The Ottawa Senators have fired head coach Paul MacLean, the club announced on Twitter Monday.
Assistant coach Dave Cameron will serve as the club’s interim head coach, reports TVA’s Louis Jean.
The announcement arrives the morning after the Senators rallied from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 in overtime Sunday night.
The first NHL coach fired this season, MacLean leaves the current Senators with a record of 11-11-5 and sitting in sixth place in the Atlantic Division.
MacLean amassed a 114-90-35 record with Ottawa over his tenure. He had signed a three-year extension after the team’s successful 2012-13 season.
MacLean’s defensive tactics allowed opponents easier entry into the defensive zone and caused the Senators to play difficult games in which they were outshot often. This season Ottawa is being outshot 34.4 to 28.8 per game.
“The chances against our team on some nights is atrocious,” general manager Bryan Murray said during a press conference.
The 56-year-old from Antigonish, N.S., is one season removed from winning the 2013 Jack Adams Award as the NHL coach of the lockout-shortened year.
In just over three seasons behind the Senators bench, MacLean lead the team to two playoff appearances, making it as far as the second round in 2013. Last season, the Sens finished a disappointing 37-31-14 and failed to qualify for the post-season.
Before becoming an NHL head coach in Ottawa, MacLean served as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes, Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Detroit Red Wings, with whom he won a Stanley Cup in 2008 alongside Mike Babcock.
MacLean also played 11 years in the NHL as a defenceman for the Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets.
There's no word on what they will do with Mike Watson.
*I tend to only post on this site when I'm intoxicated.
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drwoland wrote:Kinda crazy how quickly people get shitcanned in the NHL.
It baffles me how much turnover there is in the NHL. You look at a guy like Davis Payne who only got one full season with us, if I recall (and parts of two others). It's put up or shut up, basically.
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drwoland wrote:Kinda crazy how quickly people get shitcanned in the NHL.
It baffles me how much turnover there is in the NHL. You look at a guy like Davis Payne who only got one full season with us, if I recall (and parts of two others). It's put up or shut up, basically.
He is an assistant coach with the Kings. Good experience on a good NHL team. He might get a lick at a manager job in a few years, as the coaches around the league get younger. Or maybe he'll be a career assistant coach (like in NFL, where some are career defensive coordinators, whether they like it or not).
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That guys are canned quickly doesn't surprise or bother me at all-how long do you expect to be allowed to fail with millions of dollars worth of someone else's assets? They have contracts so it's not like these guys are eating out of garbage cans or down at the unemployment office after they're gone.
That certain mediocrities (Nolan) repeatedly get jobs and that others stay in a job regardless of results (Eakins) does surprise me.
