OTTAWA — New coach, new voice, new attitude.
Travis Green, the 14th head coach of the Ottawa Senators after he was hired this past summer, is trying to elevate his team from mediocre to the playoffs. It’s a group in desperate need of a new philosophy.
In training camp Green has been firm but fair, running his players through bag skates to improve their conditioning, following his belief that the fittest teams bend but don’t break. In the first couple days of training camp, some players were doubled over to catch their breathe.
Green has been teaching his group, challenging them in drills, and getting in their ear when he doesn’t like what he sees.
This pre-season has been all about setting the tone for a huge year ahead for a group of core players that hasn’t yet been able to get over the hump.
“I think right now, we’re trying to set the ground floor, and improve. We need to get better. Our expectations are to get better, and our goal is to make the playoffs,” Green said.
In a newly constructed office at the Canadian Tire Centre, Green spoke to Sportsnet about why he thinks he can take this Senators team to the next level. While that is the end goal, Green stressed an ethos of “winning every day” rather than focusing on the end goal that will be measured in April.
Trust the process. His process.
The Senators have been perennial underachievers, a team with talent that has been missing the essential little details, especially on the defensive end. Their core, built around still-youthful stars such as Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Jake Sanderson, needed a new foundation, and Green is laying it brick by brick.
“Our team has been known as a bit of a rush offensive team,” said Green. “And when you watch teams that win, they don’t just win by being a rush team; they create offence in different ways.
“They’ve also got to commit to defending. And I said it from Day 1, ultimately being a 200-foot team, and that’s really the one common factor in winning hockey, (means) they’re good everywhere.”
Under Green’s predecessor, D.J. Smith, the Senators were allowed to roam free, and developed their individual talents. This led to individual successes for Stützle, Tkachuk, Drake Batherson and others who had career breakout seasons along the way. However, it did not equate to a winning record for the team.
And while further individual successes would go a long way in helping the Senators achieve their goals, Green is setting out to refine everyone’s all-around game and enforce a better team defensive structure.
“Our guys are still young enough that they’re not set in their ways,” said Green. “They’re hungry to learn, and that’s what’s been refreshing with this team so far.”
Green looks to last year’s Stanley Cup winners as a model.
“I think if you talked about hard training camps, the Florida Panthers have very hard training camps, and they’ve done pretty well the last couple years. So that’s a staple for us. What you want is a team that not only will work hard but embraces hard work.”
In his first stop as an NHL head coach with the Vancouver Canucks from 2017-2021, Green reached the playoffs just once. His team was third in the Pacific when the league shut down in March of 2020 and in the bubble playoffs defeated Minnesota in the qualifying round, St. Louis in the first round and then bowed out in seven games to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Rather than being a stepping stone, however, Vancouver missed the playoffs again the following season and then, 25 games into 2021-22, he was let go by the team.
In Vancouver, Green’s teams tended to start well enough but fizzled. After taking a season off coaching, then returning behind New Jersey’s bench as an associate and then interim head coach last season, Green says he’s learned some lessons that he thinks can allow Ottawa to have a good start the group can sustain through the winter.
“I do think training camp conditioning is part of it, but also being fresh at the start of the season and not burying your guys right through training camp is important,” said Green.
“My thoughts and ideas about what it takes to win have, I’d say, subtly changed a little bit. I have grown and learned what’s important to winning.”
Green has also learned to allow his other coaches to shine. It’s not about the individual but the collective in Ottawa.
“Probably listen to them a little more than I have in the past, that’s just being more comfortable in your own skin and also learning that we have other good coaches. They’ve got good drills, they’ve got good techniques and know how to teach. One coach isn’t the be-all and end-all.”
As important as it is for Green to instill a better, more organized defensive structure, he also wants to let the offence thrive in new ways. While their transition attack has been a strength, Green says he wants his group to learn to score in different ways, such as off the forecheck to create greasy goals. This is one way for them to improve on their 20th-ranked offence from last season.
But how can you refocus efforts on a tighter defensive structure without stifling the offensive instincts his young starts naturally have and want to play with? After all, he doesn’t want his players to lose sight of why they play hockey.
“It’s tricky where you want to win, but you also want to develop, and it’s a win now league,” Green said. “When it gets hard, or when you have the lead or when you need to win a game, what is your mindset and what do you fall back on? Well, you have to fall back on your structure, your details, your identity as a team. Work is part of it and compete.”
In the pre-season, the Senators have been able to reduce their opponents’ high-quality chances and do look more put together in their own end than they have in the past.
It’s a mindset.
“We’ve got to be comfortable with the 2-1 lead. And how do you play when you have a lead, or how do you play when you’ve lost three games in a row and you’re playing one of the better teams in the league. Are you confident? Are you down? Are you excited to play?”
The parameters have been set for a group that used to allow “bad bounces” to be blamed for losses through the season. Under Green, these Senators will be tested and challenged night in, night out, with one clear goal in mind.
The detail, attitude, structure, and coaching are in place to finally make a playoff push. It’s on the players now.