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Ottawa • The Ottawa Senators fired head coach Cory Clouston and two assistants on Saturday after the team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.
Clouston and assistant coaches Greg Carvel and Brad Lauer were fired shortly after Ottawa lost 3-1 to the Bruins in its regular-season finale in Boston.
"Just simply based on performance over the course of the year, we felt that a change was necessary," Senators general manager Bryan Murray said on the team's website.
The 41-year-old Clouston, hired in February 2009, was 95-83-20 with the Senators and led them to the playoffs last season. Ottawa fell in six games to Pittsburgh in the first round and took a big step back this season, finishing near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, with a 32-40-10 record.
The firings come one day after Murray received a three-year contract extension. Clouston is the third coach fired by Murray since he left the job himself to become GM after helping the Senators reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2007.
"It's always difficult," Murray said. "Coaches get the finger pointed at them more, maybe, than they should, but in this case, we felt ... we had a competitive hockey team and, for whatever reason, we didn't play to the level that we thought or we expected.
"As a result, changes have to be made."
With the season going nowhere, Murray dealt veterans Mike Fisher, Alex Kovalev, Chris Kelly, Chris Campoli and Jarkko Ruutu before the trade deadline.
Murray is scheduled to address the media Monday when the players return to Ottawa.
Panthers 1, Capitals 0 • In Sunrise, Fla., Bill Thomas scored with 6:05 remaining and Tomas Vokoun made 28 saves to help Florida close the season by snapping a 10-game losing streak with a win against Washington on Saturday night.
Washington, which lost for only the third time in 20 games (16-3-1), had clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference on Friday when Philadelphia lost to Buffalo.
Despite Washington having nothing at stake, Alexander Ovechkin and the other Capitals stars played in the team's season finale.
The one exception was defenseman Mike Green, who sat out his 20th consecutive game since sustaining a head injury on Feb. 25.
Green had been expected to make his return to action on Saturday.
Michal Neuvirth made 22 saves for the Capitals.