Green excited to experience Battle of Ontario from behind Senators bench

TORONTO -- Twenty-three years after helping the Toronto Maple Leafs eliminate the Ottawa Senators from the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Travis Green is in the middle of the Battle of Ontario again.

Only this time, he’s on the other side of the clash.

In the past two decades, Green’s career path has taken him from Maple Leafs forward to Senators coach. As such, Saturday will mark the first time he’s behind the home bench for a Battle of Ontario matchup at Canadian Tire Centre when the heated rivals from across the province come to visit (7 p.m. ET: CBC, SN360, SNO, SNP, TVAS2).

“To have a Saturday night game in our own building against the Toronto Maple Leafs, I know, personally, I’m excited about it,” Green said in a phone interview from Ottawa on Friday. “I’m excited to feel the atmosphere. I think that’s a big part of why we love the NHL and why it’s a big part of the NHL.

“Playing in front of your home crowd is a great feeling for me. I can’t wait.”

Green was hired by the Senators on May 8. His first taste as a coach in the Battle of Ontario came Nov. 12, a 3-0 victory against the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in one of Ottawa’s most complete games of the season.

That, as Green points out, was different, and not just because the game was played in Toronto. It was, after all, just one month into the season when each team was still finding its footing and identity.

Now, 48 games into the season, Ottawa (24-20-4) has a legitimate shot to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017. The Senators come into the game with 52 points, one behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

With the Maple Leafs (30-17-2) leading the Atlantic Division with 62 points, there is cautious optimism among the fan bases in each city that maybe, just maybe, there could be the first Battle of Ontario playoff series since 2004.

And Green knows exactly the hysteria that surrounds one of those Toronto-Ottawa post-season matchups after competing in one himself.

The 54-year-old played for the Maple Leafs from 2001-2003 and was part of the 2002 Eastern Conference semifinals between the two teams. On May 14, 2002, Green assisted on a second-period goal by Alexander Mogilny to help Toronto defeat Ottawa 3-0 in Game 7.

The teams have not met in the playoffs since 2004, a drought Green feels helped to take some of the luster off the Battle of Ontario for the next two decades.

Things seem to be heating up again.

“To have a real rivalry, both teams have to have something to play for,” Green said. “Obviously, back in the day, when I was playing, those games were very intense. You’re talking about both teams being in the playoffs, both teams playing each other and going to a Game 7. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

If intensity is what Green is looking for, it was certainly there the last time the Maple Leafs and Senators faced each other at Canadian Tire Centre.

Back on Feb. 10, tempers flared when Ottawa’s Ridly Greig took a slap shot from close range into an empty net to seal the Senator’s 5-3 victory with six seconds left in regulation. Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly took exception and cross-checked Greig, subsequently earning a five-game suspension.

Green obviously wasn’t with the Senators at the time, but he understands how intense a matchup this can be.

“Hockey’s a passionate game. You have to have emotions high in order to win,” he said. “It wasn’t that long ago that I played with a guy in Toronto, No. 16, (Darcy Tucker), a good friend of mine who did a lot of things other teams didn’t like and who was very passionate as well. Every good team usually has players like that.

“It’s an emotional game. There are going to be certain things that happen, much like the Ridly Greig goal from last year, that one team thinks about a certain way and the other doesn’t like as much. You have disagreements like that in almost every playoff series. It comes from passion.”

While on the subject of passion, it’s a word Green uses to describe Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, who has gone without a point for nine consecutive games. The coach said he is not concerned about the dry spell the forward is in, citing the leadership Tkachuk continues to show on a nightly basis.

“He brings an element to the game that’s hard to find,” Green said.

One the coach hopes he brings to the latest edition of the Battle of Ontario on Saturday.