Ottawa Senators coach Travis Green says there is a lot of what he calls “white noise” enveloping his players. He wants them to tune it out ahead of Wednesday’s home game against the Colorado Avalanche.
That noise, he told reporters Tuesday, includes comments from passionate fans on social media that estimate what the Senators need to do to reach the postseason for a second consecutive season. Entering Tuesday night, Ottawa shared next-to-last in the 16-team Eastern Conference and sat eight points back of the conference’s final wild-card spot.
The noise may be well-intentioned, but it’s not what he wants the Senators focused on — especially as they get ready for the team with the NHL’s best record.
“We just need to keep playing, keep bringing our game,” Green said. “(Fans will say) you’ve got to win this many games. … You’ve just got to win the next game. If you want to get on a run, or so-called run that people talk about, I know you don’t get on a run if you don’t win the next game.”
Green’s Senators snapped a two-game losing streak Sunday with a 7-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights — tying their largest victory margin of the season. Dylan Cozens and Stephen Halliday each scored twice in the blowout of the Pacific Division leaders while Brady Tkachuk tied a season high with three assists.
Cozens, fourth on the team with 40 points, has earned at least one point in six of his last seven games. He has stacked up five goals and four assists during this stretch.
However, Green said Halliday, a rookie center who scored his first three goals over the last three games, is expected to miss Wednesday’s game after sustaining an upper-body injury late in Sunday’s game.
In better news for Ottawa, Wednesday could mark the return of Senators goalie Linus Ullmark. The 2023 Vezina Trophy winner, who is 14-8-5 with a 2.95 goals-against average and a .881 save percentage this season, last played on Dec. 27 before taking a leave of absence to deal with mental health issues. He returned to the bench Sunday as the backup to Mads Sogaard.
“When he’s ready to play, he’ll play,” Green said. “Do we miss him? Yeah, for sure. Do we want what’s best for him? One hundred percent, and no one’s rushing him back.”
Colorado started a four-game road trip Sunday with a 4-1 win over Toronto. Prior to that, the Central Division leaders lost four of their previous five games (1-2-2) to register the team’s worst stretch since an 0-1-3 spell in late October.
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said he liked his team’s play much more than he did during the prior seven-game homestand, which they finished 3-2-2.
“If a play was there, we used it. And if it wasn’t there, we sent it out of the zone,” Bednar said. “Or sent it in the zone and went to go check it back. (It was) a pretty mature game from our guys, something we were lacking a little bit of on our homestand.”
Brock Nelson notched his fifth career hat trick in the win. It has been a good January for the U.S. Olympian. In 11 games, he has scored 11 of his 27 goals and 15 of his 45 points.
Fellow center Nathan MacKinnon leads the NHL with 38 goals and his 88 points rank second to Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. He has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his last six games.
