Jacques Martin, the all-time winningest head coach in Ottawa Senators history, was inducted into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame on Wednesday, a fitting tribute to the man who helped guide the franchise out of its difficult early years.
Martin stepped behind the bench in 1996, at a time when the Senators were still looking for their first taste of success after four straight last-place finishes. He was the team’s third head coach in four months that season, replacing Dave Allison, who went 2–22–1 after taking over from Rick Bowness. Martin couldn’t turn things around that season, but just a year later, he got them into the playoffs.
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Over the next nine seasons, Martin turned the team into a consistent contender. He led them to that first playoff appearance in 1997, their first playoff series win, and their first trip to the conference final in 2003. Ottawa finished atop the NHL standings in 2002–03, winning the Presidents’ Trophy, and Martin was honored with the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.
Despite all the regular-season success, he kept running into the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs. The Senators were eliminated by their provincial rivals four times in five years. Following a seven-game loss to Toronto in the first round of the 2004 playoffs, the organization decided to move on from Martin.
His contributions to hockey began well before his NHL days. Martin played university hockey at St. Lawrence and the University of Ottawa before launching a coaching career that started in junior with the Rockland Nationals and the Hawkesbury Hawks. He later led the Guelph Platers to a Memorial Cup title in 1986.
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Martin also served as head coach of the Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens, and won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins as an assistant coach. He was also part of Team Canada’s staff during its gold medal run at the 2002 Winter Olympics, when Canada ended its 50 year gold medal drought.
After the firing of head coach D.J. Smith early in the 2023–24 season, Martin returned as interim head coach to guide the Senators through to the end of the year. When the team hired Travis Green last May, Martin returned to his advisory role with the franchise. But he was pleased to have a final go around as an NHL head coach.
“I’ve enjoyed it and hopefully (the players) learned something from a standpoint that they can carry over to the next season,” Martin said at the end of last season. “I think we talked a lot about different things, whether it’s game management, whether it’s handling the highs and lows of a game, the different situations and so on.
“And I talked to them also quite often about what it takes to be in the playoffs and win in the playoffs. So hopefully those lessons or that information will stay.”
Indeed, with the Sens finally making the playoffs this year, it appears some of those lessons stuck.
Martin was inducted alongside former NHL players Fred and John Barrett and the entire Barrett family, former Ottawa Rough Rider Pat Stoqua, former Riders GM Jo-Anne Polak, sportswriter Don Campbell, Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Erica Wiebe, snooker player Ervin Budge, and the 2012 Ottawa Fury women’s soccer team.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa
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