OverDrive - Green on the Senators' winning mentality, Cozens' solid role and Tkachuk leading the way

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Ottawa Senators Head Coach Travis Green joins to discuss the headlines around the Senators, Brady Tkachuk's leadership to the team, Dylan Cozens' impressive stance on the roster, Linus Ullmark building progression in the crease, the race towards the playoffs, the Battle of Ontario and more.

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here's a coach of the auto was senators travis green i do in travis it has a good day uh... i don't have to tomorrow i will have to use the yeah but you know you have in the middle uh... uh... you'll need him in the middle uh... uh... from well if you're having savvy or somebody mike man and i think that that that first

uh... i love that he was uh... burr is talking about that superman punch by and one of the other night is like i never tried that like well you haven't tried it that That probably speaks to like how rare it is because no one fought more than Barube back in the day. But yeah, it's gonna be electric tomorrow night. I mean, you guys are on a heater right now. It must be a lot of fun to be coaching your team right now. Yeah, you know what it is.

It's always fun when you win a few games for sure. I think the mindset of every coach always is just reset and get ready to do it again. And we've done a pretty good job without our guys or players of just whether we win or lose, getting focused on the next game in hand. I think tomorrow is one of those games where, you know, coaches don't probably have to say a lot it's going to be an

emotional game both teams will probably be on top of their game. So Greenie you talk about emotional game I mean your captain is kind of your pace car when you look at the way Brady plays it's it's with emotion he's involved in everything but he's also chipping in offensively is that something Is that something that you don't have to give him a tap? He kind of just reads the situation or do you have to reel him in sometimes? How do you handle a guy like that who plays with his heart on his sleeve? Well, there's one thing that I really believe in and I've said it from day one is I'm never going to take the emotion out of his game

or what I want to. You know, that's, he's a rare player in the league that can do a lot of different things. He does a lot of things that some guys don't want to do and, you know, he loves winning. But I think, you know, he's still relatively young in the league as well and he's learning different parts of the game as being a young captain but also controlling his emotions and I think he's done a great job of that this season. Well you mentioned you know new experiences for him I he he I guess I would say suffered one but he experienced one last week when Josh Norris was traded and he and Norris

best friends, well documented, he had a tough time talking about him after that and Dylan Cousins has stepped in and played great for you guys but I'm curious, did you handle that in any which way, dealing with Kichuk, dealing with Norris going out, was there anything you felt you had to say to him to kind of help him get through that experience? Yeah, you know, I mean, it's no secret that, you know, Josh and Brady were tight and good friends and, you know, the one thing about Brady is he also understands the game as well. And I talked to Brady a little bit about it, but he's grown up in the hockey world, in the hockey family with his dad, his brothers, sisters, mom. If there's anyone that's probably equipped to handle that or understands it, it would

be him. But that still doesn't take the emotional part away from it. I would expect him to be upset and I think, you know, through the course of your career, if you play long enough, you meet people and you play with people that are lifelong friends and, you know, it's hard to say goodbye sometimes. And that's, there's not, I really, there's nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, they're still going to be great friends. If anyone knows that it's a business, it would be Brady. Well, the business that you guys pulled off at the trade deadline,

I mean, albeit on pretty short sample size here, Travis looks to be working pretty well with cousins having a point in each of the four games he's played. What's been the key to him sort of boarding the proverbial moving train with such ease or apparent ease from outside? Yeah, you know, he's really stepped right in and looked real comfortable with our group. Whenever that happens, I think credit has to go to the players on the team as well.

Uh, you know, I think certain scenarios, certain teams within the locker room of players have an environment that welcomes people and they feel comfortable. I think that's a big part of players, uh, playing well. Uh, also he's, he's a very talented player. Um, you never a very talented player. You never really know a player until you coach them and just, you know, I've watched them from the outside and watched some video, but he's certainly played well since he's come here.

He's got a, almost feels like a breath of fresh air, I think, in a way that he's jumping into a playoff race and, you know, he seems excited to play almost feels like a breath of fresh air I think in a way that he's jumping into a playoff race and You know, he seems excited to play and he's played He's played while that he's a big body. He skates well, and I think he had 17 hits his first two games with us and You know, that's a part of the game that is still alive is the physical part but also he can score and do a lot of different things as well. Greenie, how good has the goaltender been?

You know, and I mean it was a weird game last night, you know, three goals and nine shots, not very busy but then he locks it down and has the, you know, what I yelled, the save of the year. I mean, you know, how important has he been to your group, you know know just with what he's been able to do when he's been healthy Yeah, I think you know, there's no secret how good Lena says and coming off the you know what we thought was going to be Not a very long injury turned into something a lot longer. I think like any player

takes a little while to knock the rust off and find your game when you're out for that long. Uh, not that he was playing, uh, terrible. I think he was just not up to the standards that we had gotten used to for that 10 game stretch beforehand. And, uh, you know, I think he started to find his form. Uh, yeah, stellar game against Detroit where we weren't very good as a team. And, and, uh, he made 48 saves, I believe. And, uh, you know, last night was kind of, like you said, a

little bit of a weird game. Uh, I mean, you know better than me, but as a goalie, sometimes when you, I think at one point the shots were 20 something to seven and you know, they had a couple of tipping goals, a backdoor goal and, and you know, he, he wasn't getting much action. And then, uh, well, we took our foot off the gas a little bit and they started to gain some traction and man that saved last night. I, to be honest, I hadn't watched it fully until later at night after I'd done media already and it was pretty amazing.

Yeah, it was a great save, man. That was a great save and it's going to be a lot of fun tomorrow night. I'm curious how you've experienced your own building throughout this season because we're aware of the playoff drought and and you know fans kind of getting on different players and coaches and management in the past but last night based on what I saw in noodles you were in the building too it was electric man there chants going off and people going crazy how much fun has that been like have you experienced the fans kind of coming alive as the years going on? Yeah, you sure have, especially now, I think, once we got to this final 20 games. You know, quite honestly, we were on the road for quite a stretch of time with the World

Juniors. I think at some point we'd played 14 or 15 or 19 on the road. And now that we've been back in our building for a little more frequently and coming down the stretch, these last two games have been really what it's all about, what you envision in Canada when a team is either in the playoffs or hopefully on the verge of making it. And it's been great. It's been electric, it's been exciting, obviously energizing for the players. You know, that's part of sport, and that's just the part that you love,

and it's gonna be exciting down the stretch here. Well, it sure will be. Yeah, it's gonna be a great one tomorrow night. A building you're very familiar with. You guys have played very well against the Leafs this year. You have for years really and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. Good luck tomorrow night, Greeny. We appreciate you doing this All right, guys. Thanks for having me. You got it Travis Green of the Ottawa Senators

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