Former Habs’ coach says the Senators should have hired Patrick Roy

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One former Montreal Canadiens head coach believes the Senators let one get away after the New York Islanders hired Patrick Roy on Saturday.

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Michel Therrien, who had two stints behind the Habs’ bench and also coached the Pittsburgh Penguins during his career, told viewers on TVA Sports on Monday that the Senators should have brought in the Hockey Hall of Fame goalie who hasn’t been behind an NHL bench in seven years.

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According to Therrien, Roy would have been exactly what the doctor ordered to get the Senators on the road to respectability.

It should be noted that Ottawa owner Michael Andlauer was a partner in the Habs with Geoff Molson when Therrien was fired for the second time by Montreal during the 2016-17 campaign by GM Marc Bergevin.

Therrien stated he felt Roy, who scored a 3-2 overtime win over the Dallas Stars in his debut with the Isles on Sunday, would be able to rally the troops in Ottawa.

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“Currently, the Senators have a good young team, but the culture needs to be changed,” Therrien said in French during an appearance on JiC on TVA. “It would have taken a guy like Patrick to change this culture.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t dare to make this decision.”

After firing head coach D.J. Smith on Dec. 18, the Senators opted bring back coach Jacques Martin for a second stint behind the bench in an interim role with former captain Daniel Alfredsson as an assistant.

Martin has made his presence felt and the Senators are slowing taking steps in the right direction.

The reality is if Andlauer and Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, had any interest in hiring the 58-year-old Roy, the Senators would have done it when they fired Smith.

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The expectation is Martin will finish the season with the Senators and then the search for a full-time coach will take place.

Postmedia reported the day Smith was fired that one of the top candidates is John Gruden, a former Ottawa defenceman and head coach of the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies, but the club likely can’t get permission to speak to him until the end of the season.

Gruden, 53, worked for Andlauer and Staios for two seasons with the Ontario Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs. The club won the J. Ross Robertson Cup (league playoff champions) in 2017-18 after going 43-18-7 in the regular season.

Many believe Lamoriello made this move because he knows he can manage what Roy brings to the table.

Therrien made the point that Ottawa hiring Roy would have helped to spice up the rivalry between the Senators, Habs and Toronto Maple Leafs. Roy posted a 130-92-24 record with the Colorado Avalanche in three seasons behind the bench from 2013-16.

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He also led the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Quebec Remparts to the Memorial Cup last spring. Those comments were made in the hours before the Senators faced the Canadiens on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre to wrap up a two-game trip that started in Philadelphia on Sunday with a win for Ottawa.

“It’s a shame for Senators fans,” Therrien said. “The team is surrounded by two very strong markets: Toronto and Montreal. If Patrick was in Ottawa, it would have created an instant rivalry with Montreal and Toronto.”

Yes, the rivalry does need to be spiced up between these three teams, but you get the sense the likes of Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk and talented centre Tim Stutzle will take care of that themselves.

THIS ‘N’ THAT

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Defenceman Erik Brannstrom, a healthy scratch Sunday against the Flyers, was set to return on Tuesday. Blueliner Travis Hamonic, who left in the first period in Philly because of an undisclosed upper body injury, wasn’t on the ice for the morning skate, but there was no update on his status. Dominik Kubalik missed his second straight game with a minor hip injury … Ottawa winger Zack MacEwen was happy to have his mother, Juliana, in the house Sunday as he faced the Flyers for the first time back in Philly with the Senators. MacEwen scored his second of the season in the first period and that helped the club in a 5-3 win to start the trip. “To get the team going and to start things off, it was a good feeling,” MacEwen told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson on Tuesday in Montreal. Having his mother there was icing on the cake. “My mother has been at the last two games I’ve scored in so she’s saying she’s 100% right now,” MacEwen said. “It’s nice to have them in the building when we’re playing and they’ve been on the road with us.”

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THE LAST WORDS

Exactly twenty eight years ago on Jan. 24, 1996, Martin made his debut behind the Ottawa bench for the first time after being introduced by former GM Pierre Gauthier that morning.

The Senators dropped a 4-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Martin’s first appearance and he picked up his first victory Jan. 29, 2006. Ottawa had an 8-35-1 record when Martin took over from Dave Allison, who was fired along with assistants Pierre McGuire and Glenn ‘Chico’ Resch.

Martin left his post as an assistant with Colorado that season and finished with a 10-24-4 mark in his first year with the Senators. The Avs went on to win the Cup that year, but the move was worth it because became the winningest coach in Senators franchise history.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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