Free-falling Senators fire coach D.J. Smith, replace him with Jacques Martin on an interim basis

The Ottawa Senators fired coach D.J. Smith on Monday, replacing him on an interim basis with Jacques Martin and adding Hall of Famer and former captain Daniel Alfredsson to the staff as an assistant.

It’s the latest shakeup for the NHL team in Canada’s capital city in three months since owner Michael Andlauer took over. Andlauer quickly hired Steve Staios away from the Edmonton Oilers to be president of hockey operations and on Nov. 1 fired longtime general manager Pierre Dorion following a league investigation that caused the Senators to forfeit a first-round draft pick.

Staios, now also interim GM, fired Smith 12 days after hiring Martin as senior adviser, which put the 71-year-old coaching veteran as an eye in the sky. Staios said at the time he consulted with Smith on the decision.

The Senators have since lost five of six games to fall into last place in the Eastern Conference. Only the Chicago Blackhawks have fewer points than Ottawa’s 22.

“It’s never good timing, but I think this was the time to make the decision to bring some hope to our players and really in search of some consistency to our game,” Staios said on a video call with reporters from Arizona. “We’re all looking for more consistency, more detail to our game, more structure.”

Martin will be back behind the bench after coaching the Senators for nine seasons from 1995-96 through 2003-04. He has a total of 17 seasons of NHL head-coaching experience and won the Stanley Cup twice as an assistant with Pittsburgh in 2016 and ‘17.