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On his first full day on the job, D.J. Smith did a media tour Friday before heading to his home in Windsor with his wife Christie.

Introduced as the Ottawa Senators new head coach during a press conference Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre, Smith, 42, a former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant, must now get down to business by putting his coaching staff in place and also reaching out to some of the players to get a better handle on the personnel.

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While training camp doesn’t get underway until September, Smith needs to find a home in Ottawa and hire a couple of assistant coaches as quickly as possible so that the real preparations can begin as he tries to get the Senators back to respectability after the club finished No. 31 overall in the league last season.

Smith knows he has a big job ahead of him, but he’s ready for the challenge that he’s been handed by general manager Pierre Dorion.

Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS

“I was in Toronto four years ago and they were the worst team in the NHL,” Smith said Thursday. “I walked into a very similar situation. It starts by building day in and day out with a foundation of hard work. You’ll hear me say that a lot, but it’s going to be accountability, hard work and we’re going to get better every day.