Paddock Is The Problem

The time has come for Ottawa Senators General Manager Bryan Murray to swallow his pride and fire the coach he groomed and ultimately hired to take over the 2007 Stanley Cup finalists.

The team Paddock inherited has become a shambolic mess, culminating in an embarrassing 5-0 loss to the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs.

Paddock stood behind the bench and remained as frigid as a corpse as the goals piled up. Barely a shake of the head, barely a whisper, barely an emotion.

They say that teams take on the personality of their coach and if this is true, the Senators can book vacations for the end of April.

Over at SensArmy, they sum it up better than I can right now.

"...the coach has proceeded to build complacency and fatigue with top-line players who are overplayed and improperly utilized, frustration with third- and fourth-line players who are drastically underplayed and put in destructive situations, and disenfranchise both goaltenders to the point that neither is in the mental state to lead this team. When players fail to do what Paddock thinks they should do, he calls them out publicly instead of examining whether or not his tactics are appropriate."

That pretty much nails it on the head and is a much more honest assessment of this team than you'll find from any of the local beat writers who continue to simply point the finger at goaltending instead of realizing that poor play in the nets is simply a side-effect of a team falling apart in all aspects of their play.

For some reason, no one thought it wise to scrap Wade Belak, who got close to 5 minutes of playing time (about 5 more minutes than Brian McGrattan gets on any given night), or Darcy Tucker, who was a human wrecking ball. You'd think the Senators could at least let their fans go home with one shred of dignity intact.

.
The beat writers will no doubt soft peddle the Paddock criticism in the next few days, bringing up the fact that the team didn't panic last season when fans were calling for Bryan Murray's head. This is a different situation. For one, the playoffs are less than 20 games away. And two, at least Murray had a track record as an NHL coach.

Paddock has never gotten past the first round with an NHL team.

Don't hold your breath waiting for that record to change.