Former Vancouver Canucks coach fully deserving of Jack Adams consideration
It’s not hard to find ex-Vancouver Canucks coaches leading other teams around the NHL.
However, none have been as impressive as one of the longest-tenured bench bosses in Canucks history.
What Travis Green has managed to do with the Ottawa Senators this season probably isn’t getting enough attention. Perhaps that’s because the Senators, who haven’t won a playoff series since 2017, have been overshadowed by the surging Buffalo Sabres and hotshot Montreal Canadiens in their own division.
At the Olympic break, the Senators were six points out of a playoff spot. According to SportLogic, their playoff odds on Feb. 25 were 18.8 per cent. Instead of building off their first playoff berth in seven years last season, it looked like Ottawa was going to take a step back.
You could argue it wasn’t a spot they deserved to be in. Despite their inability to win consistently, Green’s Senators were one of the NHL’s fancy stat darlings.
A deeper dive suggested that they’d done a commendable job of both creating offence and stifling the opposition. Really, their main undoing was goaltending.
And in a league where goaltenders often catapult their coach to win a Jack Adams (Hello, Thatcher Demko and Rick Tocchet), Green has been leading his team despite his netminders.
Ottawa was fourth in the NHL at the Olympic break, with a 54.5 expected goals for percentage at five-on-five. Since NHLers returned to action, they ranked third.
There have been two key differences for Ottawa. For one, their goaltending has gone from second-worst in the NHL at five-on-five to about league average. The second difference is that Green has managed to boost the Sens’ penalty kill from third-worst in the NHL to sixth-best since the break.
Since the Olympics, Ottawa’s hard work has been rewarded. The Senators have gone on a 15-5-3 run since late February. They’ve registered the second-most points in the league since then, behind only Buffalo.
Green’s work behind the bench hasn’t gone unnoticed by his players.
“Honestly, ever since Travis came, he just taught us the right way how to play hockey the winning way,” Sanderson told the Canadian Press.
“It’s not fancy, may not be fun all the time, it’s 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.”
Green has also managed to lead the Senators back into playoff contention despite a rash of injuries to his blueline. At one point during their hot streak, Ottawa was without Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, and Nick Jensen.
Despite the hurdles, Ottawa is now up to 96 points, leaving them five points above the playoff bar with less than a week to go in the season.
Green has been overshadowed in the Jack Adams race by Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff, who is the runaway favourite for the award, according to FanDuel. Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper and Pittsburgh Penguins rookie bench boss Dan Muse are the other two who FanDuel lists as options for betting.
But don’t let the trick trick you into believing that Green isn’t worthy of serious consideration for the award.