One-on-one with Ottawa Senators’ head coach Jacques Martin

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Jacques Martin has been around long enough to know that Rome wasn’t built in a day.

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Back for a second stint behind the Ottawa Senators’ bench after taking over as the club’s interim head coach when D.J. Smith was fired on Dec. 18 in Arizona with assistant Davis Payne, Martin is still trying to help this young core find consistency that can lead to the club having success.

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Heading into his 10th game with the club Tuesday against the Calgary Flames to wrap up the Western Canada portion of this trip, the Senators had a 3-6-0 record since Martin took the reins of the struggling club with Hall of Fame assistant Daniel Alfredsson.

Asked by Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, to take over after Smith was let go, Martin has tried to focus on getting this group of players in a better place mentally so they have the right approach on the ice.

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“To me, there was two areas that needed to be addressed,” Martin told Postmedia in a phone call Monday night from Calgary. “One is the mindset, if you can call it that, I think it’s a group that’s fragile, so it’s a group that needs a lot of positive feedback.

“At the same time, it’s a group that needs to learn about structure and detail (to their games). We haven’t had much practice time and that’s part of the league. I can’t believe the number of games less that we’ve played than other teams but you don’t control that.

“We’ve had lots of games. You’ve got to be concerned with recovery, but at the same time you’ve got to teach. We’ve tried to make progress through meetings with the guys. It’s a good group, they’re receptive and we’ve just got to keep working at it to get better.”

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There’s still a strong belief the likes of captain Brady Tkachuk, centres Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle, along with Drake Batherson, Thomas Chabot and Jake Sanderson are still the core of this team.

Centre Shane Pinto, who is serving a 41-game suspension for breaking the NHL’s gambling rules, is eligible to resume skating with the club Thursday and will suit up for his first game Jan. 21 against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Winger Mathieu Joseph, one of the club’s best players this season, was scheduled to return against the Flames.

An area where this team needs to be better is handling the highs and lows of the NHL season. It’s OK for fans to ride the rollercoaster during the year, but it’s not good if that’s happening in the room.

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I’ve always said I feel this team rides the highs too high and the lows too low. Doesn’t a team have to have an even-keeled approach?

“That’s something I’ve talked about since I got here,” Martin said. “It’s something that was part of their game that has created some losses. My first game in Arizona, we played an outstanding first period. I couldn’t believe how good we were in the offensive zone, controlling the puck, good support and doing all the right things.

“Then, in the second period, I could see us tense up and, by the third period, it’s like we’re skating in cement. That’s the mental side and it’s almost the side where you’re afraid to have success. You just have to clear your mind and do the things that you do well. It seems simple to say, but it’s not simple.”

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The reality is that this is the first time the Senators came into the season with the expectation they’d make the playoffs in a while.

Realistic or not, the club was supposed to book a ticket to the NHL’s big dance for the first time in seven years and now they’re sitting dead-last in the Eastern Conference.

That’s why Staios is trying to add veteran pieces to this group. He feels he needs another experienced player or two — like winger Claude Giroux  — that can help take some heat off the young leadership group.

“They’re a group that care so they have to overcome (the mental challenge),” Martin said. “The first step is to believe in yourself and believe in your teammates. I’ve talked about it for a long time, no matter who is in the dressing room, whether you’re friends with some guys and not with others, but once you come here to play or practice you have to work together.

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“You’ve got support each other and you’ve got to go to war together. We’ve got to have each other’s back. We’re trying to make some progress on the mental side and the technical side. We’re trying to make improvements on both sides and it’s a parallel situation.”

Naturally, if the Senators have confidence off the ice, they’ll play with more when they step on the ice.

An area Staios wants to see improvement is in the details to the club’s game. People immediately assume the Senators need to be better defensively, but Martin noted they have to do a better job getting to the net to score goals as well.

“There’s some parts on the offensive side too,” Martin said. “We’ve got to be better at getting to the net and taking the goalies eyes away. The goalies are good in this league and we’ve got to get on the inside. That’s part of details.

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“Definitely, the main focus (is defensively), but I think we’ve improved in the last two games and we’ve done a good job in our defensive zone. It’s a matter of continuing to work on things.”

Paying the price to get to the net would help because it’s only going to get more difficult the deeper into the season this club gets. If the Senators want an example they don’t need to look any further than Alfredsson’s career because he always got his nose dirty.

“It’s almost like the league is becoming more and more like playoff hockey every night,” Martin said. “There’s some desperation with teams when we play them whether it’s Game No. 40 or Game No. 82. There’s so many teams close that they have that desperation.

“In the playoffs, you have to fight and claw for every inch. We’re seeing that now so we’ve got to get to the inside to create chances.”

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Martin is confident the Senators are making progress. He likes this team and feels it’s in a much better position with its core to have success than the one he took over when Dave Allison was fired midway through the disastrous 1996 campaign.

“That’s why I’m excited to work with them,” Martin said. “It’s an opportunity to learn and get better. My first time in Ottawa, I didn’t have that talent and it came through the draft later. We didn’t have Tkachuk, Norris or Stutzle or those guys.

“We’ve got more skill and we just have to learn to play the right way.”

An area that has to improve is the club’s special teams. Heading into the visit to Calgary, the power play was having an 11.5% success rate and the penalty killing was 66.7% in the past nine games.

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That’s why Martin and Alfredsson changed the two power-play units against the Flames.

“We have got to get our speciality teams going,” Martin said. “We have some good players, but they’ve got to learn on a power play, we can give them some structure and concepts, but a lot of it is relying on your instinct and creativity.

“I’ve never been a coach who has tried to restrict creativity. I’ve always encouraged them to do things as long as they don’t put the team in a bad situation. I love creativity and my last five years in Ottawa we were one of the top offensive teams in the league.

“I want them to play within their strengths, but at the same you’ve got to learn that you can’t put your team in trouble.”

As much as the Senators need to improve defensively, they also need to get more saves from goalies Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg.

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The Senators rank No. 28 in the league with a combined .886 save-percentage and a 3.55 goals-against average.

“We’ve got to help them but at the same they’ve got to perform better,” Martin said. “That’s part of the challenge. We’ve definitely got to help them by trying to cut down on the number of chances. Like the rest of the group, (the goalies) are part of the team and they’ve given us some good games, but sometimes they haven’t.

“One thing we’ve got to learn is that if something bad happens, you can’t start cheating to score goals.”

Wins would solve a lot for the Senators right now. If they could string a few together, that would help the belief in the room and bring the enjoyment back to the approach.

“We’ve got a pretty good life,” said Martin, who has coached more than 1,300 games in his career. “They’ve got to enjoy life. They deserve it, they earn it and they’ve got to make the most of each day. We’re fortunate to be able to do the job that we do.

“We’ve just got to work at it and control the things that we can control and don’t worry about the things that you can’t control. I just want them to be the best players that they can and that’s all I can ask.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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