Senators fire goalie coach Eli Wilson
I think it's fair to say that more than a few of us saw this coming.
Ottawa Senators goalie coach Eli Wilson was fired today after being with the team since the 2007-08 season. Somewhat coincidentally, that's about the time that everything started to go wrong for the Ottawa Senators. The Sens have not had a solid net presence since that time (or before it, really), and it was only a matter of time before Eli was fired. The final nail in the coffin was the poor play of Pascal Leclaire, who presumably should be playing better given his history of solid goaltending. Bryan Murray had the following to say:
"Performance of the goaltenders in the organization had everything to do with it. I think Eli was a hard worker and paid a lot attention to it, but for some reason, both at the NHL level and American league level, we felt that the goaltenders weren’t where we thought they were going to be and where they have shown they can be."
No word yet on who his replacement will be, but we'll keep you posted. Also, check back tomorrow for a full examination of the current goaltending conundrum, including a statistical comparison of our current goaltenders to some of the worst goalie performances in Senators history to see where they stand.