Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Meet new Merrimack coach Courtney Kennedy

Transcript

Meet new Merrimack coach Courtney Kennedy · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:04
Speaker 1: Uscho.com. Hi, and welcome to our first preseason podcast of
0:15
Speaker 1: the 2026-27 season. I'm Todd Molesky, here with Nicole Haase,
0:19
Speaker 1: as always. We're from uscho.com, and we're taking some time
0:23
Speaker 1: before the season gets started this year to meet some
0:26
Speaker 1: of the new head coaches around college hockey, and our
0:30
Speaker 1: first guest is someone who's not really unfamiliar to anyone
0:34
Speaker 1: who's followed women's college hockey over the last couple of decades.
0:38
Speaker 1: But she's a head coach in college this season for
0:41
Speaker 1: the first time, Courtney Kennedy of Merrimack. Thanks for joining us, Courtney.
0:45
Speaker 1: It's great to have you. Maybe can you tell us
0:48
Speaker 1: a little bit about what these last, what is it,
0:51
Speaker 1: six months, five months have been like for you since
0:53
Speaker 1: you got named head coach at Merrimack?
0:56
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, thanks for having me.
0:58
Speaker 3: I think you guys obviously It's hard work, but you
1:01
Speaker 3: do a wonderful job always trying to keep the game
1:04
Speaker 3: in the front.
1:05
Speaker 2: And it's very.
1:09
Speaker 3: I feel grateful for having people like you around to
1:11
Speaker 3: kind of push the sport.
1:14
Speaker 2: It's been crazy. You know, when you first get the job,
1:19
Speaker 2: you know the hockey stuff. I mean, you know the
1:20
Speaker 2: hockey stuff.
1:21
Speaker 3: And you know what you want to build and you
1:22
Speaker 3: know what your foundations are. But also just learning who
1:26
Speaker 3: the people are around you and who your resources are.
1:29
Speaker 3: Literally learning about the school, what the buildings are, meeting
1:34
Speaker 3: different professors, meeting this wonderful lady who runs.
1:38
Speaker 2: The cafeteria here on campus.
1:40
Speaker 3: Just people like that and realizing who's in our community.
1:43
Speaker 3: So it's been a lot of fun actually getting to
1:48
Speaker 3: learn who we are and what Merrimack's all about. Because
1:51
Speaker 3: to represent something, it's nice to know more about it.
1:57
Speaker 4: What was it about this particular opportunity that made you
2:01
Speaker 4: say yes?
2:02
Speaker 5: You had been, you know, in college.
2:04
Speaker 2: Hockey for so long.
2:05
Speaker 4: I think, you know, it's almost feels weird that this
2:08
Speaker 4: is your first college head coaching job. So what was
2:10
Speaker 4: it about this that appealed to you?
2:12
Speaker 2: Well, you know, timing's always a big deal.
2:14
Speaker 3: And I'm a kid from Wobin and everyone knows I'm
2:17
Speaker 3: not leaving the East Coast. It's just Graham is all here.
2:22
Speaker 2: And I it's just it's just how I am.
2:24
Speaker 3: So.
2:26
Speaker 2: Uh, one thing is just location.
2:28
Speaker 3: Um, but, but, you know, Joe Foley, the, the AD here,
2:32
Speaker 3: I just, I knew him from back in the day
2:34
Speaker 3: at BC.
2:35
Speaker 2: I did beat him there.
2:36
Speaker 3: Um, I did know him, but his passion and his excitement, um,
2:40
Speaker 3: when he called me, it just, there was something there
2:43
Speaker 3: and there was a hunger and there was a belief.
2:46
Speaker 3: And so that's, that's how I coach. And that's what
2:48
Speaker 3: I want out of my players. And so I just
2:51
Speaker 3: felt like we're on the same page and we want
2:53
Speaker 3: the same things. And we're also both not afraid to
2:56
Speaker 3: like take a risk and go for it. And I
2:58
Speaker 3: think I respect that a lot in him and, and
3:01
Speaker 3: in all the staff I've met around this, this, this
3:04
Speaker 3: great building and campus. And so it's just, it seemed
3:08
Speaker 3: like a fun thing to do, but also a challenge
3:13
Speaker 3: where you can take a group of players who, you know,
3:16
Speaker 3: there's a bunch of kids here and, and a lot
3:18
Speaker 3: of them came from different places, you know, like they
3:22
Speaker 3: came in from another school.
3:23
Speaker 2: And so, Is it a little bit of a land
3:26
Speaker 2: of misfit toys in the first year? Kind of, but
3:29
Speaker 2: maybe I'm one as well.
3:30
Speaker 3: And so it's just getting everybody on the same page
3:33
Speaker 3: because if you can make a team that works hard
3:35
Speaker 3: and plays together, I think that's a pretty dangerous thing.
3:39
Speaker 3: And so we're going to try to be dangerous. That's
3:41
Speaker 3: what we're going to try to be.
3:42
Speaker 1: One of the things I've always heard about being a
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Speaker 1: new coach or a new head coach in a new
3:48
Speaker 1: area is that you really have to do like a
3:50
Speaker 1: lot of the legwork of figuring out who the right
3:54
Speaker 1: people are to talk to for things and those kind
3:56
Speaker 1: of things. But I wonder how your experience in Hockey
4:00
Speaker 1: East and in the Northeast, in the Boston area, has
4:04
Speaker 1: maybe helped kind of some of that for you to
4:08
Speaker 1: make that a little bit easier where maybe you know
4:11
Speaker 1: who some of the people are Hockey East-wise, obviously, or
4:15
Speaker 1: throughout the recruiting conversations in that area.
4:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I honestly feel very grateful that I've
4:22
Speaker 3: been in the league, you know, for so many years
4:25
Speaker 3: because I was even during the beginning, you know, months of,
4:28
Speaker 3: of my hiring, I was, I kept thinking, I'm grateful.
4:31
Speaker 2: That I know what this is all about.
4:34
Speaker 3: Cause I do think it can be very overwhelming for
4:37
Speaker 3: a first time head coach who maybe isn't familiar with
4:40
Speaker 3: the league, the people. I think you could have probably
4:43
Speaker 3: a lot of panic.
4:44
Speaker 2: You could panic.
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Speaker 3: And I just have never felt panic in the sense
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Speaker 3: that I, Yeah, I know the people who run Hockey East,
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Speaker 3: the same faces. And like day one, I show up
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Speaker 3: at the garden for the Merrimack men's semifinal for Hockey East.
5:00
Speaker 3: And I go up in the elevator, I have to
5:02
Speaker 3: go do some interview. And it was like face after
5:06
Speaker 3: face after face of people you know and know me.
5:10
Speaker 3: And it just was a nice, it felt like you
5:12
Speaker 3: kept getting a hug, you know? And so I felt
5:15
Speaker 3: right away like comfortable in that environment. Whereas, you know,
5:19
Speaker 3: maybe that could have been more nerve wracking if.
5:21
Speaker 2: I didn't know everybody.
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Speaker 3: I also feel just working for so many years at
5:26
Speaker 3: Boston College and the preparation that I received, you know, there,
5:33
Speaker 3: even from like a John Haggerty in particular, like just
5:36
Speaker 3: the way he runs the programs and just seeing it.
5:40
Speaker 3: And so not being faltering there, being worried about structure
5:45
Speaker 3: or The buses, are they going to be here?
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Speaker 2: I understand how it all works.
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Speaker 3: I feel like I've, at my time at BC under
5:53
Speaker 3: Coach Crowley, under Kinger, I also did a.
5:55
Speaker 2: Lot of that D-hop stuff. I recruited a lot.
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Speaker 3: So I feel like all the things I did greatly
6:03
Speaker 3: set me up to go into this role and, to
6:05
Speaker 3: be honest with you, be able to focus on the
6:08
Speaker 3: hockey and the players and the people and not drown
6:12
Speaker 3: in all the side stuff that I think can be
6:15
Speaker 3: a little distracting.
6:19
Speaker 4: I've obviously talked to you at U18s where we're talking
6:22
Speaker 4: about some younger players, but also you get them for
6:25
Speaker 4: such a short time. So this is sort of the
6:27
Speaker 4: complete opposite of that. And so it's just curious in
6:30
Speaker 4: terms of sort of your philosophy and your approach and
6:33
Speaker 4: how you go about some of the development, how you
6:35
Speaker 4: either extrapolate from what you have to do in a
6:38
Speaker 4: couple of weeks, or do you have to really sort
6:41
Speaker 4: of rework some of your approach in terms of putting
6:44
Speaker 4: it over the course of a season versus how little
6:47
Speaker 4: time you get with U18s.
6:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny. Like U18s, you have to understand that
6:52
Speaker 2: environment and how it works. It's very different. You're not
6:54
Speaker 2: picking a team for the year.
6:55
Speaker 3: And so I always stress that because if you get
6:58
Speaker 3: caught up in it, you know, there is no, let's
7:00
Speaker 3: go work on D zone for this amount of hours
7:03
Speaker 3: or no hours.
7:04
Speaker 2: They're either ready or they're not.
7:05
Speaker 3: And so you almost need to format a quick winning
7:07
Speaker 3: game plan around what's available. And I don't mean to
7:11
Speaker 3: say in a negative fashion, like what's available. I mean,
7:13
Speaker 3: these are some of, the most elite players in the country.
7:17
Speaker 3: And they're just different areas of development, if you will.
7:21
Speaker 3: I look at coaching a team for the year, coaching
7:23
Speaker 3: a team. You know, I still want to be a
7:27
Speaker 3: believer in, you know, somebody staying for five, you know,
7:30
Speaker 3: and having those players. I mean, that's something I definitely
7:33
Speaker 3: want to have here at Merrimack.
7:37
Speaker 2: But it is different.
7:37
Speaker 3: I'm grabbing players and looking at players and I want
7:40
Speaker 3: to teach them, different tools of the game. Maybe they
7:43
Speaker 3: don't have that tool yet. And so it's like, okay,
7:46
Speaker 3: you got a wrench, you got a hammer, but like,
7:48
Speaker 3: look at this really cool screwdriver we have. We've always
7:51
Speaker 3: just a screwdriver and you can change it. So it's like,
7:54
Speaker 3: it's like literally teaching them different styles of playing based
7:58
Speaker 3: on what you see, but giving them the tools to
8:00
Speaker 3: do it. So it's, I enjoy it more because I
8:02
Speaker 3: love coaching. I love teaching the game of hockey. And
8:06
Speaker 3: so I think it's really fun to actually take a
8:09
Speaker 3: D for example, You know, it's really hard to get
8:13
Speaker 3: really good in high school at D just because I
8:14
Speaker 3: do think you just need to grow up and get
8:17
Speaker 3: into more difficult scenarios to actually learn and try things
8:22
Speaker 3: at a fast pace. So that's just fun for me
8:25
Speaker 3: to break down drills, really small skill work within our
8:27
Speaker 3: practices where we're pushing the kids to compete very hard.
8:31
Speaker 3: And that's something that they're going to have to do.
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Speaker 3: And we'll learn about our group, their ability to compete.
8:36
Speaker 3: You know, because if that's too much, if competing is
8:39
Speaker 3: too much, if that's too odd, of a.
8:41
Speaker 2: Day-to-day, then there's no growth there. And that's what we're
8:46
Speaker 2: really watching. And more so than talent.
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Speaker 3: Would be their ability to compete, to buy in, to
8:52
Speaker 3: come back every day ready to do it, even when
8:54
Speaker 3: it's been tough.
8:55
Speaker 2: I don't know what happens in the season. I don't
8:56
Speaker 2: know how the first games go.
8:58
Speaker 3: We're not worried about necessarily outcomes as much as we
9:01
Speaker 3: are about our process. And so we'll learn as we
9:05
Speaker 3: go here. But to me, you don't need talent to compete.
9:09
Speaker 2: It helps.
9:10
Speaker 3: You know, it helps you beat the puck and maybe
9:12
Speaker 3: be the winner of a battle, but your hard work
9:15
Speaker 3: and what we're looking to put together, that's something every
9:17
Speaker 3: one of these players who's coming on campus can control.
9:27
Speaker 1: The last few years, Merrimack has put a lot of
9:29
Speaker 1: money into facilities and Law of the Ring especially. I
9:34
Speaker 1: wonder how that.
9:37
Speaker 1: How that helps you and what kind of opportunities you're
9:39
Speaker 1: able to provide to, to athletes, um, that you're trying
9:45
Speaker 1: to recruit and you're, you know, you're a lot of
9:47
Speaker 1: it today is about a show, right? You're trying to
9:51
Speaker 1: put on the, the, the best presentation for someone who
9:54
Speaker 1: might be coming to your school. And, what have you
9:58
Speaker 1: found over these first few months is, or what have
10:02
Speaker 1: you found is there for you to use with Merrimack?
10:06
Speaker 3: Well, I think we're just, what I've learned about Merrimack
10:08
Speaker 3: is that I think it's a genuine place. And so
10:12
Speaker 3: I don't want to have to shine fancy things to attract.
10:16
Speaker 2: To me, it's like, this is what we're going to be.
10:19
Speaker 3: And if you want to develop and you want to
10:21
Speaker 3: get better as a hockey player, but you also, you
10:24
Speaker 3: want to grow as a human and be treated, treated well,
10:27
Speaker 3: but pushed, be called out, be held accountable. If those
10:31
Speaker 3: are attributes that ring true to somebody, that's for us
10:36
Speaker 3: because I don't want to get in this rat race
10:38
Speaker 3: of shiny things and look.
10:41
Speaker 2: At my cool smoothie maker.
10:42
Speaker 3: I want, we have, we have those, but I'm just saying,
10:45
Speaker 3: I don't want to get into that To me, I
10:47
Speaker 3: just want to be a hockey coach who teaches hockey.
10:51
Speaker 3: And the players who want that, and that's number one
10:53
Speaker 3: on their agenda, then I know the place for them.
10:55
Speaker 3: Because that's what we're going to do. I think, I
10:58
Speaker 3: do look at the pros. I think going pro is amazing.
11:01
Speaker 3: And probably partially because being a player, I would have
11:04
Speaker 3: done anything to have that opportunity.
11:06
Speaker 2: And so I think it's a really great space for
11:08
Speaker 2: these players.
11:09
Speaker 3: And, you know, I think female athletes peak later. I
11:12
Speaker 3: feel like I learned that once in a science book.
11:15
Speaker 3: And it was like, yeah, like, you know female athletes
11:17
Speaker 3: peaking at 28 what are we all doing stopping at
11:20
Speaker 3: 24 25 and i'm talking the regular athlete like we
11:23
Speaker 3: don't even know who could be olympians who could be
11:26
Speaker 3: superstars maybe they're just getting it sorted and then and
11:29
Speaker 3: now they have to choose between uh do i want
11:32
Speaker 3: to like try to make my way through hockey you
11:34
Speaker 3: know waking up early and making no money but now
11:37
Speaker 3: it's like no you actually you could um and so
11:40
Speaker 3: i get excited for that and so i want to
11:42
Speaker 3: i want to give it a a place where players
11:44
Speaker 3: can still develop because there's no way you're like done
11:46
Speaker 3: developing in high school. We want to, we want to
11:49
Speaker 3: take the high school kids and continue what those high
11:51
Speaker 3: school coaches were doing, continue developing, continue teaching the game, um, and,
11:56
Speaker 3: and let these players keep going and see what, what
11:59
Speaker 3: they have in the tank.
12:00
Speaker 2: And so for me, it's what does a player want
12:02
Speaker 2: out of their college experience?
12:04
Speaker 3: Is it, um, shiny things and, and, to me, what
12:07
Speaker 3: could appear to be fake in something on Instagram and
12:11
Speaker 3: the TikToks, or do you want a real genuine experience where,
12:14
Speaker 3: you know, we care about you for life, you know?
12:16
Speaker 3: I still have players who reach out all the time,
12:19
Speaker 3: and I equate that to just always being there for
12:21
Speaker 3: them when.
12:21
Speaker 2: They were in their 20s, you know?
12:23
Speaker 3: And we're going to continue to do that work here
12:26
Speaker 3: at Merrimack, and that's, you know, the staff we have
12:28
Speaker 3: in place, and everybody's eager and hardworking, and they're nice people.
12:32
Speaker 3: At the core, they're nice people. They're not trying to
12:35
Speaker 3: stab people in the back and climb. They're not looking
12:37
Speaker 3: to get out of here. They're actually very excited where
12:39
Speaker 3: they're at.
12:40
Speaker 2: We all are. And so I just think there's.
12:42
Speaker 3: Something it's might be old school and maybe, Hey, in
12:45
Speaker 3: five years, I'm like, what was that all about?
12:46
Speaker 2: You know, you gotta be cutthroat.
12:48
Speaker 3: But I just think that I've always stuck to my
12:50
Speaker 3: core and I've always stuck to my gut and it's
12:52
Speaker 3: how I was raised.
12:53
Speaker 2: And that's what I'll keep doing.
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Speaker 5: There are, in my opinion, you know, not enough sort
13:00
Speaker 5: of former players and your experience as a player, as
13:04
Speaker 5: a coach through the U.S., through USA Hockey, through the
13:08
Speaker 5: collegiate program.
13:09
Speaker 4: Like there's just so much there that that brings you
13:12
Speaker 4: for like as a role model to be able to
13:16
Speaker 4: be genuine and really like have been where these players are.
13:19
Speaker 4: How like how much how important is that to you
13:22
Speaker 4: to be able to sort of go, you know, sort
13:25
Speaker 4: of that, that career arc and that possibility. And do
13:27
Speaker 4: you find, like, do you hear back from, from, you know,
13:30
Speaker 4: recruits or your athletes that, that resonates with them?
13:34
Speaker 3: Um, after I left BC, I, I received a, like
13:39
Speaker 3: a lot, a lot of text messages and emails and,
13:43
Speaker 3: and I was really taken back by that.
13:44
Speaker 2: I honestly, I don't know.
13:47
Speaker 3: It like hit my heart because you know, you didn't
13:50
Speaker 3: realize what you gave to them. And it wasn't like,
13:52
Speaker 3: thanks for teaching me to skate backwards better. Or it
13:56
Speaker 3: was like, literally, thank you for being there.
13:59
Speaker 2: Every day, a smiling face, making me laugh, you know,
14:02
Speaker 2: just being there.
14:04
Speaker 3: And it's funny. It's a simple thing. And it's something
14:07
Speaker 3: that I just like to do anyways. You know, it's
14:10
Speaker 3: like my mother's like that. You know, it's just always
14:12
Speaker 3: somebody you walk by and they're just, hey, how are you?
14:14
Speaker 3: And sometimes that's all they need.
14:16
Speaker 2: They're 20. They got a lot going on. And so.
14:19
Speaker 3: When they reached back with that, it was very powerful
14:21
Speaker 3: because I never really thought about that being helpful.
14:24
Speaker 2: I just thought it was goofy, you know?
14:27
Speaker 3: But when you look at players who've gone on to
14:30
Speaker 3: be Olympians and all that, I think they just genuinely
14:35
Speaker 3: cared about or are grateful for maybe my time and
14:39
Speaker 3: that I was always around for them and would like
14:42
Speaker 3: to this day skate with one of them if they
14:45
Speaker 3: needed to jump out there and needed somebody to run them.
14:48
Speaker 3: through things, and it's, you know, you don't do it
14:51
Speaker 3: to video yourself and put it out there on social
14:53
Speaker 3: media to say, hey, look what I'm doing, so-and-so.
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Speaker 2: It's just you do it because that's what the kid needs,
14:59
Speaker 2: and maybe you grab a cup of coffee after, you know.
15:02
Speaker 2: But it's a very genuine moment.
15:03
Speaker 3: It's not, there's nothing, there's no advantage to it in
15:06
Speaker 3: terms of what I'm trying to get out of it.
15:08
Speaker 3: I just, I genuinely enjoy skating, playing hockey with some
15:12
Speaker 3: of those kids. I just said playing hockey as if
15:14
Speaker 3: I'm playing it.
15:15
Speaker 2: But I do. I'm going to chase them a little bit.
15:17
Speaker 2: I get involved a little bit.
15:22
Speaker 1: We know you've been in college coaching for a long time.
15:26
Speaker 1: You've been at the international level. You also spent a
15:29
Speaker 1: year in the PWHL with the Boston Fleet. I wonder
15:32
Speaker 1: what that experience gave you to maybe make you a
15:36
Speaker 1: better coach and what you learned as you were also
15:39
Speaker 1: helping teach at that level.
15:42
Speaker 2: Well, I always, I.
15:44
Speaker 3: Think one of the coolest things about our sport is
15:46
Speaker 3: that you get to go into different environments and see
15:48
Speaker 3: how coaches conduct a practice or talk to their athletes
15:52
Speaker 3: or run a meeting. So at the bare minimum of it,
15:57
Speaker 3: I just thought it was really cool to just learn
16:01
Speaker 3: from like Coach Courtney Kessel and just kind of see
16:03
Speaker 3: how she runs things and how they look at things,
16:05
Speaker 3: how they approach things. Steph McKeow running the D side
16:09
Speaker 3: and just seeing her approach and what's important to them
16:12
Speaker 3: and how they talk about the game and different words.
16:14
Speaker 3: And I just think there's so much growth there. Practice drills,
16:18
Speaker 3: different drills, how they run them. So from that standpoint,
16:23
Speaker 3: I thought it was a really cool time to just
16:25
Speaker 3: grow and learn.
16:27
Speaker 2: But being a skills.
16:28
Speaker 3: Coach, I think that the most interesting thing is working
16:33
Speaker 3: with the scratches, working with the kids who are now
16:36
Speaker 3: out of the lineup. Being there for the fourth line
16:41
Speaker 3: kid who's in and out of the lineup, can't figure
16:43
Speaker 3: out why, but it just is what it is. And
16:47
Speaker 3: so I think I really enjoyed working with that group
16:50
Speaker 3: because I ended up being on the ice a lot
16:51
Speaker 3: with them. And so let's say they're going away to
16:54
Speaker 3: Montreal for a weekend. I'm staying back and I'm skating
16:57
Speaker 3: with the Scratch Kids.
16:58
Speaker 2: And I think it was.
17:01
Speaker 3: Important because, first of all, it's like, what do they need?
17:03
Speaker 3: They want to crack the lineup.
17:05
Speaker 2: What do they need to do that?
17:07
Speaker 3: And so making sure you're literally going over hockey skills
17:09
Speaker 3: like that with them, but also just being there to
17:12
Speaker 3: hear them vent or talk because it's not easy to
17:15
Speaker 3: be in that role. And so I feel like I got,
17:19
Speaker 3: I was able to grow in being supportive and realizing
17:24
Speaker 3: what it's like to be a scratch.
17:25
Speaker 2: I've, I worked with those athletes anytime.
17:27
Speaker 3: Like it's the kids I usually volunteer to go with
17:30
Speaker 3: when I'm with a program, just because I think it's
17:32
Speaker 3: important to make everyone feel important. But with that space,
17:36
Speaker 3: I thought that was kind of cool to help these
17:39
Speaker 3: really elite players who were top players in college. And
17:42
Speaker 3: maybe it was their first time dealing with that scenario.
17:45
Speaker 3: And so being there for them and knowing what they
17:48
Speaker 3: want to hear, but also knowing that you have to
17:50
Speaker 3: just be honest. You've got to wait. I would tell
17:53
Speaker 3: them you've got to wait. Maybe the window opens a
17:56
Speaker 3: crack and now there's a little air and there's a
17:58
Speaker 3: chance to get in the lineup. You've got to be
18:01
Speaker 3: ready to take your hands and just roll that window
18:04
Speaker 3: open and, you know, get right out there and, and
18:06
Speaker 3: then grab that spot. And that's, it is a little
18:09
Speaker 3: cutthroat like that at pro and it should be, but
18:12
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed working with that group in particular, uh,
18:16
Speaker 3: learning from their coaching staff and then also just being
18:18
Speaker 3: there for all the players, the top players who want
18:21
Speaker 3: extra shootings. You're just passing and your arms are about
18:23
Speaker 3: to come off all the way down to a kid. Um,
18:26
Speaker 3: who's just trying to crack the lineup and maybe never
18:28
Speaker 3: has a chance to, but just kind of being there
18:30
Speaker 3: for him.
18:33
Speaker 4: I could seriously ask you questions about like this forever.
18:36
Speaker 4: I love how you talk about development and getting on
18:39
Speaker 4: the ice and talking to kids. I guess I just
18:41
Speaker 4: maybe to wrap up, we should ask you what we
18:43
Speaker 4: should be looking for with Merrimack this year. Just if
18:47
Speaker 4: people haven't you know, sat down and watched a Merrimack
18:50
Speaker 4: game before. And I always like to talk, you know,
18:53
Speaker 4: ESPN Plus games are some of the easier ones for
18:55
Speaker 4: people to see. So definitely want to tell people that,
18:57
Speaker 4: you know, how easy it is to go watch one
18:59
Speaker 4: of your games this season.
18:59
Speaker 5: So what can they be looking for and what should
19:01
Speaker 5: they expect?
19:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they should expect to see a team
19:04
Speaker 3: that works really hard. And when you say it, it's like, cool,
19:08
Speaker 3: they're going to work hard. But like, when you really
19:10
Speaker 3: think about it, we're trying to move as six people,
19:14
Speaker 3: you know, because we've got to include our goalies.
19:15
Speaker 2: We've got six of us out there. but working hard
19:18
Speaker 2: in every zone, working hard together.
19:21
Speaker 3: It takes a second to build it. But once it's
19:24
Speaker 3: built and it's going, you're very dangerous in the back end.
19:27
Speaker 3: If we don't build that, then you just fall apart
19:31
Speaker 3: in January. So we're going to be working hard at foundation.
19:34
Speaker 3: And it also has to be the players who want
19:36
Speaker 3: it as well. This isn't like you come in here
19:39
Speaker 3: and you're like, I'm a dictator and here's how I'm
19:41
Speaker 3: going to do things. I want them to understand why
19:43
Speaker 3: we do things this way and why we think it'll
19:45
Speaker 3: be successful. And then I want them to take part
19:48
Speaker 3: in it. I want it to mean something to them
19:50
Speaker 3: and I want it to be family to them. And
19:53
Speaker 3: so I think you're going to start to see a
19:55
Speaker 3: really hardworking group of players. And I think you're going
19:59
Speaker 3: to really start to see some talent because there are
20:01
Speaker 3: some players out there who can play.
20:02
Speaker 2: I learned that in the spring.
20:04
Speaker 3: And I think that my job is to like kind
20:08
Speaker 3: of brush off.
20:09
Speaker 2: It's like a diamond. I just got to shine it up.
20:11
Speaker 2: And I think all these players here deserve it. I
20:14
Speaker 2: think they've been waiting for it. I think they want
20:16
Speaker 2: to compete.
20:17
Speaker 3: I think they've come from different programs and they're very
20:19
Speaker 3: hungry and thirsty for a little consistency. And I think
20:23
Speaker 3: they're going to get that out of this staff. I
20:26
Speaker 3: think we're going to be there every day for them.
20:28
Speaker 3: And what you'll see is that hard work. I also
20:30
Speaker 3: would like to say we have a Dunkin' Donuts radio
20:32
Speaker 3: located on the campus.
20:34
Speaker 2: It is fantastic.
20:36
Speaker 3: You can get a hot cocoa all the way up
20:37
Speaker 3: to a nice regular cup of coffee and the.
20:41
Speaker 2: Concessions will be open. You know, we sell some beer. So,
20:45
Speaker 2: you know, pop on in and catch the Merrimack Warriors
20:48
Speaker 2: and it will be a good time. That's awesome.
20:51
Speaker 1: Amazing.
20:51
Speaker 2: This has been great.
20:52
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Courtney, for kicking off this new season
20:57
Speaker 1: for us. We're excited to see what happens for you
20:59
Speaker 1: and for Merrimack and for all of college hockey, of course,
21:03
Speaker 1: but we really appreciate your time in getting this started.
21:06
Speaker 2: Thank you, Todd, and thank you, Nicole. You guys are fantastic,
21:08
Speaker 2: and thanks for all you do.
21:09
Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.