Travis Green has his eye on the prize.
On the eve of his second season behind the Ottawa Senators bench, the club’s head coach doesn’t just want his team to make the playoffs, the 54-year-old has a bigger goal in mind.
“Our goal isn’t just to make the playoffs. Our goal is to win a Stanley Cup. That’s as an organization,” Green told Postmedia in a one-on-one interview on Tuesday at his Canadian Tire Centre office.
The Senators made the playoffs for the first time in eight years this past spring and made a marked improvement under Green by playing strongly at both ends of the ice.
Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, didn’t make many changes in the off-season, which means a lot of the improvement will have to come from within.
Sit down with Green for 45 minutes and you understand he has a good sense of where this group is at and where it wants to get as the Senators prepare to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night in the season opener on the road.
This team is built around its core, which includes captain Brady Tkachuk and top centre Tim Stutzle, along with Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson, Drake Batherson, Ridly Greig, Tyler Kleven and Shane Pinto — all of whom had their first opportunity to compete in the playoffs.
We did ask for an update on Batherson and Kleven before the interview wrapped up.
Batherson could skate with the group on Wednesday and Kleven is continuing to recover. No word on whether either will play.
Here is an edited question and answer transcript of Postmedia’s discussion with Travis Green.
PM: It’s the eve of the season, how are you feeling?
TG: “Excited is the best way to put it. Players are always excited when training camp ends and they get to play for real. It’s no different with coaches … you look forward to getting down to your team and getting to play for real.”
PM: You built an identity last season. What was your identity?
TG: “We’re hard to play against and that comes in many different ways. People talk about being hard to play against and they immediately think of fighting and hitting. The best teams are hard to play against within their game, where they’re committed to certain parts of the rink, their work ethic or play away from the puck, our attention to details, and our urgency level. That’s all part of hard to play against, and it resulted in us playing a good brand of hockey.”
PM: Do you have to pick up where you left off last year?
TG: “Our second half, I’d say our last 50 games, were pretty good for our group. In saying that, we need to pick up where we left off and we also need to be better and not take it for granted. Everybody is zero-and-zero right now. The second you feel you’ve accomplished something, when you really haven’t, is the second that you’re going to let your foot off the gas. To me, it’s about stepping on the gas harder.”
PG: You didn’t make many changes, so if the growth comes from within, is it on the improvement of your core?
TG: “I’d say yes and no. It’s no secret that the growth of our team and us playing better will have to come from within. We haven’t added a lot of new pieces. We’ve added a few, which we will like, but certain teams don’t make a lot of changes because they’re really, really good, or teams that don’t make a lot of changes because they have a lot of faith in what they have. But if they’re not like a top-echelon team, that organization needs to know that the players within it can improve with their play, or you’re not going to be a better team. We truly believe that we have enough players who can improve from last year to this year. That’s going to be a big part of why we’re better this year, or how we’re going to get better.”
PM: And, I could give you any name, right? Sanderson, Chabot, Greig, Pinto … any of them.
TG: “Chabby took a step last year and he can still take another. Like, almost every player, including David (Perron) and (Claude Giroux) were even challenged to be better. Some young players improve by being in the league and then some older players have to challenge themselves to keep improving when they’re on the other side of it.”
PM: With Nick Jensen, Giroux, Perron and Lars Eller, you have some good veteran presence around those guys.
TG: “That’s just part of the league. Having good leadership and guys that have been through certain parts of the game, battles and keeping emotions under control. Our group has done a much better job of that, and we’ve got guys that pull on the rope from all angles.”
PM: How will you know when this group is clicking?
TG: “I don’t know that you ever sit back and say, ‘hey, we’re clicking.’ I felt like in February last year, we were getting it. We started to feel good about our game. The clicking part is understanding how you win, your team wins, and everybody is on board with that philosophy, that structure within your game. You’re links in a chain, and you can’t have a lot of loose links. I don’t know you know, but I guess the best way to put it is that you can just feel it.”
PM: Are you as sick of being asked about 5-on-5 scoring as I am about asking it?
TG: That’s an area that people want to talk about and rightfully so when you talk about areas that can improve. That’s definitely an area. The one area I never get asked about is, ‘Did you create better than you scored?’ Which we did. I’d be a lot more concerned if we weren’t. We’ve also tried to add to our game ways that we think will help us score more. When out of structure, how do we put those pucks in the net when we do get opportunities? You can teach defensive structure, but the offence is a little different. We’ve tried to break it down to make certain parts of our offence teachable. I think we had some guys who were a little snake-bitten last year.”
PM: You’re not trying to stifle offence?
TG: Oh, hell no. I wouldn’t want to be looked at as a defensive coach. I don’t look at myself that way either. Good coaches teach on both sides of the puck. If anything, I’m probably more offensive-minded.”
PM: How much do you hope it will help Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund to be here from Day 1 of this season?
TG: “It’s going to do nothing but help them. First, being comfortable with the group and understanding our system and structures. Both guys have come back in really great shape. They just have to alleviate the pressure of those guys playing their best. I’ve been asked a lot about those two guys producing more. I just want them to play well, play their best, and good things will happen. If you go into a season thinking you have to score, that’s not a recipe for success. Go into a season playing to win and good things are going to happen if you’re playing well.”
PM: Is the sky the limit for Jake Sanderson? If he’s a Norris Trophy candidate, that’s good for him but is it also good for you?
TG: “First of all, Sandy wouldn’t want people talking about him and Norris. He just wants to play his best and be at his best and let that take you wherever it takes you. I wouldn’t want that talk either. That’s all you can ask. Does he have the capability for it? He does. You should set the sky as the limit and wherever it gets you, it’s going to be really good. And, it’s not going to be a shortage of him putting in his best effort to be his best version of himself. That’s what we ask of all our players: How do you become the best player you can be? That’s their responsibility. We’re going to provide them with that opportunity and we want players who strive to be their best. We’ve got some great examples of those players on our team. Sandy is definitely one of the players at the top of the list.”
PM: On September 1, would you have had Nick Jensen pencilled onto your Opening Night roster?
TG: “I wouldn’t have had him on the board. I don’t know if I would have had him on the board two weeks ago. He’s a diligent worker, he cares about his craft and he’s willing to put in the work to make sure he plays well. To come back from an injury like this, he looked really good the other night. He’s going to be rusty, but he skated great.”
RelatedPM: What is the next step for this group?
TG: “The next step isn’t, ‘Hey, we want to win one round.’ That’s the easy thing to say. We want to get our play to a level where we think we can win a Stanley Cup. That’s probably the next step. But, in saying that, you can be a really good team and not have a good year. I like to simplify things: We just need to be better and play hard. If we do that, we’ll tip our hat and we’ll move in the right direction.”
PM: How much do you expect Linus Ullmark to play with the condensed schedule?
TG: “We were talking about the other day. We start in Tampa, then we’re in Florida on Saturday and we’re home for an afternoon game on Monday. You’re probably not going to play a guy in all three games and we’re probably going to say that a lot. In today’s NHL, the days of the goalie 60-65 games, you’re not going to see that much anymore. You need two goalies that can play well.”
PM: Did Linus show you down the stretch who he is and who he can be?
TG: “He’s never had to show me. I know who he is. Linus is as good a goalie as I’ve been behind the bench with. You don’t win a Vezina by accident. I also think (goalie coach Justin Peters) has done a good job of pushing him to be his best. He’s no different than any other player, where we push our players internally to improve, no matter how good they are. He’s no different than any other player.”
PM: People have expectations. I don’t think your expectations have changed, have they?
TG: “Expectations rise, though. Our expectations aren’t to copy last year. That’s definitely not the case. Our goal isn’t just to make the playoffs. Our goal is to win a Stanley Cup. That’s as an organization. How can we fast-track that? How can we get there as quickly as possible? How can we improve, play better, and be harder to play against? That’s how we’re going to improve. But our expectations are not the same as last year. We want to push to be better, and our job as coaches is to push ourselves and push our team.”