Since you guys are discussing which potential coaches replace Hartley I'll give my 2 cents about Travis Green.
I've watched the Comets for 2 full seasons now and I really like coach Green. But not coach comes without their flaws. I'll start off talking about how I really dislike his conservatism when it comes to playing young players. Green can be very stubborn about inserting young players into a young lineup. Last year, right before the playoffs he was given Virtanen, McCann and Hutton. Hutton only played a few games and was sat out for most of the playoffs. Virtanen only managed to play when there was an injury. McCann didn't play at all. This was my huge gripe with Travis Green, I thought all 3 of these players deserved at least a good chance of playing on the team regularly. I said so at the time, now that all 3 of those players played in the NHL I feel very justified in saying that Travis Green was wrong here.
I don't blame him for messing up or even see it as a huge negative. Travis Green is very much a new comer to being a head coach. It makes sense that he's a bit conservative and plays by the books.
For his systems, I must admit I do not know much about systems so I'll try my best to describe the way Green's teams play. Green loves to start the offense from the defense. Much like Hartley, however, he doesn't rely on gimmicky stretch passes like Hartley does. Rather he relies on puck possession and getting the D involved into the play. This kind of system works well with very mobile defensemen that can join in on the rush or carry the puck up the ice. In the offensive zone he likes his forwards very much behind the goal line grinding it out and passing the puck back to the point stretching out the defense.
Green allows his grinders to grind and his skill players to play a skill game. He's a very versatile coach. You can see this by just looking at the end of the season roster that Utica had. The team had 2 regular defensemen and one of them was a rookie (Subban). The rest were all PTO's, but somehow he managed to turn that team into a playoff team. Unfortunately he didn't manage to win in the playoffs primary because someone decided to trade away his best player (I'm still salty about Shinkaruk). But anyway, overall I'd say he's a good coach but also a very young coach. If you hire him you will have growing pains. But if you stick with him long term you won't regret it. Green's also a very good possession coach.
Sorry if this is a incomprehensible mess of a post. I am ESL #excusesforpoorenglish.
