Counterpoint: Why Travis Green Might Be a Good Fit for the Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators will announce this week that Travis Green is the 14th head coach in their history. But most of the social media reactions in Ottawa have not been favourable.

The complaints are based on several factors: Green's below-.500 record during his four-and-a-half years in Vancouver; the bigger coaching names that are circling in the market, including guys with Stanley Cup rings; and the fact that he was a nasty bit of business as a Leafs player when the Battle of Ontario was in full bloom, billowing with hate.

With the negatives already well covered over the past 24 hours, let's dig into why it might be a good hire.

While the complaints aren't unreasonable, neither is Ottawa's new management team. It's a high-character group with every intention of trying to be "best in class." They knew complaints like this might be coming and still stuck to their beliefs.

They see something in him.

Unlike the social media mudslingers, who wanted one of the sexier names, the new group has done their homework. They've interviewed Green twice and talked to people who've worked with Green, and they know for certain which candidates actually had an interest in Ottawa and which ones did not.

TSN Analyst Frank Corrado played for two seasons under Green and took down some of the concerns about Green on TSN 1200 radio this morning.

On Green's poor record in Vancouver: "That front office was the most dysfunctional front office in the NHL for a decade, and he had to put up with that... Not to mention, he had his best player, who was often hurt... There was a lot that went on behind the scenes there that worked against Travis."

On Green making players accountable: "That's the only way he knows how to operate, and yes, absolutely he will. That is going to be a non-negotiable with him... I look at that group in Ottawa and I see a lot of young players. I see some young guys that have maybe been given free passes because they're super skilled, or some guys that maybe haven't reached their full potential because they haven't had anyone take that much of an interest in their game. Like I see those things, and I think Travis Green is going to hold players accountable."

"He's going to have a well-aligned (management) group from top to bottom that he's going to be working in unison with. I'm very excited for Travis, and I think he's absolutely the right guy for the job."

The Senators would love to turn things around as quickly as Green's old team, the Vancouver Canucks. Head coach Rick Tocchet is getting plenty of love for that. He might even win the Jack Adams Trophy as NHL coach of the year. But when Tocchet arrived in Vancouver, there were grumblings about his career record that sounded a lot like the noise in Ottawa right now.

Scotty Bowman made every team he coached the best they could be. And that's all you can ask from a coach, that he brings out a team's full potential. But that alone won't make you great or get you a Stanley Cup. In Buffalo, Bowman won just one playoff series in his final six years there, probably coaching exactly the way he did during the dynasty years in Montreal.

No matter how great coaches are, as Bowman and Tocchet proved, their ultimate success will always be tied to the caliber and construction of their roster. Getting that in shape is far more important, and that very large task falls on Steve Staios this summer.