CANUCKS’ GREEN-HORN WANTS WINS
Players and coaches say this NHL rookie is the real deal, a smart bench boss who doesn’t muddle his message or disguise his desire to compete every night
Ray Ferraro is a razor-sharp analyst.
He picks up game details others often overlook. He knows where the NHL is trending on the ice and what’s happening off it. He knows who runs a bench better than others.
However, he never fathomed that Travis Green, his former New York Islanders teammate from 199295, would one day become the 19th head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.
What chance did he give a gifted guy, who had to first reinvent himself just to remain relevant as a player, and then have junior- and minorleague success, to become a fairbut-firm rookie NHL coach in his home province?
“Zero,” Ferraro said. “This is the evolution of Travis: Skilled, lazy, challenged, changed, diligent, hard-working.
“Everything Travis is now is not what he was when he broke in as a player. This is why I think he has a chance to be really successful. He understands what a scorer thinks, because he was one. He understands what a guy thinks when he gets kicked in the shins because he got booted.
“He understands what it is to remake yourself and has travelled a wide spectrum to get where he is. You can be the smartest guy in the world, but if you can’t get your message to be understood, it doesn’t matter.
“As they get older, players appreciate when a coach is direct. It gets your attention. When you’re honest, it buys you collateral. If you want to be a hard ass and don’t communicate and don’t follow through, players smell that in a hurry.” Fear is a hell of a motivator. The big thing the 46-year-old Green has going for him is how he doesn’t muddle the message. Nothing is lost in translation. Talk to any player and all he wants to know is what’s expected. It started the first day of camp when a drill was stopped and Green barked. It ended with a bag skate.
Green isn’t the first NHL newcomer to crack a whip. But he is his own man. Whatever you make of Willie Desjardins’ time here — hired to win, reluctant to play the kids and too loyal to veterans — there’s no grey area with Green. Tempo and pace are his buzzwords. And there’s no comfort zone.
Musical lines in Vancouver are proof. The latest had Loui Eriksson with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi and Brock Boeser with Alexander Burmistrov and Sam Gagner. Markus Granlund was a fourth-line left-winger and Jake Virtanen was the odd man out.
“Practices have been hard,” said Baertschi, who also played for Green in Utica and Portland. “We didn’t practise like this last year. Travis is a real competitive person and he cares, but he demands a lot. His feel for players has made him successful so far and his feel for game days really sets him apart.”
The caring part showed when Baertschi arrived in Portland from Switzerland to commence the 201011 season. It was his first time in the U.S. and he didn’t speak English.
“Travis actually came and picked me up at the airport because he knew it was tough for me,” Baertschi said. “I was 16-and-a-half and had no idea who he was. He took me under his wing right away and was really supportive.
“He gave me a chance to adjust and didn’t pressure me right away. But he made me understand what it took to play in the NHL and did it pretty quick.”
That speaks to Green’s history on Long Island. In the 1992-93 season, Ferraro suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle in Chicago at the end of a breakaway when he was run into the end boards by Cam Russell. Not only was Green given an opportunity to play more behind Pierre Turgeon, there was little leeway for Ferraro when he returned.
“There were six games left and in the first three I played really poorly because I had been out for three months,” Ferraro said. “(Coach) Al (Arbour) called me into his office and said: ‘You’ve got three games to get going or you’ll be sitting with Claire (his wife) in stands.’
“What he did there is what I believe Travis has learned. You make it clear, you give an opportunity and then you let the player decide, because Travis is direct and blunt with players.”
Virtanen is a prime example of that mantra. Virtanen has always known where Green was coming from. And Green knew where Arbour was coming from.
“Al was really hard on Travis,” Ferraro said. “We went to the semifinals in 1993 and in the second round, Travis played nose-to-nose against Mario Lemieux. If anybody had predicted that three years earlier, they would have been thought to be crazy.”
Ferraro was already making his way in the game at 17 when he left Trail in the fall of 1981 to advance his career. It was the same time a 10-year-old minor-hockey magician was doing his thing in Castlegar, B.C. And it didn’t take long for word to get around the Kootenays that Green was going to be something special. How special? A 51-goal, 102-point season as an imposing centre with the Spokane Chiefs in 1988-89. A 23rd overall pick in the 1989 draft by the Islanders, who would amass 455 points in 970 career regular season games with five teams.
Green was good but had to reinvent himself before retiring at age 37. He went from a reliable 25-goal scorer to 10-goal checker and shutdown guy. And everything he gleaned along the way caught the attention of Mike Johnston.
Johnston offered Green an assistant coaching position with the Portland Winterhawks in the 200910 season and the budding bench boss made his mark in 2012-13. When Johnston was suspended for WHL player-benefit violations, Green guided the Winterhawks on a 37-8-0-2 run and a WHL championship before losing in the Memorial Cup final.
That earned a four-year run with the Utica Comets and a 2015 Calder Cup final appearance that put Green on the NHL radar.
Johnston, while coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins, thought so highly of Green he offered him an assistant coaching position there before the 2014-15 season.
Green chose to run his own AHL bench before transitioning to the NHL as a bench boss this season. And he was a hot commodity. There was interest in Anaheim and Denver before he eventually landed in Vancouver.
“He trusts his instincts and he has a certain approach with his personality,” Johnston said. “He’s very strong in what he wants to do and is very determined and is going to get the most out of that team. And if Vancouver didn’t take him, several other teams would have wanted a crack at him.”
All of this doesn’t surprise new Canucks assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner.
In four years at Utica, he saw Green grow as a teacher, outwit the opposition, stay true to his principles and show a quick wit.
“It’s hard to explain if you’re not around him every day,” Baumgartner said. “With how fast the game is, he picks things up really quick. He’ll show you a video clip and say: ‘We’ll do this, this and this.’ I would rewind it four times to finally figure out what to do.
“He has a mind for numbers. He was a smart player and knows both sides of the puck. And he’s not in everybody’s business, but he’s on top of stuff. He’s prepared. He’s ready for this.”
But can he enjoy it amid intense scrutiny?
“He’s never in a bad mood,” Baumgartner said. “We have the same sense of humour and we don’t take each other too seriously. But when it does get time to be serious, we’re a good match.”
“He has a mind for numbers. He was a smart player and knows both sides of the puck. And he’s not in everybody’s business, but he’s on top of stuff. He’s prepared. He’s ready for this.” — Nolan Baumgartner, Vancouver Canucks assistant coach, speaking of head coach Travis Green