Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan is a big supporter of Jacques Martin

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Mike Sullivan has no shortage of respect for Jacques Martin.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins head coach spoke about his former assistant before the club travelled to Ottawa on Friday to take on the Senators on Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre as Martin steps behind the bench in his hometown for the first time since being named to the role Monday.

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Martin started as an assistant in Pittsburgh under Dan Bylsma in 2013 and stayed on Sullivan’s staff when he took over in 2015. Martin and Sullivan won the Stanley Cup on back-to-back occasions in 2016 and 2017.

“Jacques is one of the smartest hockey guys that I’ve been around,” Sullivan said. “There isn’t a hat he hasn’t worn in hockey operations during his time in the NHL. He was invaluable to our coaching staff in helping us win Stanley Cups and he was invaluable to me as a head coach.

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“He’s a great voice of reason and a really astute hockey guy. What really impressed about Jacques is just his work ethic and his attention to detail with the duties we assigned to him. He prides himself in preparation and it comes through to the players loud and clear.

“I can’t say enough about him as a person and as a hockey coach he’s just top-notch. He’s an intelligent guy and there hasn’t been too many experiences, both good and bad that hasn’t been through during his time, and I think he brings a wealth of that experience to the table. I think so highly of him as a coach but even more so as a person.”

BATTLING ADVERSITY

Martin is preaching positivity and patience.

He’s looking for the silver lining after the club dropped its sixth straight in a 6-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night at the Ball Arena.

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Martin, 71, is trying to get the Senators back on track after taking over the job Monday.

He and assistant Daniel Alfredsson, who has joined him behind the club’s bench, have learned pretty quickly the problems with this roster are real and the issues the Senators have can’t be fixed overnight.

Martin admitted he didn’t like the way the Senators started the night, but could live with the way they played in the second period, for the most part.

“I said to the team after the game, ‘You’re disappointed and I’m disappointed that we didn’t win, but what’s important for me right now is that I felt that we progressed from last game (4-3 loss on Tuesday in Arizona) to tonight’s game,’” Martin said.

“I thought we had a better effort. We did a better job protecting the red line, not giving our zone as easy as last game, and I thought the second, we got stronger as the game went on. So, that was a good sign. We’ve just got to regroup.”

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The Senators need to cling to every positive they can find right now.

But Martin also knows if this is going to turn around, the club has to clean up its act. The Avs scored four times on the power play.

“There’s a couple of areas that we need to clean up,” Martin said. “We took some penalties that hurt us. We’ve got to cut down on the number of penalties in the offensive zone. Those are penalties we don’t need to take.”

The club also went 1-for-6 with the man advantage and couldn’t score on two late power-play attempts that would have allowed the club to tie the game. The game wasn’t over until Nathan MacKinnon put it away into an empty net in the last minute with his fourth goal of the night.

“We scored enough goals so we just need to clean up some areas without the puck,” Martin said. “We need to be better as far as discipline and we need to keep improving on our special teams.

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“We got a power play, we got some opportunities and we had some good looks, and we could have gotten some other goals. But we need to do a better job on our penalty kill.”

THE LAST WORDS

Winger Tyler Boucher, the club’s first-round pick in the 2021 NHL draft, made his American Hockey League debut in the Belleville’s 5-1 loss to the Penguins top affiliate Thursday night.

It’s the first time Boucher has suited up this season after he suffered several setbacks trying to return from a groin injury that started in September before rookie camp.

Belleville coach David Bell doesn’t want to put too much pressure on him.

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“It’s the media that you’ve got to keep backed off,” Bell told Belleville broadcaster David Foote before the Senators faced Toronto. “They want this guy to come in and score five goals in his first game and fight and hit.

“It’s hard for him. It’s a long, whether he’s healthy or not, for a 20-year-old kid who can still play junior to come in and play against men. He has to play catch-up in the system and conditioning. We were really happy as an organization how Tyler played last night.

“The big challenge is to keep him out of the media.”

The Senators returned defenceman Jacob Larsson to Belleville so he could suit up against the Toronto Marlies Friday at home in the club’s final game before the holiday break.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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