Hartsburg Should be Fired

Since the beginning of the 2008-2009 season, the Ottawa Senators NHL hockey club has played a lacklustre and uninspired brand of hockey.

The team has consistently been among the league leaders in goals scored and made the playoffs every season for the past decade.

All of a sudden, this team is last in the NHL in goal scoring, despite having three of the best point getting forwards in the league.

General Manager Bryan Murray, has provided his coach with a good mix of previously notorious team players and hard working charges. These players had a reputation of working hard and playing for the logo on the front of their sweater rather than the name on the back.

Granted, the team lost some puck movement on the back end, but that is far from an excuse to be as bad as they are. This team has the calibre of players to be far better than a sub .500 team who is last in goals for.

This year's squad should be a playoff team that, through hard work and team play, could have success in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Now it appears that they will not even qualify for the NHL post season.

No secondary scoring? Antoine Vermette and Mike Fisher scored around 100 points between them last season and in past seasons as well. This year, they are on pace for 40.

No offence from the defence? Recently acquired Filip Kuba is among the league leaders in assists, more than replacing what was lost in trading Meszaros.

Chris Kelly is struggling; Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov, who were among the best shutdown defencemen in the league for the past couple seasons, are a combined minus-24 as of December 20th, 2008.

Is it possible for all these players to slump at the same time? These are good players.

Jason Spezza has been singled out by his coach for poor play, despite the fact that he is just under his customary point per game pace, while cutting down on his giveaways and being less of a defensive liability.

Players who are playing poorly are given huge amounts of ice time, whereas hard working players, such as Cody Bass and Shean Donovan, are rewarded by getting a few paltry minutes of ice time per game or, in Bass' case, sent to Binghamton.

This is a poorly coached team that needs a coach who has had NHL and Stanley Cup success; someone they would have reason to listen to. I'm sure coach Hartsburg had success coaching in Junior because the kids wanted to learn from someone of his ilk, who had a great NHL career.

NHL players aren't impressed by that, and they need a coach who has a proven track record and the type success that they crave. Pat Burns would be my personal choice, but there are others out there just as deserving.

Please sign our petition here and let the team's management and ownership know how you feel. We as fans love our team, and it pains us to see them struggle needlessly.

Ottawa has the best fans in the NHL and deserves a coach who can get the most out of our beloved players, not throw them under the bus every opportunity he gets and guide them down a path to nowhere. Let's go from nowhere to Now Here.

Here is a great read on the "Fire Hartsburg" subject by the Ottawa Sun's Earl McRae.