Former Senators coach D.J. Smith ‘excited’ in new role with L.A. Kings

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D.J. Smith isn’t the kind of person that likes to sit still.

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“I can’t do nothing. That’s not me and that’s not who I am. I have to be moving,” the former Ottawa Senators head coach told Postmedia from Los Angeles on Wednesday night. “I have to be doing something.”

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It didn’t take long for Smith to go from doing nothing to something.

Fifty-two days after being fired by the Senators on Dec. 18 before a game in Arizona, Smith, 46, went back to work after getting a call from the Los Angeles Kings to spend the rest of the season as an assistant with interim head coach Jim Hiller.

While he didn’t get a contract extension and is essentially working on the final year of the deal he had with the Senators, Smith wasn’t about to turn down the chance to return to a National Hockey League bench — especially with the Kings pushing for a playoff spot.

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“I could have sat at home,” Smith said. “But I want to work and this is a great opportunity for me to work with a great group in L.A. I know the people here and I’ve got the chance to be part of something exciting. We’ll see how it goes the rest of the season and then we’ll go from there.”

Kings general manager Rob Blake picked up the phone on the weekend and called Smith, a former teammate with the Colorado Avalanche, days after the organization gave head coach Todd McLellan his walking papers Friday to see if he wanted to assist Hiller the rest of the way.

Hiller, 54, an assistant on the club’s staff for part of two seasons, was promoted to the head coaching role by Blake after the club made the decision to fire McLellan after the Kings posted a 3-8-6 record in their previous 17 games.

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After nearly five seasons behind the bench with the Senators, nobody would have blamed Smith if he said ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to the role that Blake was offering because it doesn’t come with any guarantees.

The Senators didn’t pick up the option on Smith’s contract before he was fired, so he could have stayed home in Windsor for the next few months, coached Team Canada at the IIHF world championships in the spring and made the Ottawa organization pay the rest of his salary.

Smith made the most of his time at home with his wife, Christie Bezaire, along with the couple’s two children.

They had time for a family vacation at Disney World in Florida and Smith was also able to spend time watching his son, Colton, suit up with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires.

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A huge fan of the Detroit Lions, Smith made a couple of trips to Ford Field for playoff games.

Early in the New Year, Smith and Bezaire returned to Ottawa to put the house they purchased in 2019 in the west end up for sale. They also came back so one of their children could suit up with is team one final time in a tourney at the Bell Sensplex before returning to Windsor permanently.

Since that trip to Ottawa in January, Smith has been spending time with friends and family near his home in the Windsor suburb of Lasalle. He has spent his lifetime in hockey and he noted it’s been good to spend time with his family that he normally wouldn’t get.

The way Smith looked at it, the opportunity with the Kings was too good for him to pass up on even there are no guarantees he’ll be back next season.

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He worked with Hiller on Mike Babcock’s staff with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2015-19, after which Smith joined the Senators as the club’s head coach.

The Kings are in fourth place in the Pacific Division and are sitting the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The club closed out a break in the schedule with their first practice since the change on Thursday at the practice facility in El Segundo.

“I know Rob Blake, I played with him and I’ve worked well with (Hiller) in Toronto,” Smith said. “There’s an opportunity to coach in the playoffs here and that’s exciting for me. I could have said no, but that’s not me because I want to work and I’ve been in this game my whole life.

“I want to be a winner. I’ve won at every level I’ve been at and there’s an opportunity here to have success.”

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Smith got this call because he treats people the right way and he’s easy to work with.

If the Kings get the ship headed in the right direction, then that’s good news for everybody involved. When Smith spoke to this newspaper the day after he was let go by the Senators, he made it clear he wanted to coach again and he’d go home to wait “for the next call.”

It took a lot less time than Smith expected, but he was back in the office in Los Angeles on Thursday morning preparing for a visit by Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers to Cypto.com Arena on Saturday night.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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