OTTAWA \u2014 With his team mired in a four-game losing streak, Travis Green was disappointed to not see more urgency or desperation.<\/p>\n
The Ottawa Senators coach was remarkably up front about his team\u2019s shortcomings following a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Green is usually not one to offer more than he\u2019s asked, but he was unusually candid \u2014 measured and direct, not inflammatory \u2014 offering deeper insight after the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions beat his crew.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s another level of desperation that we can play with,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just defensively, it\u2019s offensively. It\u2019s taking a hit to make a play, beating a check to the net. We had a lot of pucks that we missed in front of the net.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve got to bear down in those areas. But I just think there\u2019s another level for us, and when you\u2019re not winning, and I talked about this this morning, it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Green said when a team is winning things seem to come more easily, but when it’s struggling that\u2019s where the real challenge takes place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when you\u2019ve got to really dig in and play really hard,\u201d the bench boss said. “And I just thought it was sporadic a little.”<\/p>\n
With the Senators past the halfway mark and sitting second last in the Eastern Conference they are in desperate need of a spark.<\/p>\n
Players understand the precarious situation they\u2019re in and admitted it\u2019s on them to rectify things and it\u2019s a matter of figuring out how to take things to the next level.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure, but I know that a lot of guys care in this locker room and we\u2019re gonna get out of this,\u201d said veteran Claude Giroux. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to keep communicating, keep working. We know we can be a dangerous team. We just need to dial it up a little bit in here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early Saturday the Senators addressed recent speculation surrounding Linus Ullmark\u2019s personal leave of absence, but when asked after the game if there are too many distractions, Giroux denied it was an issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be any distraction. We\u2019re here to win some hockey games so that should be our focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
During Ullmark\u2019s absence all the pressure has fallen on 23-year-old Leevi Merilainen and while he says he\u2019s fine with it the Senators know it\u2019s somewhat unfair.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s a young guy trying to find his way,\u201d said Green. \u201cI think one thing about him is he always seems calm off the ice. I don\u2019t know if he\u2019s like a duck, where his legs are going 100 miles an hour, but he seems in control, and he wants the opportunity. You know he\u2019s going to give us everything he has all the time, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merilainen understands what\u2019s expected of him and he\u2019s comfortable with the added responsibility.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cI like it that way rather than sitting on the bench, for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it was not easy going from not playing much at all to playing all of them \u2014 but it\u2019s more fun this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his team\u2019s recent struggles, Green continues to have confidence the players can turn things around even if recent results would give little reason for optimism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just know the way they are, I know their character,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve watched them. I\u2019ve coached them a year-end-a-half, so I do have a lot of belief in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 With his team mired in a four-game losing streak, Travis Green was disappointed to not see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5104],"tags":[1325,57,5,8380,539,4,72,25,5157,73,824],"class_list":{"0":"post-401539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-claude-giroux","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-leevi-merilainen","12":"tag-linus-ullmark","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-ottawa","15":"tag-ottawa-senators","16":"tag-ottawasenators","17":"tag-senators","18":"tag-travis-green"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}