Young Senators lean on veterans heading into 1st-round series against Maple Leafs

OTTAWA -- Travis Green knows exactly what his young players are about to go through in their first Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Ottawa Senators coach has been there himself.

Green played 970 NHL games for the New York Islanders, Anaheim Ducks, Phoenix Coyotes, Boston Bruins and, yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Senators’ Eastern Conference First Round opponent. But it all started with the Islanders in 1992-93, when Green, then a 22-year-old rookie, experienced a deep postseason run.

“Just thinking about it now, we had to battle, scratch and claw to get in the playoffs,” Green said on Thursday. “We played a first round against Washington and I remember that. I remember being nervous.”

Those Islanders defeated the Capitals in six games in the Patrick Division Semifinals and got past the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games in the Patrick Division Finals, before ultimately losing in five games to the Montreal Canadiens in the Wales Conference Finals. Getting that far, Green said, had a lot to do with a strong veteran presence in the locker room.

“We had a few guys, older guys on that team that I think had a good balance of keeping things light, but also talking you through certain moments,” said Green, who is in his first year as Senators coach. “Ray Ferraro comes to mind, Steve Thomas, Pat Flatley. ... There was a bit of an aura around New York still; they’d had a lot of success in the past. That team did well, did well in the playoffs. We knocked off Pittsburgh that year and it was exciting.”

Ottawa has its own Ferraros, Thomases and Flatleys, veterans who lead by example and offer guidance to a largely inexperienced group.

The first is Claude Giroux, who just finished his third season with the Senators. The forward has 81 points (28 goals, 53 assists) in 95 career playoff games (all but 10 of them with the Philadelphia Flyers) and before this past offseason was one of few Senators with considerable postseason experience.

But general manager Steve Staios made a concerted effort to add more players who have been through the grueling grind of a deep playoff run. The Senators signed three Stanley Cup winners in free agency: forwards David Perron (61 points in 104 playoff games), Nick Cousins (15 points in 63 playoff games) and Michael Amadio (13 points in 21 playoff games).

“The guys here like Giroux, Perron -- those guys are obviously the main ones that have been in the playoffs a lot,” Ottawa forward Dylan Cozens said. “Those guys are big veterans for our group that are going to help us a lot. I’ve already seen how strong a voice those two have in my short time here. They’re going to be big for us.”

Perron finished tied for 10th in postseason scoring (16 points in 26 games) in 2019, when he won the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues. Now 36 years old and in his 18th NHL season, he knows he must contribute in a different way.

“You relate some of the messages that you heard as a young guy or some of the experiences that you went through,” Perron said. “But I think the big point, too, is to let them live their own stuff and obviously manage them through that and manage the roller coaster that’s going to happen before and after games.”

And then there’s 34-year-old defenseman Nick Jensen -- acquired in a trade with the Washington Capitals last July 1 -- who has 27 playoff games of experience. When the Senators open their series with the Maple Leafs on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN2), he and Thomas Chabot, a postseason first-timer, will play on the Senators’ second pair like they have all season.

For Chabot, 28, who has cycled through a dizzying number of defense partners during the past eight seasons in Ottawa, finally finding long-term stability in a teammate like Jensen is a game-changer.

“Honest to God, a lot of the credit goes to him,” Chabot said. “He’s such a smart player, such a great defender. Not the biggest guy (6-foot, 196 pounds) but so smart going into his battles, talks a lot on the ice, which makes things a lot easier. … I think we just ended up feeding off of each other really well. The chemistry was there right off the bat. We started skating early together before training camp, then throughout training camp, and it felt good. I think the whole thing was that we got along really well off the ice. We talk a lot. It’s just been so nice knowing that every time you step on the ice it’s with a guy that you’re on the same page as, a guy that you’re trying to accomplish the same thing [with] every night.”

The list of Senators who have played their entire NHL careers without a trip to playoffs is lengthy. Chabot and Brady Tkachuk (512 regular season games each), along with Drake Batherson (391), Tim Stutzle (367), Cozens (362), Artem Zub (306), Fabian Zetterlund (247), Jake Sanderson (236), Shane Pinto (210) and Ridly Greig (170), each is walking into something brand new this weekend in Toronto.

When asked about how prepared his young players are to handle the pressure under the brightest of lights, Green said, “It’s hard to say, to be honest, but I think our group is ready for it. We’re obviously going to be behind the eight ball when it comes to experience, but it’s not everything.

“We’ve talked about building our game throughout the season and they’ve done that. And now they’ve put themselves in a spot to play for the Stanley Cup, and that’s exciting. I’ve got a lot of belief in our group. Obviously, we’re going up against a very good hockey team, a storied team that’s trying to win a Stanley Cup, that’s built for the Cup right now. But I’m excited. I’m excited for our players, as a coach.”

It has been eight years since the Senators’ last playoff appearance in 2017, a run that brought the franchise within one goal of the Stanley Cup Final, one that ended with a double-overtime loss to the Penguins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final. Now, at the end of full-fledged rebuild, the Senators have taken that coveted next step. And when Ottawa clinched a playoff berth a week and a half ago, for a moment, that accomplishment was fulfilling enough for the players who have endured what, at times, felt like a career’s worth of disappointment.

But relief and ecstasy have subsided; that achievement is simply not sufficient anymore.

“I was talking to one of the guys earlier and I was saying that, mentally, I’m not ready to end the season, like not even in a week or two weeks,” Sanderson said. “I feel like we could be playing for the next two months. That’s where my mindset’s at right now. You never know what’s going to come, but mentally, this group is ready for it.”

If there is one player Senators fans have been begging to see in the playoffs, it is Tkachuk. With the counsel of an expanded veteran group this season and the invaluable experience of thriving on the big stage for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, the Ottawa captain, 25, is the most well-rounded, complete player he’s ever been heading into his first postseason. At 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, with a burning desire to lay the body and an indestructible resolve, he is built for the playoffs. And at last, his opportunity is here.

“I said this right when we clinched: It’s going to take everybody,” Tkachuk said. “It’s going to take not just the guys in this room, the people in this building, hockey ops ... it’s going to take this whole city. It’s going to take all the support, all the passion that we thrive off of.”