BREAKING: D.J. Smith in hot seat.

The Ottawa Senators visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night for an early start.
The Senators got the boot in Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, with fans demanding coach D.J. Smith is fired.
The Senators have lost five of their last six games.
andquot;And I’d be lying if I said I don’t feel (pressure), but I’m my own worst critic and I want my team to play a certain way,andquot; Smith said. andquot;I want my team to play right, play hard and play together. If you don’t win, I’ll go home and beat myself up.
andquot;The noise doesn’t bother me, it and I was frustrated as a coach and I want them to do what you win.andquot;

The Maple Leafs have also had issues recently. They ended a four-game losing streak with a 6-5 home win over Tampa Bay on Monday. They overcame a 4-1 deficit after one period to take a 5-4 lead, but tied it late in the third period.
Ilya Samsonov scored four goals on 12 shots, but was replaced in the first period by Joseph Woll, who made 18 saves. andquot;The result of course helps,andquot; Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. andquot;If we fail here (Monday), I will be happy to leave here. This second episode was, in my opinion, the best episode we had all season.”

Calle Jarnkrok scored twice for Toronto, including the overtime winner.
Auston Matthews had two goals and an assist. He scored 13 goals in the season. Mitchell Marner had a goal and three assists, and William Nylander’s overtime assist extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
Matthew Knies added a goal and two assists on Monday, joining Matthews and Marner.
andquot;I don’t think anyone pooped at halftime,andquot; Knees said. andquot;Everyone was really excited to come back and prove people wrong and do well and simplify and play to our strengths. Everyone participated today and everyone did great.andquot;

Nicholas Robertson, promoted from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, had an assist. Toronto was still without defenders Jake McCabe (groin) and Timothy Liljegren (sprained ankle).
The senators had a series of injuries and setbacks.
Forwards Ridly Greig (lower body) and Mark Kastelic (ankle) are out, and defensemen Thomas Chabot (hand), Artem Zub (concussion) and Erik Brannstrom (concussion) have each missed at least the last three games. Forward Shane Pinto is serving a 41-game suspension for activities related to sports betting, and general manager Pierre Dorion was fired on Nov. 1. Zub could return Wednesday.
Smith encouraged the team’s and#039;practice on Monday, calling it andquot;one of the best.andquot;

andquot;I think the old-school mentality was that you go out and skate with them for an hour and yell and yell at them and tell them to play harder, but nothing gets fixed,andquot; Smith said. andquot;The approach we took today is that we have to improve in some areas and that’s what we focused on. And the focus was on us as a group, pushing it, our way, doing it right, fixing it and then getting back to playing hockey. … Guys want to win. I can assure you that no one will let anyone down because of their effort and will.andquot;