48 hours after the Ottawa Senators' final preseason game, head coach Travis Green held court with the media on Monday, answering some of the key questions facing the team on the doorstep of the NHL regular season. The rehearsal is over, and Green sounded like a coach who's content with his troops on the other side of the always-too-long preseason. "Yeah, I think I'm happy with camp in general," Green said. "Our guys have worked hard. We haven't had many days when I didn't think the effort was there. Attention to detail. I liked our last game. We looked better, dialled in. We still had a lot of guys who didn't play. But I think everyone's excited that we're through camp and we're getting ready to play for real." Travis Green was recently asked about the progress and potential of centre Shane Pinto. The Sens won 3-1 in Montreal on Saturday in their final dress rehearsal, which was a nice bounce back after being outscored 12-1 in combined in their previous two games. But Green was quick to point out he wasn't that concerned about those performances. "There are different games that have different elements to them in preseason," Green said. "In the St. Louis game, we were in tough. Obviously, we had played three games in five days and we didn't send our best lineup. But I thought our defensive game has slowly gotten to where we want it to be. There's been a lot of games in the preseason where we've had a lot more looks. We haven't put the puck in the net, but I think our game's trended in the right direction." The health of Tyler Kleven and Drake Batherson may be as well. They've both been placed on IR, but they're not far off. And when they return, the Sens' 2025-26 lineup will be mostly what people expected it to be. The one surprise is the sudden addition of NHL heavyweight Kurtis MacDermid, acquired from the New Jersey Devils on Friday, three days after the Sens lost a rough, feisty game, 5-0 in Montreal. "He brings a lot of toughness to the game," Green said. "I mean, there's no doubt about it. He's one of the tougher customers in the league. He's a very smart player as well. He understands his positioning in the game. He'd be one of the smarter players on the team, knowing the details of where he needs to be to make sure that he's not out there hurting the team. And he's a tremendous teammate. Guys that stick up for their teammates are well respected within the league. And he's got that respect for sure." With 0 points in 23 games last season, MacDermid isn't here to score, but the Sens need the rest of the lineup to step up in that area. That didn't happen in the preseason with just 12 goals on 189 shots over six games for a pop-gun shooting percentage of just over six percent. But Green still feels like they're making progress in trying to fix their much-talked-about 5-on-5 scoring woes last season. "I think we are. At the end of the day, the onus usually comes down to the guys who are supposed to score. But we've tried to structurally look at some different things that we can do to create offense. I've seen some improvements. I haven't seen the puck go in the net (enough). But I think we can score more 5-on-5." They definitely improved after the trade deadline last season. If you just measure games after the acquisitions of Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund, the Sens' shooting percentage was 11th best in the league during that time. Now they have to do it consistently over a full 82 games. Final roster decisions got a little easier on the blue line on Monday afternoon after Nick Jensen returned to the lineup Saturday following offseason hip surgery. That paved the way to send down Carter Yakemchuk, the club's 2024 seventh overall pick, for more seasoning in the AHL. Green admits that they've talked about possible load management for Jensen, but he remains thrilled with the veteran's preseason debut. "I thought his game was excellent," Green said. "I was pleasantly surprised. I think you always wonder how a player's going to look coming off an injury. Also, being his first game, it's a testament to him as far as the work he's put in. And not just off the ice but on the ice. I thought he was good." Again, preseason performances, good or bad, mean absolutely nothing. The real live fire begins on Thursday night in Tampa Bay. Once the puck drops there, people will forget that there even was a preseason. "You go 6-0, 0-6, 3-3 in preseason, it doesn't matter. It's all about getting your game in order for game one. The good thing about this year is I think our guys have a strong understanding of our game and what it looks like when we're on top of it. "And I think we're ready to start the season." 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