Associated Press
Updated: February 27, 2008, 5:16 PM EST
OTTAWA (AP) - The struggling Ottawa Senators fired coach John Paddock on Wednesday, with just 18 games to go in the season.

General manager Bryan Murray will take over as coach. Murray stepped aside to become the general manager last summer, when Paddock was given the job.

Assistant coach Ron Low was also fired, a day after the team was shut out for the second consecutive game.

"It's always a surprise when a coach gets let go," center Jason Spezza said at the team's hotel in Philadelphia, a day before the Senators played the Flyers. "We've been struggling, but as a team I don't think we thought it would come to the coach getting fired.

"It just shows the high standard we have in our dressing room, the city of Ottawa, and that our owner has. It shows how competitive a team they think we have."

Murray, who led the Senators to the Eastern Conference title last year, will continue to perform his duties as general manager.

Paddock was in his sixth season with the Senators organization. He posted a 36-22-6 record in his lone season as head coach. The Senators won 15 of their first 17 games and were first in the Eastern Conference until last weekend, when they were passed by New Jersey.

Ottawa came into Wednesday with a one point lead in the Northeast Division over Montreal.

Things got especially bad on Monday, when the Senators were beaten 5-0 by the Toronto Maple Leafs in a game Paddock called a "total embarrassment." Ottawa followed that up a night later with a 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins.

Assistant coach Greg Carvel, goaltending coach Eli Wilson, conditioning and player development coach Randy Lee and video coach Tim Pattyson remained on staff.

The 65-year-old Murray has coached more than 1,300 games in the regular season and playoffs. He has a regular-season coaching record of 100-46-18 with Ottawa.

Murray began his NHL coaching career with the Washington Capitals on Nov. 11, 1981. He remained at the helm of the Capitals for over eight seasons and won the Jack Adams Award in 1984 as the NHL's coach of the year.

"Bryan and John share the same philosophy, so it's not going to change that way," Spezza said. "We've a good hockey club and we expect to win.

"We have to find a way to get winning games again."

This has been a long time coming. They have something like 21 wins in their last 47 games. This has been talked about a lot over the last few weeks in Ottawa. Probably a good move, seems that Paddock is not good at adapting during a game, much the same as Jacques Martin when he was in Ottawa. They both just look like they are in shock during games like the last two that Ottawa played.
I just wish this firing happened after the Flyers play Ottawa tomorrow. Teams seem to generally win that first game with a new coach.
Will be interesting to see if this has much effect on the team.

im just wondering what too them so long

Very good move by the sens...
They needed mix things up in order to get out of their slump and push harder for the lead in the east...in order to pursue that, Paddock needed to be fired.