One Year Later: Ottawa Senators Reap Defensive Rewards From Jacques Martin's Brief Return To Coaching

As the Ottawa Senators prepare to exit their holiday break, they find themselves in an unfamiliar playoff position.

It has been eight years since the Senators enjoyed similar success. They overcame a negative goal differential to begin their 2016-17 campaign with a 20-11-3 start. The Senators parlayed that start into their only playoff appearance of the last nine seasons and eventually cemented Chris Kunitz's legacy as a villain who should never be allowed to step foot in Ottawa again.

The Senators' recent hot stretch was a byproduct of Linus Ullmark's goaltending, but much of this team's success this season can be attributed to their improvements on the defensive side of the puck.

After 34 games, the Senators have generated a higher percentage of the shot and expected goal shares at five-on-five.

• Shots: 51.45 CF%, 9th

• Shots on goal: 52.37 SF%, T-6th

• Goals: 49.22 GF%, 18th

• Expected goals: 51.04 xGF%, 12th

Here is a contrast with last year's numbers through December 26th:

• Shots: 48.56 CF%, 22nd

• Shots on goal: 49.12 SF%, 19th

• Goals: 51.11 GF%, 15th

• Expected goals: 47.38 xGF%, 26th

The rates at which the Senators have allowed shots and goals have dramatically improved.

2024-25:

• Shots allowed per 60 (CA/60): 56.71, 12th

• Shots on goal allowed per 60 (CA/60): 26.58, 12th

• Goals allowed per 60 (GA/60): 2.42, 18th

• Expected goals allowed per 60 (xGA/60): 2.29, 7th

2023-24 through December 26th:

• Shots allowed per 60 (CA/60): 61.81, 24th

• Shots on goal allowed per 60 (CA/60): 31.06, 26th

• Goals allowed per 60 (GA/60): 2.96, 28th

• Expected goals allowed per 60 (xGA/60): 2.71, 24th

Travis Green and his staff deserve a lot of credit for the team's commitment. In saying that, many of the team's foundational defensive improvements were made last season under interim head coach Jacques Martin.

Martin returned to the organization on December 6, 2023, when the Senators surprisingly announced his appointment as a senior advisor to the coaching staff. A phone call from Michael Andlauer initiated the process that brought Martin back into the fold, but the coach had other motivations.

"I felt that I enjoyed (this organization)," Martin explained. "It's probably the place where I enjoyed coaching the most in my career. I have to say my one disappointment was that we didn't win a Cup. We had a great team in 2003 and 2004. In my last two years here, I was disappointed we didn't bring a Cup back. I felt like that was unfinished business."

The winningest head coach in the franchise's history returned to the organization after almost 20 years, where he compiled a 341-235-96-20 record in 692 games across parts of nine seasons. It was also where he built a reputation as an excellent X's and O's coach who brought structure and defensive aptitude to a young group that sorely needed it in the mid-90s.

It would have been easy to chastise the organization for chasing nostalgia, but the move was widely celebrated, and deservedly so. The Senators' team defence was abysmal, and like several other moves made under Michael Andlauer's ownership, his hire bolstered an area of need and helped insulate the coaching staff. It also directly threatened head coach D.J. Smith's future in Ottawa. Not surprisingly, less than two weeks after Martin was brought into the organization, Smith was fired and replaced by the new interim head coach on December 18th.

After celebrating his first anniversary of returning to the organization, Martin reiterated that he never considered the possibility when he took the senior advisor position.

"No, I didn't think (about the possibility of replacing Smith) at all," Martin recalled while explaining his rationale for rejoining the organization. "I was just happy to get back with the organization and try to help them get to the level where you're going to challenge for a playoff spot.

"So last year, when I got an opportunity to come back as an advisor and help with the coaches, I was excited about it. I've always had a passion for the game, and I enjoyed getting back and dealing with the players and trying to help them grow and become better players."

Like those mid-90s teams, Martin saw many similarities between that era's young core and this iteration of the Senators.

"Yeah, when I look at our team now, I don't think we have a lot of scoring yet," said Martin. "The coaching staff this year has done a great job teaching and making our players play the 200-foot game and playing a style of hockey that's conducive to winning on a regular basis.

"As you added some talent, you become more of a scoring team. I go back to my early days here. I got tagged as a defensive coach. Basically, we didn't have a lot of scoring, and then, in my last four years here, I think we had one of the highest-scoring teams in the league. A lot of the young guys became staples of this organization."

Martin sees those good young players comprising the team's core now.

"We have some good young players. Sometimes it takes time, it takes maturity, it takes growth. The longer you're in this business, the more you learn. If I've got to say one thing, as I learned last year watching the Florida Panthers in the final, you realize that when you look at that organization, key players for them like (Sam) Bennett, (Sam) Reinhart, and (Carter) Verhaeghe, were people that started somewhere else.

"It takes time for players to reach a maturity level. When a player gets to be 26 years old, those are great years. Sometimes, you've got to be patient as an organization. We've got examples here; look at Josh Norris, who's missed a lot of hockey through injuries. We have to be patient. He's shown some good things this year, but we have to be patient moving forward with the rest of our young core players."

Martin took over because of his ability to teach structure and discipline. When I asked him about a paraphrased quote attributed to him describing how this group would never be able to win if they kept playing the way they were, the coach smiled and had a chuckle.

"I think when I came back to coach, the age I'm at, I just felt that they were really good people," Martin said. "We have players that care. We have players who are passionate and players who have great skills. But, I felt they didn't have the same engagement without the puck as they do with the puck.

"When you look at teams that win the Cup, players play to win a Cup. Let's face it, they make a lot of money, but you want to win. You want to win a Stanley Cup. The only way you can do that is if you have the same engagement without the puck. The more you work at it without the puck, the more you're going to have the puck. You're going to regain puck possession, but it's a process. It doesn't happen overnight.

"When I look at the team this year, I'm really pleased with the progress that the players have made. I give a lot of credit to the players who have grown and matured, but also to the coaching staff this year, who have spent a lot of time working on their skills, working on developing good habits, and attention to detail. A little nuance that makes the difference between winning and losing."

Martin really enjoyed coaching the experience last season, but it wasn't without limitations. A shoulder injury prevented him from going on the ice for practice, which understandably impacted how he could instruct his players and improve their habits.

All that mattered to Martin was whether he positively impacted his team's defensive play.

"Hopefully, I was able to contribute to establishing a baseline with this organization," Martin said. "The new coaching staff this year has just taken it and moved it forward. They do a great job on the players as well."

One of the most significant underlying stories of the 2024-25 season was how smoothly the team would transition from Martin to Travis Green. After making some defensive inroads, it was imperative for the group to avoid setbacks.

Players like Thomas Chabot and Drake Batherson spoke highly of Martin's impact last season.

"(Jacques) came in with a lot of detail in the defensive zone, which has helped all of us grow," Batherson said. "Coming into this year and the first couple weeks of training camp. I don't even think we did an offensive drill for a while there.

"We were just focusing a lot on defence, which is an area we needed to improve, and it's shown a bit this year, and we're continuing to get better in that area. We can thank Jacques for that last year and that foundation step."

Thomas Chabot echoed Batherson's sentiments, believing Martin was instrumental in putting building blocks in place to get this team playing the right way defensively.

"His main detail was just to make us very detailed, very aware of all the little things that we can do better," explained Chabot. "Obviously, with Greener coming in, who is also very big on details, we were already a step forward. I found that in the past couple of years (we weren't).

"And you know what, that's what it's all about. We know we have a lot of talent. We know we have a lot of great players. But it's about learning the little things in the game. When you're younger and the team's younger, you don't necessarily think about that. But it does make a huge difference every night. The less you give up, where you can get stops in your own zone, the little things make a big difference in a game and usually will win."

Martin acknowledged that he had no direct input into the search for a new head coach, but he talked to general manager Steve Staios about where he felt the players were and how the team could move forward. In Martin's belief, it was Green's experience that helped ensure a smooth transition.

"Well, Travis is, first of all, an experienced coach. He's coached over four years as a head coach in Vancouver, so he had experience. He had success before, too, in the American League as a head coach. He wasn't a rookie coach. That's a big help. I give him a lot of credit."

For Green, it could have been somewhat awkward having the previous head coach still in the fold in some capacity. Instead, he has leaned into the relationship. It is not often in the coaching fraternity that a new coach can arrive in an organization and have the previous coach available to him to streamline information and make the transition easier. It is a unique situation he has relished.

"You know what, I didn't know Jacques at all before I took the job and knew that he was still on with our organization," Green explained. "Over the course of time, just building a relationship with Jacques, it's been really valuable to me, personally.

"He's a great person, he's got a wealth of knowledge, and he's got a real passion for the game. When I first took over, after getting to know him, I told him be around the team or staff as much as you want.

"It's worked out well. Really well."