“I covered Travis Green closely during arguably the most dysfunctional stretch in recent Vancouver Canucks history — and that’s saying something.
After a successful stint as the club’s AHL coach in Utica, a stretch that included a Calder Cup Final appearance in the early stages of Green’s tenure, the club iced rosters that were undermanned in the extreme. And those Green-era teams played recognizably organized hockey, often punching above their weight, especially early in the year, before the extreme lack of talent caught up to them.
In 2019-20, the club hit something of a wave and over-performed — both in the regular season and in the playoff bubble. Green’s tactics against the Golden Knights in forcing a seventh game as a massive underdog in the second round became a template that Golden Knights opponents widely copied in frustrating the DeBoer-era Golden Knights in the playoffs over the next few years.
Then things got weird in Vancouver.
COVID-related budget cuts gutted the roster. A massive COVID outbreak during the 2021 season impacted Green severely, and the team massively as well, as the club sagged to seventh in the All-Canadian division.
The next year, Green made some tactical tweaks to try and shore up the club’s brutal defensive game. It worked at five-on-five, but the team was undone by struggling severely on the penalty kill and by the pervasive struggles of some star players. Twenty-five games into the season, Green was fired and replaced by Bruce Boudreau.
Throughout his Canucks tenure, Green’s Canucks leaned heavily on and did well to develop young players. He was disciplined and even innovative about how he handled matchups in-game.
He tended not to get fooled by hot streaks, and when he was criticized for player deployment, his decisions tended to bear themselves out over time (the players who didn’t get enough opportunity under Green tended not to become more meaningful contributors after his departure). His X’s and O’s and structural work are excellent, and he’s open minded about incorporating analytics into his player evaluation, working closely with Vancouver’s since-promoted director of analytics, Aiden Fox, throughout his Canucks tenure.
This is a sharp coach who deserves a stable opportunity after the way things unfolded for him in Vancouver. Taking over a young team like the Senators strikes me as a uniquely good fit.”
