ONE-ON-ONE: New coach Travis Green ready for next challenge with Ottawa Senators

Published Sep 17, 2024  •  9 minute read

Ottawa Senartors officially introduced Travis Green as the team's new head coach at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa Wednesday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA

Travis Green will start a new chapter Thursday morning.

While the Ottawa Senators will hold medicals and smile for the cameras as training camp gets under way Wednesday at the Canadian Tire Centre, the work will begin in earnest Thursday when the club’s new head coach makes his first on-ice appearance.

Green, along with assistants Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Yeo, Nolan Baumgartner, Ben Sexton and video coach Mike King plus assistant Josh Mallory, have been in the office for weeks preparing for camp.

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Fifty-six players will report for camp Wednesday.

“We’re really excited,” Green told Postmedia on Tuesday in a pre-training-camp interview. “I know everyone on our staff is ready to go, we’ve been preparing for awhile and we can’t wait to get on the ice.”

Hired by the Senators on May 7, this is Green’s second job as a full-time head coach in the league. He spent nearly five years behind the Vancouver Canucks bench from 2017-2022. He also had a brief stint as the interim head coach of the New Jersey Devils last spring after Lindy Ruff was fired.

Green’s expectations for this group going into camp aren’t that difficult.

“First, it’s to show up in shape,” Green said. “You have to show you put in the work this summer to either make the team, be a better player than you were last year and, most importantly, you’ve shown a commitment level to make our team improve.”

This roster will be a lot different than the one Senators iced last year. Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, has made a lot of changes.

Yes, captain Brady Tkachuk leads a group that includes dynamic centre Tim Stutzle along with Josh Norris, Shane Pinto, Jake Sanderson, Drake Batherson, Ridly Greig and alternate captain Thomas Chabot, but there will be a lot of new faces around them.

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Green doesn’t believe that finding out where everybody fits will be an issue because these players have made it clear that they’re tired of the losing and want to win.

“There’s been a lot of changes and there’s a lot of new players, but every team is a little bit different that way with the number they add,” Green said. “That’s just part of an NHL training camp, it’s different year-to-year and I don’t see that as a challenge.

“We’ve got a group that’s hungry to win, they have a burning desire to win and, not only that, they understand from speaking with all of them individually what their role is as far as helping this team and making us better. They’re prepared to make the next step.”

In fact, the players embrace the changes that Staios has made.

“Every NHL camp has a buzz around them, but I can tell this group is hungry to get going,” Green said. “They’re excited about it, but they’re also a little bit on their toes. Sometimes the unknown is a good thing for players. With a new coaching staff, you’re not quite sure how things are going to run.

“We’ve had a lot of good dialogue with our players for the past few months, but I think they’re just as eager to get on the ice as we are to get going coaching them.”

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The Senators are hopeful that addition of veterans Michael Amadio, David Perron, Nick Cousins, Nick Jensen and Linus Ullmark will play a key role in helping this group reach the next level. The reality is the Senators young core needs to learn how to win.

“It’s important when you have players who come from other organizations — that were part of winning organizations — understand it’s one thing to talk about winning and it’s another to be committed to the process and understanding what it takes to win,” Green said. “When you have players around that have done that or come close to it, that helps group internally.”

It should also help alleviate some of the pressure on veteran winger Claude Giroux to be a strong leader at all times.

“Claude has been one of the only older players on the team. He’s still a good player at his age, he’s hungry to win and he’s proud to be from the area. It’s going to help a lot of people from our team, not just (Giroux). It’s going to help Timmy, Brady, it’s going to help the group as a whole,” Green added.

Naturally, the biggest addition is Ullmark.

He should be able to solidify a net that hasn’t been the same since the club opted to let Craig Anderson walk away at the end of the 2019-20 campaign. The Senators have tried several options, including Matt Murray, Cam Talbot and Joonas Korpisalo, but nothing has worked.

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Ullmark doesn’t have to be superhuman, he just has to make the necessary stops to give this team confidence. If he does that and the Senators play well in front of him, then it will give Green the opportunity to have the kind of success the fan base here has been waiting to witness.

“Anytime you can get an elite goalie, it’s going to help your team,” he said. “Elite goaltenders aren’t easy to find and they’re not easy to produce. The fact that Steve went out and made a trade for Linus, and speaking him about his excitement level to be here, with his competitive nature and desire to win, is going to help our group in many ways.”

Green and his staff have a difficult task ahead of them. This team has missed the playoffs for seven straight years. The heavy lifting has been done through all the losing to gather the young core, but the expectation is that the Senators will either make the playoffs or at least push for a spot.

The players know what to expect from Green. He has spoken with the whole roster through the course of the summer. The players will be split up into three groups and training camp won’t be easy.

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“They’re hard. We want the pace of our team (to be high). We want to play fast, we want to play aggressive and in order to play that way you’ve got to be in shape and you’ve got to be used to practising that way,” Green said.

“Getting a little bit uncomfortable with the pace of play and the intensity level is important. You have to practice how you play is a cliché, but when you get used to doing things a certain way you’re going to do them more often.”

With the changes made by Staios, you can’t pinpoint many openings on this roster.

The fourth line has to sort itself out, but it would appear Noah Gregor will be in the middle. Two young players that will push for spots in the bottom six are forwards Zack Ostapchuk and Angus Crookshank.

The expectation is the biggest battle will be for playing time in the third pairing on defence. After spending a year in the American Hockey League, Tyler Kleven will likely make the jump to the NHL, which means he’ll push Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic for a spot.

Defenceman Calen Addison, 24, who suited up for 72 games with San Jose Sharks last season, also will be a name to watch. He’s here on a professional tryout and is pushing to earn a contract.

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“Part of the excitement is being on the ice with the players,” Green said. “You watch players on video and it’s not the same as being on the ice with them or standing behind them to watch mannerisms or smaller details in their game.

“The beginning of camp is just going to be on the ice with some of these players that a lot of people talk about and we watch, but now we’ll get a chance to actually see how they play and how they respond to coaching.”

He’s here to help the players.

“It’s a partnership with the players,” Green said. “In today’s world, open dialogue and communication (are important). It’s our job to get the best out of our players and help them along. I truly believe you coach each player individually to get the best out of each player.”

Green knows the coaching staff and the players are both aligned in their goals for this season.

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“I wholeheartedly believe that these players are ready to take another step in their development and that development is winning,” Green said. “But everyone wants to do that in the whole NHL. There’s a commitment level to do that and you have to be open and honest with yourself as individuals and players.

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“You have to assess where you have to better and where you need to get better and that comes from coaches talking about it and the players going out to perform. That’s going to be the ground floor as to where we’re going to start with our team identity and how we want to play.”

The work begins in earnest Thursday.

TRAINING CAMP ROSTER

Five goaltenders, 2023-24 team(s): Anton Forsberg (Ottawa – NHL), Leevi Merilainen (Allen – ECHL, Belleville – AHL), Michael Simpson (London – OHL), Mads Sogaard (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), Linus Ullmark (Boston – NHL).

Twenty defencemen, 2023-24 team(s): Calen Addison (Minnesota – NHL, San Jose – NHL), Matthew Andonovski (Kitchener – OHL), Jacob Bernard-Docker (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), Thomas Chabot (Ottawa – NHL), Jeremy Davies (Rochester – AHL), Jorian Donovan (Brantford – OHL, Saginaw – OHL), Gabriel Eliasson (HV 71 – Swe. Jr.), Maxence Guenette (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), Tomas Hamara (Kitchener – OHL, Brantford – OHL, Belleville – AHL), Travis Hamonic (Ottawa – NHL), Nick Jensen (Washington – NHL), Tyler Kleven (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), Nikolas Matinpalo (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), Filip Nordberg (Växjö J20 – Swe-Jr., Muskegon – USHL), Filip Roos (Rockford – AHL, Chicago – NHL), Jake Sanderson (Ottawa – NHL), Donovan Sebrango (Allen – ECHL, Belleville – AHL), Djibril Toure (Sudbury – OHL, Windsor – OHL), Carter Yakemchuk (Calgary – WHL), Artem Zub (Ottawa – NHL).

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Thirty-one forwards, 2023-24 team(s): Michael Amadio (Vegas – NHL), Drake Batherson (Ottawa – NHL), Wyatt Bongiovanni (Manitoba – AHL, Belleville – AHL), Tyler Boucher (Belleville – AHL), Xavier Bourgault (Bakersfield – AHL), Jake Chiasson (Fort Wayne – ECHL, Bakersfield – AHL), Nick Cousins (Florida – NHL), Angus Crookshank (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), Philippe Daoust (Allen – ECHL, Belleville – AHL), Lucas Ellinas (Kitchener – OHL), Adam Gaudette (Springfield – AHL, St. Louis – NHL), Claude Giroux (Ottawa – NHL), Noah Gregor (Toronto – NHL), Ridly Greig (Ottawa – NHL), Stephen Halliday (Ohio State – Big-10, Belleville – AHL), Matthew Highmore (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), Hayden Hodgson (Ontario – AHL), Jan Jenik (Tucson – AHL, Arizona – NHL), Nikolay Kulemin (Salavat Yulaev – KHL), Zack MacEwen (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), Josh Norris (Ottawa – NHL), Zack Ostapchuk (Belleville – AHL, Ottawa – NHL), David Perron (Detroit – NHL), Oskar Petersson (Rögle BK – Swe. Jr, Rögle BK – SHL, Belleville – AHL), Garrett Pilon (Belleville – AHL), Shane Pinto (Ottawa – NHL), Jamieson Rees (Springfield – AHL, Charlotte – AHL, Belleville – AHL), Cole Reinhardt (Belleville – AHL), Tim Stützle (Ottawa – NHL), Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa – NHL), Keean Washkurak (Springfield – AHL).

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