Hartsburg fired

[V-HAB]

Craig Hartsburg was fired as head coach of the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night, only 48 games into his first season behind the team's bench.

The final straw for Hartsburg was Sunday's 7-4 loss to the Washington Capitals.

"We just weren't making any progress," General Manager Bryan Murray said during Monday's news conference. "We're struggling to keep up.

"I think when we started this year, we all believed this group would be a good team. We had fairly high expectations. We also believed that we would rebound from a shaky start. We kept hoping there would be some change in our performance, which didn't seem to be taking place."

Hartsburg signed a three-year contract in June of 2008, taking over for current general manager Bryan Murray. His 17-27-7 record has left Ottawa with 41 points, which is the third worst point total in the league.

Hartsburg, who was the third coach Ottawa has employed since since they appeared in the Stanley Cup finals in 2007, has been replaced for the rest of the season by Binghamton Senators head coach Cory Clouston.

The 39-year-old Clouston, who was named head coach of the AHL Sens on July 19, 2007, holds a 59-48-12-8 all-time AHL record. Prior to joining the Senators' organization, Clouston spent five seasons as head of the Western Hockey League's Kooteney Ice.

"I expect a lot from the players," Clouston said. "What (the players) are lacking, I think that I can help them out. When I spoke to the guys I said, 'we're all in this together...When you look at the big picture, I'm very confident in myself and the biggest thing is, I believe in the guys in the dressing room."

Prior to his stint with the Senators, the 49-year-old Hartsburg spent five seasons as head coach of the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. During that period, he was also assistant coach to Brent Sutter for Team Canada's 2006 World Junior championship win, before going on to lead Canada to two more junior gold medals as head coach in 2007 and 2008.

Previously, Hartsburg had been at the helm of the Chicago Blackhawks (1995-98) and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (1998-2000).

Hartsburg, a former NHL defenceman, was picked sixth overall by the Minnesota North Stars in the 1979 NHL draft. The native of Stratford, Ont. had 413 career points in 570 games over 10 seasons with the team.

Assistant coach Curtis Hunt was also let go by the Senators, but the team is trying to encourage Hunt to go down to Binghampton to help fill the void left by Clouston's promotion.

Murray also said he wants to see how the coaching change affects the performance of his players.

With the NHL trade deadline of March 4 approaching fast, Murray said "we have some big decisions to make in that time."

www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=265548&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main

[Mr. Hockey]

this is the dumbest move that Ottawa did. They should had fired Brian

[V-HAB]

Yeah Murray's a pretty horrible GM, but Hartsburg isn't much better as a coach.

[Carson!]

they should have both been fired.

Hartsburg had no control over the team, and was extremly stubborn. He had a plan since training canp this summer, and stuck with it, although it was obviosly not working.

Murray has made some bonehead moves, but I dis-agree at the fact that he's a bad GM. He'sthe guy who re-built Aneheim, to the team that it is today, before Brian Burke, The Corvo, Eaves/Commodor, Stillman trade was crap, but Eaves was very injury prone and Corvo wanted out. He could have gotten so much better for them though, as opposed to the slowest defenceman in the league and Stillman, who were both free-agents at the end of that season. But that Meszaros trade was price-less, although it went totally oppose to what was expected, and Meszaros wanted waaaaay too much! Look at Murray's Drafting record in the first round. Nick Foligno(28th overall, he's good), Jim O'Brian(24th overall, supposed to be good, top scorer for team USA in the world juniors this year) and Erik Karlsson(15th overall, this guys good!...but needs to lose the moustache)

Steve Y, Sens GM 2010!!

[V-HAB]

Scouting is not up to Murray, and one trade that went totally unexpectedly well in the Kuba/Meszaros trade does not make him a good GM. Murray has always been a loser, and still is.

[dustyrockon]

Well put.

[Mr. Hockey]

the only reason that murray did that Kuba/Meszaros trade is because he didn't want to lose him for nothing. Because he knew that Tampa was going to sign him to a offer sheet. But if they do that they would had got some draft picks. just like what the oilers give to the ducks. I think it would be a 1st 2nd and 3rd?? So they way I see him it was a bad trade just like what VD said,

[Carson!]

Like i said, they both should have been fired, and it doesn't matter that the scouting isn't up to murray, he still makes the final descission, he gets a bunch of names and numbers and has to pick from that.

[Carson!]

Feb 4, 2009 23:14:40 GMT -5 V-HAB said:

and one trade that went totally unexpectedly well in the Kuba/Meszaros trade does not make him a good GM. Murray has always been a loser, and still is.

Don't get me wrong, i don't like the guy either, but i was just saying he's not a horrible GM, not a good one, but he's not as completly useless as you're saying he is.

[V-HAB]

Feb 6, 2009 20:01:23 GMT -5 Carson! said:

Like i said, they both should have been fired, and it doesn't matter that the scouting isn't up to murray, he still makes the final descission, he gets a bunch of names and numbers and has to pick from that.

They make the final pick but they don't know much about the rookies. Unless the decision is a no brainer like if you get the number 1 pick, the GM's will trust their scouts because, like you said, it's just names and numbers to them. They don't pick them out of a hat.

[Carson!]

In my opinion, Murrays made some pretty good picks from those names and numbers, considering the highest pick he made was 15th overall.