Ottawa Senators fire Dave Cameron; relieve coaching staff
The Ottawa Senators have fired coach Dave Cameron, the team announced Tuesday.
The Senators also said the rest of Cameron’s coaching staff, Andre Tourigny, Rick Wamsley and Jason Smith were relieved of their coaching duties, though Smith had been offered another spot within the organization.
This is the first major decision by new general manager Pierre Dorion, who assumed the position Sunday with Bryan Murray opting to step into an advisory role. At that time, Dorion said no decisions on the coaching staff had been made.
“I think for the question on the coaching staff, we’ll be meeting Dave and the coaches and a decision will follow,” Dorion said.
Dorion will address the media at 12:30 p.m. in Ottawa.
In late March, owner Eugene Melnyk blasted the coaching staff for some of their decisions during the regular season, a year that saw Ottawa finish 38-35-9 and miss the playoffs. This year’s group struggled defensively, finishing 26th in the NHL in goals allowed per-game. According to War on Ice, the Senators struggled with puck possession and ranked 26th in CF% 5-on-5 at 47.4.
“I go back to the very first game you put in the second goalie, like ‘what was that about on opening night?’ and the guy gets clobbered. That’s not fair to him, that’s not fair to the fans,” Melnyk said. “It’s just a lot of little tiny mistakes that all of a sudden escalates and gets serious and gets in people’s heads and the next thing you know some days you look like Stanley Cup champs and then you look like EHL players. We just have to make some changes. I know that.”
The 57-year-old Cameron was hired as the team’s head coach on Dec. 8, 2014 when he took over for Paul MacLean. Last season he went 32-15-8 and helped guide the Senators to the playoffs. There the Senators lost in the first-round to the Montreal Canadiens. When Murray opted to replace MacLean with Cameron, he noted Cameron favored a more active style, which he believed would help some of Ottawa’s younger players.
"Maybe now a little more aggressive style, we’ll chase the play more often and it will play into the young people on our hockey team," Murray said at the time.
Cameron was previously a Senators assistant coach for three seasons. He was the 11th head coach since the team’s inception in 1992-93.
According to the Ottawa Sun, the Senators are keeping a “close eye” on whether the Boston Bruins part ways with coach Claude Julien. Ottawa Sun, Senators beat reporter Bruce Garrioch tweeted that former Wild coach Mike Yeo could be a candidate. The Wild fired Yeo in February.
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