Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. where he will announce the firing of head coach Craig Hartsburg. Hartsburg is believed to have ripped into the players following Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Washington Capitals after finally having enough of his team’s unwillingless to compete.

— Ottawa Citizen

I'm actually surprised it took this long given the way they've played.

Greg Wyshynski makes the right point here, that there were far better choices at coach available when Hartsburg was unearthed to take this job. He had failed miserably in two previous stops and this was by no means an easy task given the way the Sens flopped in the second half of last season.

And Pete DeBoer has worked miracles in Florida so far.

Ben at Sens Army has some damning comments on the organization's future, which looks pretty bleak in the near term. They've been such a strong team for so long that there aren't a lot of Grade A prospects in the pipeline:

The team is going no where, and the coaching switches are only serving to reenforce the worst aspects of the organization: scapegoating and hesitation. Arrogant comments from Melnyk last week serve only to illustrate how Murray and Melnyk are missing the point with this firing. Martin Gerber had three years of failure in Ottawa before being sent away, why did Hartsburg only get 48 games to prove himself? (Kind of off-topic, but I can't help but make this connection.)

This is a desperate move from Murray, and the variables are continually being narrow from this point in the season onward. If it's not the coaching, and it's not the players, then who's left? Murray's painted himself into a corner, and it's only a matter of time before the firing squad turns to him.

I personally don't see any way you stick with Murray after all of the failures since that run to the finals in 2007. The team has essentially been dismantled, save for the big three, and has a long road of rebuilding ahead.

There are no free-agent solutions for what ails Ottawa.

Scapegoating is a good description of what's gone on, and it's something that's plagued both the coaches and goalies in the organization. Ray Emery and John Paddock were run out of town last season only to watch this current group of underachievers (including the GM) continue to underachieve to an even greater extent. Gerber wasn't good this season, but he was also the backup netminder, making only 14 starts and posting an .899 save percentage that is miles better than what netminders like Chris Osgood, Vesa Toskala, Mathieu Garon and Manny Legace have managed this season.

The bizarre thing about blaming Gerber is the fact that this is the lowest scoring team in the NHL this season.

This is a one-line team that was blown out in the Stanley Cup finals by Anaheim after the Ducks shutdown that one line, and nearly two years later, that issue hasn't been addressed. No player outside of that big three has had more than seven goals this season.

Currently 28th in the league, Ottawa is much, much closer to a lottery pick than making the playoffs. Given the way the season's gone, one wonders if the new guy will take this team on a run and ruin that as well.

What a mess. No wonder Pat Quinn apparently wanted nothing to do with bailing water on a sinking ship.