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<\/p>\nGreen, now in his second season behind Ottawa\u2019s bench, pointed to Tampa Bay as one of the NHL\u2019s elite teams.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to use measuring sticks, Tampa Bay is right at the top of the list or close to it,\u201d said Green. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey just win, all the time, and it\u2019s been that way for a while. They do it in a lot of different ways. They adapt to the game. They don\u2019t just win with skill either. They play a hard game, they play a heavy game. If you\u2019re not willing to play hard and heavy, you\u2019re not going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Green\u2019s leadership, the Senators have developed a comfort and confidence playing in tight games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot,\u201d said Senators captain Brady Tkachuk. \u201cEvery day this year, it\u2019s an opportunity to learn, opportunity to grow and this is the time of the year where we\u2019re showing it and showing all that growth and lessons learned. Job\u2019s not done. We still have some very important moments, very important games coming up and we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Green took over the Senators last season, the team had missed the playoffs seven straight seasons. They were viewed as talented but lacking structure. <\/p>\n
Green and his coaching staff set out to change that by overhauling the defensive system and instilling a sense of accountability.<\/p>\n
Green felt the Senators started to buy in and shed its past reputation during his first season with them. He felt the team tended to dwell on previous setbacks and spent too much time looking in the rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some times, I think that would have been about November, December, where \u2018coming-to\u2019 moments that you talk about and emotional moments with your team, you don\u2019t have a lot of those during the year, but there\u2019s that time probably where they had to move forward and really dig in and live in the moment and live in the present,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jake Sanderson, who scored twice against Tampa, credited Green for helping the Senators get to where they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, ever since Travis came, he just taught us the right way how to play hockey the winning way,\u201d said Sanderson. \u201cIt\u2019s not fancy, may not be fun all the time. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tiring, but he understands that so he gives us the rest when we need it, so we have the energy to go out and play that way every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Senators need to play that way in their last four games of the regular season as the margin for error is slim. <\/p>\n
Ottawa held a two-point lead on the Columbus Blue Jackets and three on the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders.<\/p>\n
The Lightning also have a lot to play for with the Atlantic Division title up for grabs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re desperate to get in the playoffs,\u201d said Tampa\u2019s Jon Cooper. \u201cFor us, we\u2019re a playoff team. We\u2019re just not playing like one right now. We only have a couple games to figure it out and see where we land.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2026<\/p>\n
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Green, now in his second season behind Ottawa\u2019s bench, pointed to Tampa Bay as one of the NHL\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[967,966,5,960,968,959,961,962,40,4,963,72,25,5157,964,965,73,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-547101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-central-vancouver-island","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nanaimo","12":"tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","13":"tag-nanaimo-news","14":"tag-nanaimo-news-now","15":"tag-nanaimonewsnow","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-oceanside","19":"tag-ottawa","20":"tag-ottawa-senators","21":"tag-ottawasenators","22":"tag-parksville","23":"tag-qualicum","24":"tag-senators","25":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116368367990203505","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547101","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=547101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}