” Smith said. “I can watch them. That’s a positive that I get a chance to spend time with the people that have missed out.
“I chose the profession. I love hockey and I’m never going to leave it until they officially kick me out. I can’t think of the last time I didn’t go to the arena or took a day off. Those people miss out and this is a chance to give back until they call me to my next job. Then, it will be back we go and it’s part of the business.”
“You have to be steady on the rudder,” Smith said. “The highs and the lows with a young team were hard to control with them. The more older players you have on your team, the more it helps What I know is, the older players have steadied the group.
“One of our biggest losses from last year was Derick Brassard. If a healthy Derick Brassard could have given us one more year, it would have made a big difference in the locker room and the play of some of the players with consistency. You realize you’ve got to lean on those guys to help you with young players.
“I believe my communication and bench skills got better as it went on. I don’t want to lose the passion and emotion. I think I need to continue to find a way to be better in all those areas.”
“I think I created a better culture around the arena. I felt everyone felt included — whether it was the players, media or office staff, everybody felt comfortable being around. I never made it about me, I wanted everyone to enjoy it,” Smith said.
Before he hung up the phone to have some breakfast, Smith offered some closing thoughts.
“I had a good run. Last year was a lot of fun getting close and I thought without the injuries to the goalies we had a real chance,” Smith said. “I believed wholeheartedly this year we’d make the playoffs. Not to say that the team won’t, but I hope to see the Ottawa Senators playing in the playoffs.”
Sports
Edler to sign one-day contract to retire as a Vancouver Canuck
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Sports
Sixth-ranked Canadian women to face World Cup champion Spain in October friendly
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Sports
Maple Leafs announce Oreo as new helmet sponsor for upcoming NHL season
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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