EXCLUSIVE: Fired coach D.J. Smith leaves Ottawa Senators with his head held high

D.J.. Smith came on the telephone from his hotel room in Tempe on Tuesday morning.

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.”