OverDrive - Poulin on the Senators clinching the playoffs, the foundation of the team and mentality of the roster

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Ottawa Senators Senior Vice-President of Hockey Operations Dave Poulin joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the team, the Senators clinching a playoff spot, the winning foundation of the group, Brady Tkachuk getting the experience leading the roster, the mentality of the group and more.

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Join today and be part of something amazing. Here he is, the senior VP of hockey operations with the Ottawa Senators. They've got the X beside their name. They're off to the playoffs. Here's Dave Poole. And what's happening, Dave? Gentlemen, that X is a very big X. It's a large X when you're

watching it and it feels like we've been playing in the playoffs for the last, I don't know, six weeks. Like every night you're watching the scoreboard, you're watching the standings and you're involved in a one-goal game and it's just torturous up goal game You can do very little about it once the game starts And it was such a weird night because Literally if we're going down the elevator Montreal plots to empty net goal and so by the time we get down the locker room you walk into the coach's office and You know it's pretty quiet in there, they're not happy at all. And within five minutes, the whole thing had turned around.

And there was a celebration going on with the players that was very proud. Yeah, as you should be. And OASP, I guess we might as well follow it up and have you ask. We were doing a mini Jerry on the likelihood that you guys would make the playoffs this year if you could take us back to September. What was the expectation in the room and what was the percentage you would have put on the likelihood that you guys would have gotten that X beside your name at some point? Well, I was way smarter when I was in your seat. Way smarter like when I was doing this show and when I was doing the panel with oh we were If we were all over things like this

We like the group we put together, you know, we made some significant changes and I arrived here a year and a half ago, so literally on December 31st January 1st and What we talked about it first was taking the rest of last year to try and figure out what we had. And it included, you know, did we have anything in Belleville that could help or could we, you know, what would happen down there? Because you know the organization from, once again, from doing the games from the broadcast, but you really don't know it from watching on an every night basis. And We really did try and drill down on what we had and to try and figure out if we supported this core group with a couple more veterans changing the goaltending situation. And so we had made those changes. So going into the

year, you know, we were confident that we'd keep the goaltending situation with Lena Salmark and we liked the moves we've made, but you don't know what kind of an impact they're gonna have on the rest of the group. And we didn't have David Perron out of the group, out of the gate at all, for personal reasons originally, and then injury, and we seemed to have somebody key out. We were missing RTM Zoo for the good portion

of the first part of the year, and so Jake Sanderson didn't have his regular partner. And then, you know, as we started to get healthy and it was probably about Christmas when we started, you know what it was guys? It was during the world junior road trip. I mean, we were on that. It was nine straight games on the road broken up by Christmas. And it was like, if we can come out of this part, okay, we're going to be okay here.

And that was probably, that was can come out of this part okay, we're going to be okay here. That was probably breaking even through that nine game stretch was probably what put us in a good seat moving forward in the second half of the year. Poole, you just outlined some of the moves. One thing that you can put your finger on is maybe the biggest impact. Was it Lena's coming in? Is it just a combination of everything or internal growth of some of your players? Like Batherson who has really found another level this year. Has it been one thing or just a combination? It really is a combination of all those things.

One name neither one of us has ever used. We've had a lot of players that have been called out and said, ìHey, we're going to be a great team. We're going to be a great team.î And we've had a lot of players that have been called out and said, ìHey, we're going to be a great team.î found another level this year. Has it been one thing or just a combination? It really is a combination of all those things. And one name neither one of us have mentioned that had a big impact was Nick Jensen.

The trade for Jacob Chickren and everyone was like, oh, geez, he moved Chickren and he's had a great year and he has had a tremendous year and got the big contract in Washington, but he simply didn't fit with the way we were made up on the left side. And what Jensen did was give Thomas Chabot a partner that seemed to fit perfectly and Chabot has had a tremendous year. And so it really is a little bit of everything.

It is that internal growth that we talked about last year and could guys take steps and really pointedly went out. And, you know, we did bring a little pedigree swagger in Stanley cups with David Perron and Nick Cousins and Michael Amadio. So there's a little bit of that in the room. And then, you know, we had a couple of guys that we signed because well, one was coming back to Belva, that was Matthew Highmore, and Adam Godette comes in, and it's just had a terrific year, guys, in the fourth line, center hole,

and has contributed offensively, and those two guys were targeted for Belleville. And Travis had coached both of them in Vancouver, and so he was comfortable with them, so you need guys like that, that you aren't expecting at the start of the year to be big factors to come in and do something. But it really has been a total team effort. And if Steve Stales talks about one thing more than any other thing, it's the culture that we had to

change here. We had to change the culture of the room down to the individuals, down to the kid that cleaned the room, room down to you know, every trainer the way we walked around here The entrance that we enter the building in is now different We have our own private entrance into our own locker room area and all those little details he does not miss one single thing in terms of details and So a large part of that is giving these guys a little bit of a swagger and a little bit of a, hey, you know, we're the Ottawa Senators.

Pooley, the one guy that's always had swagger is the captain, Brady, and there's always been the connection or the lack of connection to the playoffs. Like how fired up do you think that cat's going to be in the first night? Like are you going to have to calm him down or is it going to be just so exciting for the organization the players to just say maybe just watch that guy and see how fired up he is because it'll be the ultimate uh... example of leadership to just follow his lead in the playoffs

oh i am never going to try and calm brady ketchup down trust me i want him to go and be like trying to calm you down on the panel. You can't do it. I mean, you know, you're fired up and you're going and you're emotional and that's what makes it all work. And, you know, he took another step with the four nations in terms of his leadership. Jake Sanderson took a big step at the four nations

and that's the beauty of those tournaments, you know, and everyone says, well, you know,, you lost a few games to injury, but what those guys brought back from that competition, they're just different as players and from a confident standpoint. Brady's day-to-day operation is exactly what you see. He is fired up. That car is literally the first one in the parking lot every morning and I'm here early. That car is in the parking lot and he's here and he's got everybody fired up inside and he can't wait.

He and Thomas Shabata both played north of 500 games without playing a playoff game, which is a crazy stat and there's a lot of excitement about that as there should be with Dave Poole and Ottawa clinching their playoff spot last night and we have been discussing a lot here in toronto about what these matchups could look like Pooley and there's a lot of people in toronto and tampa saying we want to avoid florida we gotta avoid florida give us Ottawa

when you hear that how do you respond to it? I'm thinking back to when I played Brian. Whoever we got in the first round we thought was the toughest matchup in the entire playoffs. It just seemed like, you know, when I was in Philadelphia, when I was in Boston, particularly, you'd get the first round matchups and how can we get these guys in the first round? They're playing so well right now and you know, you don't pick your first round matchups and how can we get these guys in the first round they're playing so well right now and you know you don't pick your first round playoff partner you simply don't and it chooses you and when this all settles you know we'll watch you're watching with interest to see what happens around you and we've still got four games left so we can dictate a little bit of that

ourselves but it's going to be it's going to be fun, however it shakes out. Yeah, it sure will because all these teams, the division has been so good for so long. I'm curious about when you talk about how great it was last night when you realized you clenched and the journey and the turnover with yourself coming in and Steyos and Travis Green and even Michael Anlauer a new owner the division like the daunting task of catching up with the Florida's and the Tampa's and Boston's been so great for so long and you know the Leafs in the regular season have been a stalwart for for almost a decade now how would you compare and contrast like where this division stands today to where it maybe

was when again you're on the panel a couple years ago well it looks like it is going to change a little bit it may change if Montreal you know continues their play and makes the playoffs there's five atlantic teams and so at the start of the year if you wanted to make the playoffs in the atlantic you had to say well who's coming out you know and no one was suggesting that boston was and you know everybody was like well detroit's coming Buffalo's coming, you know that and

You know, we wanted to think we were coming you knew Montreal was a good team I'd done a bunch of their games over the last couple years, you know They were coming and no one was suspecting that one of the two divisions would have five teams in there And that's what may happen. So It's a challenge and you know games in there and that's what may happen. So it's a challenge and you know we played you try and figure out the schedule and you're looking at it like, well you know it's got some home games coming up but going into last week you know we had Tampa and Florida you know twice in three days in our building and you're thinking wow you know you've got to

get through these games and we played well in both and won both and our goaltending was good in both and then you breathe a goal-tenning was good in both and then you breathe a little bit and you got Columbus coming in who's fighting for it and so I Think part of our every night competition is what makes it good and it really does you cannot take a night off We've had some some of our toughest games against some of the teams that aren't even going to make the playoffs this year So Pooley when now that the X is beside the team's name in the standings, internally do you talk to Greenie and talk to the staff and see if guys are nicked up? Do you look at planning out the next four games?

What's best to ramp up for the playoffs? Maybe some rest for some of the key guys or is it just to allow Travis to deploy the way he wants to play and travis will deploy the stevie and and he had a great relationship in that more yet we're in on the conversations in we we you know i really do have to applaud our coaching staff from top to bottom they've they've just done a great job of you know we have a leave

going in the last night were ten to go all the gents and you know we finished what twenty six to twenty eight class here I believe going into last night, we were 10th in goals against and we finished what, 26th to 28th last year. That kind of a turnaround in goals against is getting a buy in and that has been their focus. But Travis has done a terrific job and his group, Mike Yo and Nolan Baumgartner and Daniel Alpherson is the coach guys. I mean, the way he's bought into this has really been fun to watch and Ben Sexton does

a great job. Justin Peters in net. So it's the coaching staff that you really look at and really applaud in this. And they will dictate who plays. And we're still limited. It can't be a wholesale unless you've got some injuries because you're still limited with the four recall rule

from the American Hockey League. So you still got some limitations on what you can do from a cap standpoint. It looks like we may get Nick Cousins back here late in the year. So we'll have to figure out whether that's in the regular season or not. We do have room to bring him back financially and he's just going through his testing. So that would be a big plus late in the year to inject that experience back in the lineup. Absolutely. Well, like you said, four more to go, but then it is go time in about 10 days and the Ottawa Senators back in the dance and it's going to be a blast to see how you guys play and where this story ends because it's been a lot of fun to watch you guys all year.

Great stuff, Pooley. Appreciate you doing this. Congrats to you and everyone there in Ottawa and we'll chat up again soon. Maybe in 10 days. Maybe you'll be in town. Who knows? We'll see. We may very well be, guys. And hey, real quick, I just want to mention, you know, as the excitement of the playoffs and with OV and everything else and two names, you know, that I got to know over the years and Greg Millen and today we hear about Ray Shiro, these guys are far too young to be leaving our great game. And you know, both were great, great hockey people and that's what they were. And Ray sort of had a special connection with because, you know, his dad had coached the

Flyers and I was a Flyer, so he was in college when I was a Flyer. And then Millsie, obviously we all knew through the TV world, you know, as much as the goaltending world and the NHL world. But you know, it's a somber moment when we lose great names like that you know and we're coming into our playoffs and we're all so excited to be a part of things and we lose two great names from the game. Absolutely very well put. Thank you Pooley we appreciate you doing this. Okay guys have a great day enjoy the hockey. Absolutely there's Dave Poole in. Hey, who invited climate action to the party? We did! Hey, I'm Shannon Burns. And I'm Sarah Christie. Together, we host the Earth Day Party Podcast.

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