Hartsburg Fired!

davetherave wrote:504H, did you notice Farber was advocating Tortorella... ?

No, I'm relying on what you guys were saying. They think he's the man?

Cronenbergfan wrote:Heater and Spezza need to be put through hell...

I suggested earlier to Marakh something along the lines of a "Full Metal Jacket" hazing or something...

I still think if Murray is still GM that he should call Torts immediately and line something up.

Unless Clouston turns out to be the Canadian version of Torts or Torts-lite, who knows, but after seeing this movie twice now, I'm not too optimistic.

My buddy thinks that Torts would insist on a 4 year package as coach and that Murray might be a little nervous giving that amount of time on a contract. Especially for a guy like Torts who can lose a room in a matter of a calender year - two tops.

Hard to say, I argued that Torts should be happy as a clam to be back coaching in the NHL, but he seemed to think that it just doesn't work that way. So maybe now we're getting some light shed on what's going on. Perhaps Murray has full intentions of waiting until the summer to revamp the roster and hire a long term guy - if Cluster isn't the guy.

i don't want these guys to turn it around only to finish in no man's land and miss out on a top 5 pick...

I do, however, want to see them actually give a s**t about each other, the game, the fans, and their org to actually compete every time they lace 'em up!

Is that too freakin' much to ask!?!?

Cronenbergfan wrote:i don't want these guys to turn it around only to finish in no man's land and miss out on a top 5 pick...

I do, however, want to see them actually give a s**t about each other, the game, the fans, and their org to actually compete every time they lace 'em up!

Is that too freakin' much to ask!?!?

In other words, have them continue to suck and tank so we get a high draft, develop team chemistry and jam and have order restored to the locker room and win the Cup next season.

Not too much at all!

Cronenbergfan wrote:i don't want these guys to turn it around only to finish in no man's land and miss out on a top 5 pick...

I do, however, want to see them actually give a s**t about each other, the game, the fans, and their org to actually compete every time they lace 'em up!

Is that too freakin' much to ask!?!?

A little, yeah. They need to start manning up - NOW. That means:

1.You fight for that puck like it's the only thing in the world to you.

2.If you dog it, you get bag skated. The second time you dog it, you bag-skate until you puke, while the rest of the team bag-skates normally. The third time you bag-skate until you need medical assistance and the rest of the team bag skates until they're skating in a mush of puke.

3.The fourth time you dog it, you sit for 5 games. You don't practice with the team, you practice with the assistant coaches with no pucks and no sticks, the 5th game, it's you and me. And you will bleed and you will puke.

4.The fifth time you step out of the parameters of my system, I don't ever want to see you again.

Good habits might have to be forced down the throats of some guys. What can they do? Revolt? Hey, Diddle you. I'm the coach, I'll tell you when you can leave practice and when you get bag-skated. You don't like it - Diddle off.

Is it me or has Melnyk been in the public spotlight a lot lately, ever since the World Juniors.

shabbs wrote:Is it me or has Melnyk been in the public spotlight a lot lately, ever since the World Juniors.

We are slowly watching a man go insane...

504Heater wrote:

A little, yeah. They need to start manning up - NOW. That means:

1.You fight for that puck like it's the only thing in the world to you.

2.If you dog it, you get bag skated. The second time you dog it, you bag-skate until you puke, while the rest of the team bag-skates normally. The third time you bag-skate until you need medical assistance and the rest of the team bag skates until they're skating in a mush of puke.

3.The fourth time you dog it, you sit for 5 games. You don't practice with the team, you practice with the assistant coaches with no pucks and no sticks, the 5th game, it's you and me. And you will bleed and you will puke.

4.The fifth time you step out of the parameters of my system, I don't ever want to see you again.

Good habits might have to be forced down the throats of some guys. What can they do? Revolt? Hey, Diddle you. I'm the coach, I'll tell you when you can leave practice and when you get bag-skated. You don't like it - Diddle off.

Diddle me I'd pay to see these pansies treated like that.

PKC wrote:
Diddle me I'd pay to see these pansies treated like that.

See? Isn't that what Melnyk wants. People to pay to see his team. :D

Alfredsson's comments looked totally irresponsable to me. HE just seemed like he didn't care.

504Heater wrote:Hartsburg is one heck of a junior coach, I agree.

So is Peter DeBoer. And he seems to have done rather well--but not with the Senators.

It appears we won't know if Jones and Engblom's endorsement of Hartsburg extends to his ability as an NHL coach.

Here's what Ian Mendes had to say:

What happened to Hartsburg?

Ian Mendes, Sportsnet.com Monday, February 2, 2009

I thought for sure that Bob Hartley was going to be named as Craig Hartsburg's replacement today.

Not only does Hartley have a Stanley Cup ring, he would have been a wise choice during this economic downturn. When changing the nameplate on the coach's door, they could have kept the "Hart" on the sign and saved some serious money.

Instead, the Sens opted for little-known Cory Clouston as Hartsburg's successor. For the record, "Cory Clouston" was definitely the most popular search term on Google today -- slightly ahead of "Did the groundhog see his shadow?" and "Brenda Warner's new hair."

I'll admit I don't know anything about Clouston. Twice during his introductory press conference in Ottawa, he was asked how to pronounce his name.

But Clouston comes with glowing reviews from everybody I've spoken with Monday. He definitely appears ready to handle the pressure of coaching in the NHL. We should at least give him the benefit of the doubt, before we try to chase him out of town with our pitchforks and torches (As we seem to do with coaches and goalies here in Ottawa).

So, the Hartsburg Era in Ottawa lasted exactly 48 games, putting him ahead of Roger Neilson and Dave Allison, but slightly behind John Paddock on the all-time games coached list in Ottawa. What happened to Hartsburg? Let's answer three burning questions:

1. Was Craig Hartsburg the wrong choice? I've heard the argument that Hartsburg was just a mild-mannered, junior coach and he was ill-suited to the NHL game. However, down in New Jersey, Brent Sutter was a mild-mannered, junior coach and he seems to be doing just fine with the Devils. In fact, the other two division leaders in the Eastern Conference -- Washington and Boston -- also have even-tempered coaches who never had success at the NHL level before their current stop. I'm not sure that I buy into the theory that Hartsburg isn't an NHL coach. The two answers below give you a better idea of what I think went wrong in Ottawa.

2. Was Hartsburg the victim of a depleted roster? The lack of a puck-moving defenceman definitely hurt Hartsburg this season. Bryan Murray told us back in training camp that he wanted to acquire a puck-moving defenceman. And believe me, he's tried to do that for the past four months. It was absolutely the right thing to let Wade Redden, Andrej Meszaros, Joe Corvo and Tom Preissing walk out of Ottawa. At the time, I don't recall anyone objecting to those moves. But now the Senators are stuck without a transition game and it's completely hurting Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley. The Senators are the lowest-scoring team in the NHL right now. Did Ottawa's Big Three forget how to score overnight? I don't think so. Murray will try his best to acquire a puck-moving defenceman to help out his top guns.

3. Was Hartsburg the victim of bad luck? After making the post-season in 11 consecutive seasons, the law of averages says that you are going to miss the playoffs at some point. And sometimes, we don't put enough stock into the “luck factor.” For example, nobody would have predicted the Tampa Bay Rays or the Arizona Cardinals to advance to the World Series and Super Bowl respectively. They just had luck on their side and rode a wave of confidence and momentum.

The reverse is true for good teams that have bad seasons.

Sometimes, you just can't explain it, but luck is not on your side. I know that's not a popular theory to have in the media industry -- or else we'd all be out of jobs. Can you imagine a Hockeycentral panel where Nick Kypreos just said, "Well, the Senators didn't have luck tonight." And then Doug MacLean piped in with, "Yep. I agree. No luck on their side." That just doesn't make for good television. We want to insinuate that there are locker room chemistry issues. In-fighting with the coaches.

Last year, we blamed everything on Ray Emery. Was that really fair? We love scapegoats and finger-pointing. But let me say this: Luck plays a bigger role in sports than we ever want to admit in the media industry. And right now, the Ottawa Senators have absolutely no luck on their side.

What a great article this is. Totally true and to the point. Hopefully Clouston is the next Boudreau...we'll have to see. It's too late for this year anyway...

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/McRae_Earl/2009/02/03/8243151-sun.html

Just like Harts was supposed to be our Sutter. Oh well

Sorry if this has already been posted but I found this very interesting.

http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/duthie/default.aspx

marakh wrote:Alfredsson's comments looked totally irresponsable to me. HE just seemed like he didn't care.

Which comments? Any link?

shabbs wrote:

marakh wrote:Alfredsson's comments looked totally irresponsable to me. HE just seemed like he didn't care.

Which comments? Any link?

Tsn.ca Video section.

marakh wrote:

shabbs wrote:

marakh wrote:Alfredsson's comments looked totally irresponsable to me. HE just seemed like he didn't care.

Which comments? Any link?

Tsn.ca Video section.

Thanks!

The word "evaluation" has replaced "accountability". What a farce.