AHL Utica Comets

Comet Tales: Butch Goring on Travis Green

Published on December 11, 2013 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Utica Comets News Release


Butch Goring, best remembered for centering the New York Islanders teams that went to the Stanley Cup Finals five consecutive seasons in the 1980""s, and Comets coach Travis Green are anything but strangers to one another.  It has been more than 25 years since they met in Spokane, Washington.

After a 17-year career as a player in the National Hockey League, which included skating in 1,100-plus games and collecting four Stanley Cup championship rings on Long Island, Goring immediately joined the coaching ranks with the Boston Bruins.  After running the bench for parts of two seasons in Beantown, Goring, who currently serves as the Islanders TV color commentator on the MSG Network, headed to the Western Hockey League.

Throughout a 15-year coaching career, Goring coached on the junior hockey level for two of them.  In 1987-'88 the Spokane Chiefs welcomed Goring as their coach, at the same time Travis Green was ready for his first full season with the club.  Over the years, with all of Goring's travels that have taken him for coaching assignments to Denver, Anchorage, Las Vegas, and four seasons in the DEL (Germany's professional league), he recalls those two years in Spokane with great detail.

"I remember Travis as a hockey player with a passion for the game and a desire to be better," says Goring, recipient of the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1981.  "Most players want 18-20 minutes of game time, not Travis.  He wanted to have the big minutes."

Goring remembers Green as being "a little more mature" than the 17-year old that he was their first season together.  In Spokane, the former Islanders and Bruins coach saw his job as a teacher to Green and his teammates.  "Travis was a willing learner.  Then I had him in his first professional training camp," Goring said.

Selected by the Islanders in the second round of the 1989 NHL draft, Green joined the organization's American Hockey League affiliate - Capital District (Troy,NY).  Goring was hired by the Islanders to coach the club, a position he held for three seasons.  "I told Travis the way for him to get to the NHL and stay there was to become a two-way hockey player.  He understood what was expected of him," Goring tells.  "In juniors, Travis was always a big scorer (152 goals in four seasons).  I told him, with Al Arbour (Islanders coach), he would have to be a real good defenseman, too."

Having recorded only 102 penalty minutes, the lowest total in NHL history for a player appearing in more than a thousand games, Goring was well disciplined on the ice.  Gaining his coach's trust once with the Islanders, as Goring remembers, was a point delivered to Green.  "Travis was always good on the face-off and had a tremendous shot.  Then he became a two-way checking center, and understood how to win," Goring states.

It was when the Comets coach was eligible for the NHL draft, having coached him in Spokane and now coaching in Capital District, Goring remembers speaking to Islanders ownership about his former player.  "I was close to the owners.  They asked about Travis' character, what his passion for the game was, would he be a competitor.  I told them he had his sights set on the NHL", says Goring, who according to his former Islanders' teammate Mike Bossy, is quite likely the originator of the NHL's tradition of growing a beard in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Goring chimes in with others who believe Travis Green will be an NHL coach one day.  The Lady Bing Memorial Trophy winner who has been in hockey for more than 40 years knows a winner when he sees one.  Butch Goring is proud to call Travis Green a former pupil and player of his.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 11, 2013


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