Green Sends Senators Players A Simple Message

Ottawa Senators head coach Travis Green had a simple message for his players as training camp opened Wednesday, “Be better.”

It’s not that Senators players need motivating after consecutive opening round postseason losses. The team wants to make the next step with the realization the Eastern Conference, especially the Atlantic Division is ultra-competitive.

“We have a good hockey team. We like our team. We’ve taken a lot of steps the last few years. Obviously, want to take another step, but we’re not getting too far in front of ourselves,” said the Senators head coach.

“There’s a lot of teams that want to take steps. It’s a very competitive league. Everyone talks about a process or stacking days or however you want to put it, but you’ve got to have a real mindset that we’re going to be great every day or are you going to fall behind?”

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Green and his staff have belief in their players to make that next step. And with their existing core group, and little change within the Senators roster this offseason with the exception of their captain, there’s reason to be positive.

Green explained, “Our players have improved. We’ve still got a relatively young group, looked at our board the other day with the age of our players. I think they’ve all become better hockey players, and quite honestly, expect to be better again. I think almost to a man, that group can improve still. That’s a big way that we’re going to get better. Players we’ve added, (forwards William Eklund, Andre Burakovsky, goalie Samuel Ersson) they’re going to help us move the needle. Just talked to our team about that a little bit, and I think another way that you know teams progress and teams improve; are young guys pushing to take take a spot on the team, and I think we have that more this year than we have had.”

With the NHL season opening September 29, though Ottawa does not play their first regular season game until October 3rd in Toronto, training camp is condensed.

Players hit the ice Thursday in three groups, Two players, forward Warren Foegele and defenseman Artem Zub will not be participants.

Foegele has an undisclosed injury, is currently skating and is a week to two weeks away, which puts his preseason in doubt. As for Zub, the d-man is still recovering from an injury sustained in Game 1 of the playoffs, he too is skating and should fall into an identical timeline as Foegele.

With Zub, the spotlight shifts to Carter Yakemchuk who will be given more time to claim a roster spot.

“He’s just a good player. I mean, at the end of the day, that’s the easiest way to explain it.He’s still relatively young too. I’m probably going to get asked where you see some of these guys playing. I don’t know yet, but he’s a good enough hockey player. He’s still young, but he’s going to definitely help our hockey team…I mean just got to show that he can play every day. Part of it is there’s one thing to play – he can play. He showed that he can play last year. There’s another thing to show that you can play well every day. Can he do it over months? He’ll show us,” noted Green of his young blueliner who turns 21, September 29.

As for naming a captain with Brady Tkachuk dealt to Florida, Green has discussed it with general manager Steve Staios.

“I think it’s important that we get a look at our group throughout camp, and it’s not something that we need to rush into. But it’s definitely something that we’re talking about.”

Green admitted disappointment upon learning of Tkachuk’s trade request, “Anytime a player asks to be traded or removed, it doesn’t matter who it is. I think as a coach, you do get disappointed, and when the captain and you’ve built a relationship, that would be probably the first thing that came to mind. I think that’s a pretty natural reaction.”

A look at the two main groups skating Thursday:

Group A

Goalies – Linus Ullmark, Jackson Parsons, Vadim Zherenko

Defense – Jake Sanderson, Tyler Kleven, Scott Harrington, Gabriel Eliasson, Hoyt Stanley, Djibril Toure, Cal Uens, Carter Yakemchuk

Forwards – Michael Amadio, Drake Batherson, Samuel Blais, Andre Burakovsky, Jaxon Cover, Philippe Daoust, Ridly Greig, Kasper Haltunnen, Hayden Hodgson, Blake Montgomery, Tim Stützle, Ryan Suzuki

Group 2

Goalies – Samuel Ersson, Leevi Merilainen

Defense – Matthew Andonovski, Samuel Bolduc, Thomas Chabot, Cam Crotty, Tomas Hamara, Niklas Matinpalo, Jordan Spence

Forwards – Eskild Bakke Olsen, Xavier Bourgault, Nick Cousins, Dylan Cozens, William Eklund, Lucas Ellinas, Claude Giroux, Stephen Halliday, Oskar Pettersson, Shane Pinto, Philip Tomasino, Fabian Zetterlund