With the Winterhawks

His title remains acting head coach, and he obviously misses being alongside suspended head coach Mike Johnston, but

Travis Green

has settled comfortably into the lead chair on the Portland Winterhawks’ bench.

The Hawks are 15-1 since Green took over.

“Who’s counting?’’ he jokingly says.

They are riding a 12-game win streak, they lead the WHL with a 35-5-1-0 record, and they remain on track to be WHL commissioner Ron Robison’s worst nightmare if they get through the playoffs and Robison is forced to hand this band of “cheating’’ renegades the WHL championship trophy.

It wasn’t just lip service when Green said – in the wake of those stunning WHL penalties that included

– that he had a good feel for what Johnston would want done in his absence.

“First two games, I was probably a little bit nervous more than anything, after that I felt a lot more comfortable,’’ said Green.

“Mike and I worked hand-in-hand on a lot of things. After five or six games I felt a lot more comfortable.’’

Green has been helped, no doubt, by a team that gets along well, a team that has good veteran leadership, a team that Green thinks has better locker room chemistry than any other Portland squad he’s been around.

But yeah, there are some subtle and not so subtle differences when you go from lead assistant to The Man.

“On the bench, instead of dealing with six D-men you’re dealing with 12 forwards but in terms of getting your points across to them, I learned so much from Mike,’’ said Green. “I took notes on how he approached the team, how he spoke to the team.

“But I’m not Mike. We have different personalites.’’

No kidding. Green could play the bad cop to Johnston’s good cop on occasion and jump all over the players. He can’t rain down the fire and brimstone as much now. “I’ve learned to be more patient, not as fiery as I would have been (in the past),’’ said Green.

“It’s been an adjustment for sure but I’ve been really fortunate, working with one of the better coaches I’ve been around my whole career.’’

Goaltender Mac Carruth, who just set the franchise record for career wins, said it’s been an amazingly smooth transition. “Obviously (Johnston) is a key figure in our locker room but in reality he (Mike) is still somewhat there,’’ said Carruth (note to WHL office, that was a figure of speech)

“Greener’s been coaching with him for awhile. He knows what (Mike) expects and he’s going to expect the same thing.’’

And it goes without saying, said Carruth, that the older players must take responsibility, too, in the absence of their coach/GM.

“They do if guys are getting out of line,’’ said Carruth. “Everybody has to hold themselves accountable.’’

This idea of Portland banding together in the wake of the WHL’s punishment and using it as motivation for the rest of the season sounded good a few weeks ago, but it apparently got old.

“I think we just kind of moved on,’’ said Carruth. “I don’t know if we used it as a rallying point, or just kind of took it as, ‘you know what? The league’s going to do what the league’s going to do to us.’ We’re just going to win hockey games.’’

Which is fine with Green. “We’re a grounded team,’’ he said. “We don’t talk about streaks or where we want to be in a few months, or where we want to finish. Mike’s thing was, ‘you’re only as good as your last game’ and I think that’s rubbed off on our players. You’ll never see them getting too far ahead of themselves.’’

Green said, “a big part of our strength is that our team competes hard every game.’’

Green said this is too good a team to need an “us against them’’ rallying cry. “At the beginning, I think that was part of it,’’ he said. “We talked about that. We also talked about the fact there’s a guy sitting at home (Johnston) who’s going to be watching us every night.

“I think what Mike has done here the last four years is he’s installed how you have to play. Act like a pro. Dress like a pro. Play like a pro. You’re going to have ups and downs in your season and in your career. You’re going to have to deal with adversity. … what Mike has done is set the tone for this team being able to handle stuff like this (the WHL penalties) and just go on business as usual. That’s really what we try to teach these kids. You still have to bring it to the rink.’’

Green (and Johnston) wouldn’t tolerate any “woe is me’’ on this team. The way Green sees it, if Portland gets a third straight shot at the Memorial Cup (in Saskatoon this year) and fails, it won’t have anything to do with Robison’s heavy-handed penalties.

Dealing with adversity is part of what Portland teaches, said Green. “Whether you’re (in juniors) or the NHL, you might have something bad happen to you. You might get suspended. You might get sat out. … you don’t get rattled, win, lose, or tie. Your coach gets taken away? You’ve still got to go on the ice and perform.

“Our guys,’’ said Green, again channeling Mike Johnston, “don’t get rattled very easily. They’ve been through a lot here the last few years.’’

Carruth is right. Mike Johnston is still in that locker room. It’s just that the guy espousing all of the same beliefs and principles happens to be Travis Green.

So it’s 15-1, and still rolling, “but who’s counting?’’ as Green might say.

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Paul Buker