Senators' Travis Green makes his thoughts on recent Brady Tkachuk criticism absolutely clear

Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk is the kind of player who wears his heart and emotions on his sleeve, as he's demonstrated throughout his NHL career.

His emotions may have gotten the better of him during Satuday's loss to the Vancouver Canucks in which he accumulated 21 penalty minutes. However, Senators coach Green believes that the criticism the young Senators captain is getting may be getting out of hand.

"Sometimes you gotta light a fire under a guy's ass and try to get him to play hard," Green said of Tkachuk on Monday. "I'd much rather have a guy that plays extremely hard and teach him when to do it and when not to do it. I think people forget this guy is a young guy still."

"My God, to go after a guy because he's emotional and wants to win, like really? We want all our players to be emotional and want to win. So to challenge a guy like that," he continued. "I think it's crazy."

Brady and the rest of the Tkachuk family were on hand to cheer brother Matthew Tkachuk's run to the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers this past spring, something that he hopes he'll be able to accomplish with Ottawa soon.

To date, Brady has never appeared in Stanley Cup postseason action.

Senators coach Travis Green thinks very highly of Brady Tkachuk

The young Senators captain not only provides offense, but physicality as well. He does lead the rest of the NHL in penalty minutes through 20 games this season, but he also leads all Ottawa players in scoring with 10 goals.

And that combination of offense and tenacity is the ideal tool set for a hockey player, especially one who wears the captain's "C" on his jersey, according to Green.

"He's a skilled hockey player, he's tough, he's mean, he cares passionately about winning, about winning in Ottawa, and he's a very good hockey player," he said. "I think if you looked around, (in) any league, any world, you'd want a player like this on your hockey team."

"I don't think (the criticism) is fair. Sometimes when you have something for a little while, you kind of forget what you have."

Tkachuk and the Senators are in action Monday night against the visiting Calgary Flames.