Ottawa — The Ottawa Senators are in a playoff spot in December for the first time with the core of Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle and Jake Sanderson–a nucleus that in the past always underachieved.
What’s changed?
Coaching.
A coach’s job is to make the team greater than the sum of its parts. That’s what Travis Green has done so far in his first season behind the bench in Ottawa.
There is no question that Linus Ullmark has been phenomenal in his last 10 games, which helped fortify the backbone of a Senators team that wilted in the past. The back tightness that forced Ullmark to leave the game against Edmonton on Sunday looms large. Meanwhile, Stutzle is erupting as a superstar, Thomas Chabot is rejuvenated, and Drake Batherson has become a point-per-game player, all under Green.
Green would be the first person to give credit to his players and the team for their excellent start to the season. Nevertheless, he’s largely put his players in positions to succeed through attention to detail, especially on defence, creating a team identity around defensive structure.
His general manager has given a stamp of approval for Green’s job so far.
“(The) process of learning on how to win,” said Steve Staios when asked why his team is succeeding this season by Scott Oake on After Hours.
“The details of the game, game management, all those types of things that Travis and the coaching staff have preached from the beginning of the season.”
In previous seasons, the Senators would show glimpses of what they could be. However, they would then fall into losing habits, with the majority of their star players not defending at a high enough level. Throw in substandard goaltending, which only worsened the trainwreck in their own end.
“You have to instill a process and some discipline, and our players are buying in,” said Staois.
In the last two seasons, when the Senators were expected to come close to a playoff spot, they were let down by their defensive structure. It has improved tremendously this season.
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Senators statistics |
Goals allowed |
Expected goals allowed per 60 (five-on-five) |
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2022-23 Senators
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3.29 (20th) |
2.72 (22nd)
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2023-24 Senators
|
3.43 (27th)
|
2.5 (15th) |
|
2024-25 Senators
|
2.85 (10th)
|
2.25 (7th)
|
]
According to MoneyPuck.com
An indicator of a good defensive team is the shots you allow your opponents. The Senators have the 11th fewest high-danger chances against, which has empowered Ullmark to shine. On the weekend, the Senators split the back-to-back against two elite teams–Vancouver and Edmonton–with their backup Leevi Merilainen playing five of six periods. A credit to Green.
Defence begins with your best players.
Green has helped foster the transition for Tkachuk, Stutzle and Batherson from defensive liabilities to defensively minded players. All of them are now in the top half of the league in the fewest expected goals allowed per 60 minutes, according to Evolving Hockey. Most notably, Green has transformed Stutzle into a 200-foot player who has an expected goals allowed of 2.05 per 60 minutes, ranking him 61st out of 546 players in the NHL.
All three of the stars are also on pace for career highs in many statistical categories: their defence isn’t taking away from their offence.
Green also stuck to his guns, and for the most part, it worked. From the start of training camp, he paired Nick Jensen with Thomas Chabot. They have been Ottawa’s best duo by far on the backend, where they’ve had a positive shot share of 55.06 per cent at five-on-five–the best on the team–while outscoring opponents 31 to 19, according to Natural Stat Trick.
When Ullmark struggled early in the season, and Anton Forsberg was playing better, Green trusted his Ullmark all the same, giving him the nod in San Jose on November 27th, after four straight losses, ever since Ullmark is 8-0-1.
“It wasn’t long ago where I sat in this room and we started talking about goalie controversies, because people were asking Forsberg to play more”, said Green.
I was that reporter in the room questioning Green’s deployment of Ullmark. I’ll gladly admit I was wrong, and Green was right.
Another feather in Green’s hat was finding the Senators second-leading goal-scorer, Adam Gaudette, in the off-season. Gaudette and Green were in Vancouver together. Green has gotten the best of the talented Gaudette, who struggled to find an NHL home before this season but has lit the lamp 13 times this season so far.
“Obviously Greener was a big factor,” said Gaudette in making his decision to sign with Ottawa in the off-season.
However, Green hasn’t been perfect. His decision to play Travis Hamonic with Jake Sanderson during Artem Zub’s injuries this season hasn’t worked; they’ve been outscored 13-4 at five-on-five. Green has cited the effectiveness of pairing Tyler Kleven and Jacob Bernard-Docker as his reason for keeping the Sanderson-Hamonic duo together.
Still, Sanderson has started to find his groove, showing off his elite talent against Vancouver on Saturday, including an Erik Karlsson-esque long-range pass leading to a Josh Norris short-handed goal. Then he capped it off with a beautiful overtime winner. Sanderson has six points in his last seven games.
Meanwhile, the penalty kill struggled after Green introduced a diamond zonal formation. Just before Ottawa went on its recent six-game winning streak, the penalty kill was 73 per cent after allowing two goals to the New York Islanders. It wasn’t working. The next day at practice, Green prioritized working on the PK and focused on pressuring the puck more. Since then, the Senators have killed 18 of 20 penalties.
In their recent 10-3-1 hot stretch, the Senators have scored three goals or fewer in six of their 10 wins while only scoring five goals in two of those games. They are winning tight-checking games even with their offence cooling down, something they would not do in the past.
Green preached to his team ahead of their game against the Detroit Red Wings earlier in their hot stretch to play a 2-1 style of game.
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NHL on Sportsnet
Livestream Hockey Night in Canada, Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey, the Oilers, Flames, Canucks, out-of-market matchups, the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the NHL Draft.
Guess what?
The Senators beat Detroit 2-1.
However, there is still room for improvement. A fascinating trend demonstrating the peculiar importance of goaltending in hockey is that the Senators’ underlying metrics were much better through their first 20 games when they posted a record of 8-11-1 than their last 13, where they’ve gone 10-3-1.
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Senators
|
CF% shot share at five-on-five |
Expected goals % at five-on-five |
Save percentage |
|
First 20 games
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54.23 (8th)
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52.70 (8th)
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.883 (26th)
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Last 14
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48.20 (22nd)
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48.95 (17th)
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.919 (1st)
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]
According to Natural Stat Trick.
Spectacular goaltending glosses over your flaws. Nonetheless, the Senators are defending at a much higher level with buy-in from their stars.
“They’ve also got to commit to defending,” said Green during training camp. “And I said it from Day 1, ultimately being a 200-foot team, and that’s really the one common factor in winning hockey.”
It isn’t a fluke where the Senators are. Hard work and attention to detail have gotten them to be squarely in a playoff spot. Their coach deserves a ton of praise.
In Ottawa, it’ll be a Green Christmas.
