You couldn’t blame Vancouver Canucks fans for having foggy memories about the Travis Green era.

It’s been a shade over four years since that fateful day on Dec. 5, 2021, when Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini fired both Green and general manager Jim Benning.

While the Canucks have been on their own stomach-churning roller coaster since Green’s dismissal, the former Canucks coach has been on a journey of his own since leaving Vancouver.

The Castlegar, B.C. native has coached Team Canada at the Spengler Cup. He was then an associate coach for the New Jersey Devils before briefly being named interim head coach.

After the Devils chose to hire Sheldon Keefe in 2024, Green was named head coach of the Ottawa Senators, leading their team back to the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons during his first year on the job.

Everything was turning up for Travis, until this season.

The Senators have been plagued by injuries, internet rumours, and inconsistent play. However, one Achillies Heel has popped up for Green that haunted him during his time with the Canucks, and Senators fans are starting to take notice.

Last Thursday, the Senators had a 3-0 lead over the Nashville Predators before their faltering penalty kill got in the way. Ottawa allowed two power play goals against en route to a 5-3 loss.

It’s a problem that has popped up throughout the season in Ottawa. When asked about it following the loss to Nashville, Green offered very little insight.

“I’m not going to talk about the penalty kill,” he said. “We’ve done it a lot. There’s been a lot of factors.”

That response hasn’t been sitting well with Sens fans.

“I really hate this answer,” one fan said.

“Accountability at its best,” another said. “Bottom-two PK in the league and we don’t talk about it.”

Some Sens fans were even petitioning for another former Canucks coach to get a job in Ottawa.

“Ok.. enough is enough,” a Sens fan posted. “Fire this guy already. Bring in Tortorella.”

Others dove deeper into theories about why Green was hired in the first place.

“Green was the wrong choice from Day One,” this fan said. “Hiring failed coaches to save money is why we keep getting called a poverty franchise.”

“Green is slowly morphing into DJ Smith,” one fan said. “Need some accountability and CHANGE.”

Well, Green did offer a change on Saturday, saying that Mike Yeo would be taking over penalty killing duties from Nolan Baumgartner.

If that sounds like déjà vu for Canucks fans, that’s because it is.

Baumgartner largely ran the penalty kill under Green in Vancouver. Yeo ended up taking over penalty killing duties permanently after Green’s dismissal, as he continued working as an assistant coach under Bruce Boudreau.

Regardless, a porous penalty kill was part of Green’s undoing in Vancouver. At the time of his firing in 2021-22, the Canucks were 8-15-2, and they had a league-worst 64.6 per cent success rate on the kill. At the time, it wasn’t just bad, it was historically bad.

During his five seasons in Vancouver, only once did the Canucks have a penalty kill in the top half of the league (11th overall in 2018-19, 81.1 per cent success rate).

Green and the Senators are currently seven points outside of the playoffs with a 23-20-7 record. For some extra salt in the wound, they will also forfeit their first-round pick in this year’s draft.