Sports

Ottawa Senators Fire Head Coach

by TFleming | February 2, 2009 at 09:50 am

103 views | 3 Recommendations | 3 comments

Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray decided to fire head coach Craig Hartsburg Sunday night. The head coach of the Senators affiliate team Cory Clouston will be brought up to finish off the dismal season.

"Cory has spent two years in our organization, he knows our players, he knows our prospects and I know he gets maximum performance out of his players in the American Hockey League," Murray said during Monday's news conference. "I know the calibre of team we have there and what has happened with the group as a whole.

"I think he earned this job, I think he deserved the job and I want him to have the chance to be the guy here. I'm hoping he can help us make this franchise be what we thought it should be from the start of the year."

Ottawa has been floundering all season as their record has fallen to 17-24-7 placing them 28th out of the NHL's 30 teams. The last time that Ottawa missed the playoffs was in 1996 and its safe to say they will again this year.

Ottawa's goal scoring troubles can be chalked up to underachieveing offence and poor puck movement from the defence, landing the team 29th in the league for goals per game ( 2.40). Goaltending has also been struggling as they are averaging 2.88 goals against per game. Martin Gerber who signed a 3 year $11 million contract in 2006 is currently in the minors and the Senators can't get rid of him till the end of this year while Alex Auld is playing backup to rookie goaltender Brian Elliot.

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woodpeck

at 13:34 on February 2nd, 2009

After the game i watched on Friday, i can see why this happened. Hartsburg never got a fair shake IMHO. every time a new coach is brought in, they need to have a full season with the team. sometimes change takes awhile to work its way into being something good. obviously the players never tuned him in and the Ottawa management was impatient.

Jon Azpiri

at 16:22 on February 2nd, 2009

I wonder how much longer before Vancouver Canucks management fires its head coach.

woodpeck

at 17:03 on February 2nd, 2009

AV should have been turfed during the all star brk.

FYI about Cory Clouston :

The 39-year-old native of Viking, Alta., was in his second season as head coach of the Binghamton Senators
Previously, he coached the WHL's Kootenay Ice for five seasons, compiling a .637 winning percentage with 209 wins, 146 losses. The Ice made the playoffs each of those five seasons
He is a two-time WHL coach of the year, and was named Canadian Hockey League coach of the year in 2004-05
Prior to his AHL stint, Clouston coached in both the Tier II Alberta and B.C. junior hockey leagues.
Clouston was an assistant coach when Canada's national under-18 squad won the 2005 U-18 Junior World Cup, and coached the gold-medal winning Canadian squad in 2006.
As a player Clouston spent four years at the University of Alberta, including the 1991-92 CIS champion Golden Bears. He holds a bachelor's degree in recreation administration.