Senators add a familiar face to their list of coaching candidates.

The Ottawa Senators have built themselves a long list of coaching candidates but unfortunately for the Senators fan base it is not a list that appears to be inspiring a great deal of confidence. 

On Saturday night TSN National Hockey League insider Bob McKenzie revealed that the Ottawa Senators had added a 6th name to their ever growing list of potential coaching candidates. The Senators are of course looking for a new head coach coming off the heels of the firing of now former Senators head coach Guy Boucher, a man the Senators vowed would not be fired prior to the end of the season. It was a firing that earned Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion a great deal of derision from fans and pundits alike and now all the attention is on Dorion as he conducts this rather uninspiring coaching search.

According to McKenzie the name that the Senators have added to their list is that of Rick Bowness, currently an assistant coach for the Dallas Stars organization. McKenzie reports that the Senators reached out to the Dallas Stars and received permission to speak to Bowness, and when you consider the Stars have only just been eliminated from playoff contention the timing of this makes a great deal of sense. The Senators obviously did not want to reach out to the Stars while they remained in the playoffs and you have to wonder if there may not be a 7th candidate lurking somewhere on the 4 teams that still remain in the conference finals.

Bowness is of course also a former Ottawa Senators head coach, their first ever in fact, and when you consider some of the other names on this list that should not come as that much of a surprise. There has definitely been much more of an old school feel to the list of candidates compiled by Dorion and it is also worth noting that none of the names on that list would rank among some of the premiere available coaches on the market this time around. According to McKenzie the other candidates are Marc Crawford, Troy Mann, Jacques Martin, D.J. Smith and Nate Leaman. Crawford and Martin are also former Ottawa Senators head coaches, Crawford filled in for Boucher after he was fired, so it does not seem like Dorion is going to go too far off the beaten path here. 

Something tells me fans in Ottawa will not be thrilled at the idea of a potential return for Rick Bowness after his previous record of 39 wins, 178 losses and 18 draws his first time around.