Presenting our NHL All-Green Team

MONTREAL --There's a whole lot of green around the NHL this week.
Thursday is St. Patrick's Day, honoring the patron saint of Ireland, spawning parades around the world and making it (almost) acceptable to drink green beer for a day.
And this week, the NHL is taking a step in support of our good planet with the inaugural NHL Green Week, celebrating
a commitment to environmental sustainability
.
As a tribute to the color green we hereby playfully offer our NHL All-Green Team.

CoachGary Green:His coaching career began at age 21 when in 1975 he was signed to work as an assistant under Roger Neilson with Peterborough of the Ontario Hockey League. Green took on the coaching job and the responsibilities of general manager in 1977 at the ripe old age of 24, guiding the Petes to a berth in the Memorial Cup Final in 1978 and once more in 1979, when they won the championship. Green became coach of Hershey of the American Hockey League in the summer of 1979 and that November, at age 26, was named coach of the Washington Capitals, whom he would lead for 157 games (50-78-29) through parts of three seasons, becoming the youngest coach in NHL history and all of professional sports.
GoaltenderAndrew Hammond: On this team because he played for the Bowling Green Falcons and because we couldn't find any NHL goalies named Green. The so-called Hamburglar of the Ottawa Senators made Technicolor headlines in 2015 when he tied the 77-year-old NHL record of late Boston Bruins goaltender Frank Brimsek, allowing two or fewer goals in his first 12 League starts. Hammond had a storybook run to begin his career. Thrust into action on Feb. 18, 2015, following injuries to Ottawa's Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner, Hammond led the Senators' improbable charge into the Stanley Cup Playoffs by going 20-1-2 down the stretch.
Backup goaltender Mike Greenlay: Born in Vitória, Brazil in 1968 and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Greenlay was a career minor leaguer who made two appearances for the Edmonton Oilers in 1989-90. He had neither a win nor a loss, surrendering four goals on 17 shots for a .765 save percentage. He packed a good suitcase, playing collegiate hockey for Lake Superior State and winning the 1988 NCAA title before setting off in the pros with minor-league stops in Saskatoon, Cape Breton, Knoxville, Louisville, Atlanta (winning the 1994 IHL Turner Cup championship), Hershey and Houston. Today, he's a TV analyst for the Minnesota Wild.

DefenseTed Green: The Boston Bruins rearguard was best known for his rugged play, coming to Boston in 1961-62 from Winnipeg of the Western Hockey League. Terrible Ted, as he was nicknamed (though not as famously at the legendary take-no-prisoners Ted Lindsay), would play 620 games through the 1971-72 season, a member of the Bruins' 1972 Stanley Cup champion, before leaving to play seven seasons for the New England Whalers and Winnipeg Jets in the World Hockey Association.
Mike Green:He of the booming slap shot, Green has taken his game to the Detroit Red Wings this season after a decade with the Capitals. The native of Calgary was the star of his 2004 first-round NHL Draft class, scoring 113 goals with 247 assists in his 575 regular-season games with Washington. In 2008-09, he set an NHL record for consecutive games for goals scored by a defenseman, his eight-game run eclipsing the seven set by Mike O'Connell of the Boston Bruins in 1983-84.

Rick Green: On the team for defensive depth, the native of Belleville, Ontario, won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986, starting his NHL career with the Capitals in 1976-77. Nicknamed the Green Giant - at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, it was a natural - he was a terrific shot-blocker and one of the best defensive defensemen of his day, seeing action for the Capitals, Canadiens, Red Wings and finishing up with four games for the New York Islanders.
ForwardsRedvers "Red" Green:With his older brother, Shorty, he skated on the top line of the Hamilton Tigers of the early 1920s. The native of Sudbury, Ontario, became the NHL's eighth player to score five goals in a game, lighting up Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender John Ross Roach on Dec. 5, 1924. The Tigers' season met an unceremonious end, however, with the players striking over playoff salaries, demanding a $200 guarantee per man. Team owners wouldn't budge, the Canadiens were awarded the series by default and each Tigers player was fined $200.
Wilfred "Shorty" Green: Born in Sudbury, Ontario, he gave up hockey in early 1916 at age 20 to join Canada's World War I effort, serving in France. But when he returned, he helped lift the Hamilton Tigers to the senior Allan Cup title in 1919. The Tigers would join the NHL for the 1920-21 season and in 1923-24, he played alongside his brother, Red, and wonderfully talented fellow winger Billy Burch. A serious kidney injury sustained in 1927, playing for the New York Americans, prematurely ended his career. Green was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963, the only member of our All-Green Team so enshrined.
Travis Green:A native of Castlegar, British Columbia, Travis broke into the NHL with the Islanders in 1992-93, and through 14 seasons would also play for the Anaheim Ducks, Maple Leafs, Bruins and Phoenix (now Arizona) Coyotes. In his NHL career, Green scored 192 goals with 262 assists. Today, he coaches Utica of the American Hockey League, the affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks.