One-on-One with coach Travis Green: Why the Senators are ready for to take next step

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The Ottawa Senators have grown and matured together.

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Now they have to win together when it matters most.

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The Senators are trying to reach the playoffs for a third straight season for the first time since reaching the National Hockey League’s big dance for three consecutive years from 2005-06 through 2007-08.

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Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, has played a key role in getting the Senators back on track, but head coach Travis Green and his staff have taken a hands-on approach to help right the ship.

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Green, 55, heading into his third year behind the bench, has pushed the right buttons to help a core that includes Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, Drake Batherson, Shane Pinto, Dylan Cozens, Ridly Greig and Tyler Kleven reach the next level.

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But Green knows that this business is about what have you done for me lately and, on the eve of the season, he told the Ottawa Citizen in a wide-ranging one-on-one discussion on Wednesday that the Senators know a strong start to the year could lead to a successful finish.

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His message to this group hasn’t changed, but it has shifted.

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“I think our players understand how they have to play. As players, you need reminders all the time,” Green said. “We reminded them last year of how we started the season in the first 10 games. I thought we were a little loose.

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“We were trying to score a lot more, taking risks that we didn’t need to take and we were losing some games because of it. We talk about learning all the time, and this week we’ve done a lot of reminding our team how we want to play in certain areas of the rink.

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“It’s a little bit of a repeat button from last year, but they need to hear it, and then they’ve got to go out and do it.”

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Staying on an even keel is key

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The Senators started last season with a 5-4-1 record through their first 10 games, which was respectable, but Green wasn’t happy with their defensive play.

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A key reason for the club’s success since then has been the growth and maturity of its young players, who have become more reliable at both ends of the ice.

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Down the stretch last season, when the Senators had to make a mad dash to make the playoffs for the second straight year, we saw how much the perseverance to play a 200-foot game can pay off.

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“I’ve coached a fair amount of years, but these guys are by far the most coachable group I’ve had, and the most accepting of coaching. And when you have that as a coach, you feel lucky,” Green said.

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The players are receptive to the coaching staff’s message because they all want the same thing.

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“We do. We want to win, and we talk about that. Like everyone wants to win. What are you really prepared to do to win … on the ice, and off the ice,” Green said. “Paying attention to details. How aggressive do you want to play? All those things. It all comes down to the individual.

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“There’s coaching, and then there’s the players receiving the coaching, and every coach is a little different, and every player is a little different, and you’ve got to find what works for your team.”

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New faces in different places

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The Senators have made several changes since the end of last season.

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Staios had his hands tied by captain Brady Tkachuk when he demanded a trade to the Florida Panthers in May. Chabot was named Tkachuk’s successor as the captain on Tuesday with Stutzle, Sanderson and veteran Claude Giroux acting as the alternates.

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Under the circumstances, Staios was able to get a strong return with four first-round picks and he parlayed one of those into a trade for winger William Eklund from the San Jose Sharks.

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Eklund, 23, is a skilled forward who has the speed to play with either Stutzle or Cozens on the top two lines. But he’s coming from a San Jose team that was rebuilding with young players who were trying to learn to play on both sides of the puck.

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“I like him. First of all, he’s highly skilled,” Green said. “You can see that he can skate. He’s fast, and he’s tenacious. The one thing I talked to him about coming into camp was that there is a certain way that we want to play.

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“I think he’s going to blend into that. We want to play with a lot of tenacity, and I’m excited to watch him play regular-season games. He’s shown that in practice.”

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Eklund isn’t the only new face, he’s just the most high-profile.

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Winger Andre Burakovsky was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks and the club brought in goaltender Samuel Ersson from the Philadelphia Flyers to be the backup to Linus Ullmark. Burakovsky is also tabbed to play in a top-six role.

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Centre Stephen Halliday will anchor the fourth line. Injuries to Artem Zub and Sanderson in camp have meant the club has kept young blueliners Carter Yakemchuk and Hoyt Stanley around to start the season. Whether they’re here all year remains to be seen.

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The media keeps talking about the club needing another top-six forward, but the Senators did finish 10th in scoring last season.

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“Would we like to have a 40- or 50-goal scorer? Yeah, sure. Everyone does, but we scored enough goals to win. It’s not even in my head right now,” Green said.

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The elephant is no longer in the room

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It felt like last year that Tkachuk took up a lot of oxygen.

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It started with his injury in the club’s home opener, which required thumb surgery and a six-week absence. Then, he and his brother, Matthew, started The Wingmen Podcast, which turned out to be a distraction at times.

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Tkachuk’s contributions with the Senators weren’t the same before he won a gold medal with Team USA at the Winter Olympics in Italy. He came back and helped this team get to the playoffs, but you knew he wouldn’t finish his career here.

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What’s the next step for this team? Tkachuk was a physical presence who led this team into battle many nights. No matter what one may think of his legacy in Ottawa, he gave the Senators a lot of strong efforts.

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“It’s taking another step. But we’re a different team this year,” Green said. “I don’t talk about the Brady trade a lot. We haven’t talked about it at all. We made a big move. Now, we’ve got a new team and new players.

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“Just because you took a step the year before doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to take a step the next year. Everyone else is trying to get better as well. And, for me, it’s not saying, ‘Hey, this is what we have to do this year.’ We want to get better and then we can take another step.

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“And how do we get better? Well, it starts with the guys that we have coming back playing better. Do we have young guys pushing to make our team and push other guys to play better, or they lose their jobs? That’s the reality of the business.

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“Then, there are the trades, and the guys that you trade for have got to play well, and they’re going to help you move the needle. You hope that all three of those things can help make your team better.”

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Adversity makes you stronger

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The Senators faced their fair share of challenges on and off the ice last season, but made the playoffs. The four-game exit against the Carolina Hurricanes in Round 1 wasn’t the way Ottawa would have written the script, but the group has learned from the highs and lows.

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A lot of the Senators’ struggles stemmed from their goaltending. The club finished with an .878 save percentage as a team. Ullmark wasn’t making the necessary stops before taking a 35-day break for mental health reasons, and backup Leevi Merilainen couldn’t carry the load.

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But that’s in the past.

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All you have to do is see Ullmark on the ice and around the dressing room to understand that he’s in a different place this year. He’s been sharp in practice, he looked good in the preseason, and there is a sense that he’s going to have a strong season.

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The Senators opted to bring in Maciej Szwoch as co-ordinator of goaltending scouting and development to work with goalie coach Justin Peters.

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Szwoch, 41, was brought in to work with Ullmark during his leave of absence for mental health reasons. The two are close friends, and Szwoch is considered to be a mentor to Ullmark.

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Yes, the Senators were swept in Round 1, but Ullmark gave them a chance to win every night. He finished those four contests with a .932 save percentage and a 2.03 goals-against average. It allowed him to go into the off-season feeling good about himself.

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“Linus would be the first to admit he didn’t have a great first half or whatever. And when he came back, he was good,” Green said. “He seems like he’s in a great spot right now, and he looks sharp.

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“Ersson looks good. In this league, if you don’t have good goaltending, you don’t have good defence, or you don’t have good forwards. It’s hard to win.”

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The road to glory

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The Senators feel like they’re in the window to contend for the Stanley Cup.

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“We’ve talked to our group about our long-term goals,” Green said. “We’ve been in the playoffs two years in a row now. Do we want to win the Cup? Yeah, that’s our goal, but we don’t sit here and talk about that every day. We talk about how do we do that. There’s a process to getting to that stage and it starts by getting through camp.

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“We talk about winning the day a lot, and then you start stacking them during the regular season. You’ve got to do it again and again. There are no guarantees. You can play really good and lose, and you can play really s***** and win.

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“The one thing our team has learned over the last two years is they’ve got to embrace the tough moments,” Green added. “They’ve got to like being in them, and when it gets hard and there’s white noise, you’ve got to learn how to handle it.

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“Then you’ve got to go out and play again, and it doesn’t change. You’ve got to reset and play again if you win or you lose.”

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