Dj Smith appears to throw Babcock & the Leafs coaching staff under the bus.

Well this is certainly very interesting.

No matter what happened between now and the start of the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season, the Battle of Ontario was going to be some must see hockey. The Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs have long been bitter rivals but the moves made during the offseason this summer have really turned up the dial on the intensity in this match up. Several former Toronto Maple Leafs players now find themselves on the Ottawa Senators roster and there are even some former Senators on the Leafs roster as well, but the main change to this rivalry has come in the form of who is standing behind the bench.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs it will once again be head coach Mike Babcock who takes over the reigns of that team, but for the Ottawa Senators it will no longer be recently fired head coach Guy Boucher who stands behind the bench. No instead it will be one of Mike Babcock's former assistant coaches in Toronto, former player now turned head coach DJ Smith. Now that it an of itself would not be enough to add some additional fuel to this rivalry, but if it wasn't the comments made by Smith on Monday certainly will be. 

Smith was asked about the acquisition of Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, a player that many in the NHL were down on heading into this summer. Smith was quick to come to the defense of his new player and in fact chose not to blame him for some of his numbers not looking so good during his time as a Toronto Maple Leaf. Instead Smith was quick to throw his former team under the bus and lay the blame for Zaitsev's numbers at the feet of the coaching on his now former team.

From Murray Pam of the Sporting News:

Zaitsev nor DJ Smith didn't go into detail as to why he asked for a trade. His familiarity with the Senators head coach, and knowing former Maple Leafs' teammates were about to join him, was reason enough to waive his no-trade clause.

Smith noted the reason for Zaitsev's low point totals is attributed to coaching. Zaitsev had the most defensive starts among Maple Leafs blue-liners.

Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock has been heavily criticized for the way he has deployed his players, probably more so than at any other point during his career in the NHL, and it certainly sounds like Smith may be among those critics.