Ahead of Game 3, Senators head coach Travis Green discussed his team’s 2-0 series deficit, his struggling PK, the Stolarz-Greig incident, and keeping Auston Matthews off the scoresheet through two games.
Going through the video of the overtime goal, is there a chance that there were too-many-men on the ice for the Leafs?
Green: There were a couple. The Tavares breakaway had too many men. I think they had seven guys. On the overtime one, you could arguably say there was, but it is part of the game.
Drake Batherson said he will live and learn after the overtime goal in Game 2. What is your message to a player in his situation as he owns up to the mistake?
Green: I grabbed Drake last night. You do live and learn, first of all, and it can eat you up. I wanted to make sure he doesn’t dwell on it. It goes back to a lot of the lessons we’ve learned this year. You can’t live in the past. You can learn from the past and live in the present. When you make a mistake you don’t like and it ends up in the back of your net, it doesn’t feel good.
It’s funny. He could’ve been the hero with 50 seconds left in the game. He does a lot of good things for our team. It is easy to say that the goal cost us — ultimately, it did — but there was no guarantee we were winning the game if that goal didn’t happen. They still could’ve won the game at some other point in overtime.
It is important that you understand the mistakes, learn, and move on. You can’t dwell on it. I am excited for him to get another chance to play tomorrow as well.
What did you think of the contact between Anthony Stolarz and Ridly Greig in the crease?
Green: I think the video kind of speaks for itself. I didn’t see the roughing by Ridly. The video kind of speaks for itself. I think Stolarz is a fiery guy. I don’t really know where the coincidentals came from there, but the refs have a tough job to do.
Somewhere Eddie Belfour is 8 beers deep absolutely loving what Anthony Stolarz is doing to Ridly Greig#LeafsForever
— RGF (@rgfray1) April 23, 2025
What has stood out about Greig’s impact through two games?
Green: Nothing that surprises me with Ridly. Players like him are big-game players. They like playing in these kinds of scenarios. He loves the game and plays hard. He is physical. He is still young and learning. We are lucky to have him. Teams like players like him.
The Leafs blocked a lot of shots in Game 2. What do you think of your team’s shot selection in the early going?
Green: We have talked about it a little bit with our defensemen. We have to be selective with our shots. We can’t just take shots for the sake of it.
It is easy to say you can do a better job getting shots through, but the other team has a say in that. They have done a good job of blocking shots, but I think that is an area where our D can be a little better.
What is your expectation for your team in its first playoff home game?
Green: The expectation is to play well. Play another good hockey game. Commit to playing 60 minutes the right way, and if you do that, more times than not, it will end up in your favour.
There is going to be a lot of energy. We are all looking forward to playing. We want to come out, establish our game, and play with purpose. And yet we need to make sure we are playing whistle-to-whistle and are playing a very disciplined game.
We are looking forward to it, I can tell you that.
How do you address the slow starts to the first two games?
Green: One puck went off Morgan Rielly’s skate. One puck went off Jensen. I don’t know how you stop it. It is not like you are going to stop those, but they got a couple of lucky bounces. They are also going to the net and getting pucks there.
I’ve liked our game. Even though we fell behind 2-0, we weren’t getting outplayed drastically or anything like that. This game, as I have said many times, is one where you can play well and be behind.
Our team has done a good job for the last three or four months — when things aren’t going their way — of resetting during the game, not getting away from it, and moving on, not just during the game but from game to game. That is important in playoff hockey.
These are all things we have been trying to talk to our team about during the regular season. Hopefully, it helps in the playoffs.
Your penalty kill is not where you want it to be. What areas can you improve on shorthanded?
Green: It is 34 seconds we would like to have back to get the four goals back. They scored three goals in the first game within a few seconds of each penalty kill, so it is hard to just sit there and say, “Our PK has been a real problem.”
From the outside looking in, they have scored four power-play goals. Game 2 is an example of them getting a bit of a bounce but also of them going to the net and getting that bounce. They’ve deserved the goals; I don’t mean they haven’t, but there are certain parts of your PK where you break down, and there are certain parts where you have to bear down.
The four goals in 38 seconds is a byproduct of losing a faceoff, too, isn’t it?
Green: It is easy to say that. In the first game, for sure, we lost three draws, and the puck ended up in our net. They have good faceoff guys, though.
I have taken a lot of faceoffs. Because you want to win it, it doesn’t mean you are going to win it. Claude Giroux is a really good faceoff guy, and so is [Pinto]. Sometimes, you lose them.
Auston Matthews has had a relatively quiet series offensively. What is working well when it comes to containing him, and how much are you looking forward to last change?
Green: (Knocks wood) You had to say it.
It will be nice (to get last change). We didn’t chase it hard, and then we started to.
He is a good player. If you are not standing on the other bench, you like watching him. It is hard to keep good players quiet.
It is not just the offense he brings, either. He is a good player in his own zone. We’ll try to contain him as much as we can, much like they will try to do the same with our players.
You’ve moved Fabian Zetterlund up the lineup a little bit. What do you think he has brought to the top two lines when he is on them?
Green: He has some speed in his game. I have kind of thrown him around in different spots and double-shifted him on a couple of different lines. He has good hands. As the series goes on, players who have quickness are beneficial.
There has been a lot of emphasis on the team’s inexperience in the playoffs. Have you seen the guys become more comfortable shift to shift? What do you expect in Game 3?
Green: I thought there was a big difference in our team [in Game 2]. Individually, we had some players who needed to play better, and they did. Our team felt a little more comfortable.
When you’re playing on the road in the playoffs, the atmosphere plays into the game as well. It is loud. The building is rocking. On every little hit that they make, the building erupts. It is a little bit different for guys.
That is the exciting part, though. It is the part you love. I felt our guys played a little more comfortably, but still played with a lot of urgency in their game. The intensity was high, and the emotional control of our game was much better in Game 2. I thought we played a very disciplined game as far as not just our play, but penalty-wise.
There weren’t a lot of chances for us to get a penalty against us. We did a really good job of keeping our cross-checks down and playing through the body legally. We’re going to have to do that moving forward.
Double-shifting Brady Tkachuk on the power play led to the first goal in Game 2. Could we see some shortening of the bench as the series wears on?
Green: Yeah, there will be some tweaks here and there. I don’t know about shortening the bench, but sometimes, as a coach, you are looking for any kind of edge that you can.
We just felt Brady was fresh in the moment. It was one of those power plays where we had only kept the first unit out for 50 seconds. You are kind of on the fence about whether to change him or not. We like both units. We just felt like we would keep him out there.
