Canucks’ Travis Green taking advantage of time with family during shutdown

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VANCOUVER – What Travis Green misses about coaching hockey is everything.

But at least what he misses most while coaching the Vancouver Canucks was cured when the National Hockey League shut down for the coronavirus.

Green was able to return home to Irvine, Calif., and be a full-time dad again to his daughter, Jordyn, and sons Blake and Brody, and a husband to Sheree. Brody has autism, which is one of the main reasons the family stays in Southern California when Green leaves to coach the Canucks during hockey season.

The 49-year-old spends countless winter hours on the phone with his kids. Green is often seen ambling the hallway between the dressing room and coaches’ offices at Rogers Arena in the downtime shortly before games, phone in hand, earbuds in. Sometimes he gets in a quick call right after games, too, before he does his press conference.

“That’s probably the hardest time for coaches, right before a game,” Green says in a telephone interview from Irvine. “You’ve got all your prep work done and you’re trying to pass the time. I’m calling my kids all day long, more or less.

“Some people don’t understand how you can do it. It’s just something that’s the norm for us. They’re 20 and 16, my two older ones. My 16-year-old (Blake) plays hockey, so we talk about games and practices. My 20-year, my daughter, goes to the University of California Irvine.

“My son Brody, who just turned 11, suffers from autism. I don’t talk about this a whole lot, but it’s special for me to work for the Canucks because of their work (through the Canucks Autism Network). My son is non-verbal, so I don’t get a lot of communication with him other than speakerphone talks. So that’s a little bit trying at times, but to be back right now and quarantined with him all day long, it’s been nice to get some quality time with him.”

Coaches have routines. So do fathers.

About noon every day, Green goes for a walk with Brody in their Orange County neighbourhood. Afternoons typically include a workout with Blake, who plays minor hockey on the Anaheim Junior Ducks Triple-A U16 team.

“I try to take Brody for a walk every day,” Green says. “He’s a ball of energy. He’s got his sweatpants on every day at the right time, ready to go for a walk. The one thing about kids with autism is they like routine. He’s got his routine down. I come down and he’s got his sweatpants and flip-flops on and he’s ready to roll. We just walk through the neighbourhood. We kind of go a new route every day.”

In the afternoon workouts, Green says he isn’t so much competing with Blake as guiding him.

Green played in the NHL for 14 seasons, logging 970 games for six different organizations after getting drafted 23rd overall from the Spokane Chiefs. He grew up in Castlegar, B.C., where his parents still live. In Green’s third season coaching the Canucks, the team was on pace for 93 points and a playoff berth for the first time since 2015.

“I think (Blake) is going to try to play junior hockey, and like a lot of kids he’s going to try to get a scholarship,” Green says. “He went to the Victoria Grizzlies (Junior-A) training camp last year. He works hard, but he also understands that he’s not a given.

“He’s six feet, a strong kid, a centreman, good on faceoffs.”

Sounds familiar.

“Yeah, he might have watched his dad too much at the NHL level,” Green says. “He’s a coach’s son, for sure. He takes pride in a lot of areas where a lot of guys his age don’t. As a dad, you wouldn’t think I’m a coach when I’m telling him to cheat a little to score. I’m definitely not telling our guys that (in Vancouver). But I try not to be a coach with him. I just try to be dad.”

Green says it took him about 10 days to adjust to the shock of the NHL’s sudden stop on March 12 and the gravity of the health crisis that caused it.

But he’s enjoying isolation with his family.

“I feel probably as rested as I’ve felt in a long time,” he says. “The season is a sprint and you’re on it. As a coach, I love to work. I’m probably a little addicted to it. I wake up and I’m on it, and I’m on it all day. In the off-season, I work out more, feel a lot healthier. I’m kind of in that mode now where I’ve got lots of time. Coffee in bed, breakfast in bed.

“But I’m making a lot of phone calls, watching video, talking to our analytics team. If you go through our roster, man, we had a lot of guys have good season personally. I’m really happy about that for them. If we don’t play again, I want guys to feel good about their season and then say, ‘How do I get better again?’ That’s positive.

“Am I disappointed we haven’t been able to see this thing through? I am, for a lot of reasons. One, I really believe our group would have got their way in (to the playoffs). I believe in our group, and I believe they would have made it. And two, they didn’t get to go through that stretch of making the playoffs. Talking about them and playing in them are two different things. That’s a disappointment as well. But I’m ready to try to make this team better right now.”

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