Galliocci: Senators coach DJ Smith says ‘no room for negativity’

walterpalladNovember 25, 2022

Head coach of DJ Smith. Photo by Julie Oliver /Post Media/File Photo

ANAHEIM — Ottawa Senators turn a deaf ear to the noise.

The Senators mark the quarter of the season Friday afternoon in Game 20 against the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center, but they aren’t sitting where everyone expected.

The Senators woke up Thursday and tied with the Ducks for last place in the NHL with 13 points. Ottawa won just six in 19 games after he lost 4-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday.

Suddenly, today’s game at 3pm ET is a battle to decide which team will stay underground when the final buzzer goes off. I am doing the best I can.

“I’m not saying I’m ignoring[the noise]but I’m feeling the fans,” center Derrick Blassard told The Pond on Friday. “I want to play well for them and I want to play well for the sitts. We have a really good group and we keep that in mind.

“We know people are not happy and we understand that every team and every player in the league has expectations, but we will try to get out of this. It’s not the season we wanted when it started, but it’s a tough league and we have a lot of good teams.

“We try to be successful here.”

The Senators head into this game 10 points behind the final wildcard spot in the East.

In a year when the Senators hoped they could turn a corner in the spring and go for a playoff spot after making massive changes in the offseason, they’ll need to make a major turnaround midway through the campaign. point.

The Senators failed to score on Grade ‘A’ chances, committed costly defensive errors, and ended up behind the net and unable to save when they needed to.

Coach DJ Smith preaches positivity and never gives up.

“At this point, there’s no room for negativity,” Smith said. “(Wednesday) I thought we worked very hard, but we didn’t get the results we wanted. Feeling sorry for yourself doesn’t help, and being negative doesn’t help either.”

The effort came against one of the NHL’s best teams on Wednesday, but the result was another loss, and a win would do wonders for confidence. said the match was very important. The club has been 2-5-1 since he made that statement.

The Heat culminated with Smith taking it from everywhere, but if people think players adjusted him as the club faced one of the NHL’s best teams in Vegas, that’s not the case.

That’s why Smith and his staff are showing up every day with fresh thinking to turn this around.

“My job is to win the game, and I know that. With (Jake) Sanderson and Tim Statzl, there are certain parts that I have to be involved with every day, but my job is to fix things. That’s it,” said Smith. “If a player is out with an injury, my job is to improve their play.

“I take full responsibility for not winning enough games. I thought I worked very hard (Wednesday), I think I could have done better, but I didn’t.

Everyone needs to do their part to get the Senators out of this situation.

“We just need to rise here,” said captain Brady Tokachuk. “We need everyone from top to bottom to find extra gear and extra levels to get the job done. We can do that in this room.”

“Friday is a big event and we have to do our best there.”

As Tkachuk says, everyone can get better. He sets an example as one of the club’s best players, but he can’t do it all alone. Wings Drake Batherson and Alex Devlincat are both here to score goals, but neither has that kind of consistency.

The Senators have just three goals in their last three games.

“We are looking for results and we are trying to improve every day. , because going in the opposite direction can be quite energy draining.

“We’re trying to get through this. It’s not easy. We’re all a little frustrated, but we’re going to stick with it. It’s the only thing we can do. It’s positive and DJ did a good job keeping us on the right track.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/sungarrioch

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