When the Ottawa Senators hired Travis Green to be their next head coach in May 2024, it may have caught people by surprise. However, Green has transformed the Senators in just one year.
In his first season behind the bench, Green has guided the Senators back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017. Green has Sens fans believing in the team in Spring time, which the fans have waited long enough. The Senators will clash against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the 2025 playoffs.
Head coaches are just as important as the players are to win a Stanley Cup. With the Senators in the playoffs with Green as head coach, it's important to know Green's playoff history as a former player and head coach in his NHL career.
Green's playoff performance needs improvement, but is eager for big things in 2025 playoffs
In 14 NHL seasons as a player, Green got to play in the playoffs seven times with five different teams. Green recorded 21 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in 56 career playoff games.
Five times Green's teams were unable to get past the first round. On two different occasions, Green's teams were swept in the first round of the playoffs.
Green's best year in the playoffs as a player came in 2002 when he was a member of the Maple Leafs. In the year the Maple Leafs fell in the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes, Green recorded nine points in 20 games played in the 2002 playoffs.
Green's last playoff performance as a player came in 2004 when he and the Boston Bruins were eliminated in the first round in seven games by the Montreal Canadiens. While playing in all seven games of the series, Green recorded one assist.
After playing in 31 combined games in the 2006-07 season as a member of the Anaheim Ducks and Maple Leafs, it wasn't until the 2017-18 season that Green became a head coach in the NHL for the first time.
Green took over as bench boss of the Vancouver Canucks. In his five seasons as head coach before being fired in the middle of the 2021-22 season, Green only made the playoffs one time as Canucks heach coach.
That came in 2020. Due to COVID-19 suspending the NHL season in March 2020, a 24-team playoff was created. The Canucks made the qualifying round and defeated the Minnesota Wild in four games to then face the fourth seeded St. Louis Blues in the first round of the 2020 playoffs.
Green's Canucks defeated the Blues in six games. Then, the Vegas Golden Knights arrived in the second round. The Canucks did force a Game 7 after trailing 3-1 in the series before being shutout 3-0 in Game 7. Green went 10-7 overall in the 2020 playoffs as a head coach for the first time. Green served as interim head coach of the New Jersey Devils last season, but the Devils failed to make the 2024 playoffs
While Green's Senators don't have much playoff experience from their core players, inexperience can create hunger to prove doubters wrong. Green will be eager to make his second playoff appearance as a head coach better than the first one five years ago.