Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion passed on the opportunity to take head coach Guy Boucher off the hot seat on Friday.

Dorion also told season seat holders that Guy Boucher's future will be evaluated at the end of the year. #Sens — Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) March 23, 2018

Speaking on a conference call with season-ticket holders, Dorion said the head coach’s future would be evaluated once the season ends on April 7.

“When it comes to our coach, and our coaching staff, we all feel that Guy’s still a very good coach,” Dorion said, per Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen. “But, in saying that, we didn’t meet expectations so when the end of the year comes I think we’ll have to re-evaluate what we’re doing with our coaching staff.

“I think right now to give a vote of confidence or do the opposite isn’t the right thing. I think we still have nine games to play and at the end of the season we’ll sit down and definitely look at that.”

Boucher is in the midst of just his second season as head coach of the Senators. He led the team on a surprising run to Eastern Conference Final last spring in which they lost in double overtime of Game 7 to the eventual Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins.

However, Boucher’s team has regressed badly in 2017-18, posting a 26-36-11 record and a negative-56 goal differential.

A native of Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Que., Boucher joined the Sens following three seasons in Switzerland with Bern SC. Prior to that, Boucher coached the Tampa Bay Lightning for two-plus seasons from 2011 to 2013. He was dismissed midway through his third season.

Boucher has amassed a career mark of 167-143-11 behind the bench over five NHL seasons with the Bolts and Sens.