Latest / Coaches Corner / MHOC Coach Mike Cavanaugh Zoom Nov 13 - BC Week

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MHOC Coach Mike Cavanaugh Zoom Nov 13 - BC Week · Coaches Corner

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: All right, coach, turning attention to another Hockey East weekend.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Just want to get your thoughts heading into this upcoming
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: one game matchup against number two Boston College.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, we're certainly going to be tested Friday night.
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  Speaker 2: We're gonna find out what we have for a team,
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  Speaker 2: especially coming off for last weekend's disappointing weekend and now
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  Speaker 2: we're playing BC. Who is I'm not sure they have
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  Speaker 2: a weakness on their team. They're you know, they're excellent
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  Speaker 2: in goal, They've got a lot of returning defensemen, they're
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  Speaker 2: dynamic up front, the special teams are very good. So
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  Speaker 2: and they're well coached. So we're gonna have a great
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  Speaker 2: test in front of us on Friday night.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Awesome, all right, we'll open up for questions. Who wants
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  Speaker 3: to start us off? Go ahead? Randy?
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  Speaker 4: All right, good morning, cav How you doing today? I'm great, Randy,
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  Speaker 4: you I'm all right, thank you? So what what a
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  Speaker 4: style of play do you like? What are you looking
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  Speaker 4: for this week from your team? To Negate all you know,
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  Speaker 4: like you said, they have no weaknesses. What do you
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  Speaker 4: have to do you know to gain some success this weekend?
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  Speaker 2: I think of regardless who we play, we have to
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  Speaker 2: make better decisions with the puck. At times, I feel
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: like a lot of the other team's offense is coming
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: off of us mismanaging the puck. And sometimes, you know, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: this past weekend there were a couple unlucky breaks where
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  Speaker 2: puck's bounced over sticks. But we're also giving up chances
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  Speaker 2: because of a breakdown and structure, and that's an area
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  Speaker 2: where we have to clean up.
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  Speaker 4: You mentioned the turnovers and managing the puck. Is it
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  Speaker 4: a case where you know, you have a young team
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  Speaker 4: and maybe they're fighting it a little bit. One bad
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  Speaker 4: play kind of sticks in someone's mind and maybe leads
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  Speaker 4: to indecision the next time they get the puck.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes maybe I think, you know, this past weekend on
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if the numbers are exact, but I
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  Speaker 2: think we had the puck on Friday night in the
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  Speaker 2: offensive zone for fourteen minutes. On Saturday we had it
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  Speaker 2: for fifteen minutes, and I think Merrimack had it for
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  Speaker 2: like six minutes in our zone, you know, both nights.
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  Speaker 2: And sometimes when you have that much offensive zone time,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you get aggressive with your especially when you're
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  Speaker 2: not scoring. Your defensemen get aggressive and they jump into
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  Speaker 2: the play a little bit more and we've had some
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  Speaker 2: success doing that, interchanging forwards and defensemen. But when the
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  Speaker 2: puck you still have to have defensive integrity when you're
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  Speaker 2: in the other team's offensives or you know, when you're
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: in your offensive zone, and I think at times we
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  Speaker 2: lack that. We get out of position and now we're
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  Speaker 2: giving up an oddoman rush.
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  Speaker 4: And you mentioned that BC has like no weaknesses.
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  Speaker 2: But one thing that.
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  Speaker 4: Pops in your favor of late is the power play.
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  Speaker 4: I think you've scored on the power play three straight games.
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  Speaker 4: They're perfect on.
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  Speaker 5: The penalty kill.
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  Speaker 4: What do you have to do on the power play
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  Speaker 4: against their p K to to, you know, keep sustaining
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  Speaker 4: the the ozone ozone time that you've displayed late.
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  Speaker 2: I think I think we just have to keep doing
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  Speaker 2: what we're doing on the power play. I really like
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  Speaker 2: where it's gone the past. As you mentioned in the
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  Speaker 2: past three games. I think you know, there was maybe
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  Speaker 2: of the eleven games we've played, maybe there were two
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  Speaker 2: games right in the degree where UH proficient on the
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  Speaker 2: power play. The other ones I thought were pretty good.
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  Speaker 2: We just and score and now we're starting to see
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  Speaker 2: UH some results from moving the pot quickly and getting
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  Speaker 2: it to the net.
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  Speaker 4: Finally, what'd you you know? Sitar picked up his first point,
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  Speaker 4: Larkin had his first goal. There seemed to be some
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  Speaker 4: spark from that line. I don't know what happens this weekend,
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  Speaker 4: but as far as Star, he's got his you know,
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  Speaker 4: feet under him a little bit. Are you looking for
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  Speaker 4: maybe him to take that next step this weekend?
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  Speaker 2: I think so. I thought that was a good step
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  Speaker 2: for him. I thought that he probably played his best
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  Speaker 2: game he's played on Saturday here and not because of
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  Speaker 2: the assist I thought he was pretty good in all
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  Speaker 2: three zones, and it was really good on face offs,
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  Speaker 2: which is an area that is a strength for him.
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  Speaker 2: So we need him to continue to excel in that area.
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  Speaker 6: Okay, thank you, yep, I'll jump in because my my, my,
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  Speaker 6: raising the hand isn't working.
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  Speaker 2: How is how is paid? He's fine. He's practiced the
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: past two days, so he's fine. He's good to go.
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  Speaker 6: When you went back, Cavin looked at Friday and Saturday,
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  Speaker 6: did you see anything maybe that you didn't see from
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  Speaker 6: the bench that was good or not so good?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I guess I'd like to get a little
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  Speaker 2: more into the blue paint on Saturday, Joe, I guess
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  Speaker 2: my biggest concern was I didn't like our energy really
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  Speaker 2: in the first two periods. I thought we didn't play bad,
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  Speaker 2: we just didn't have that energy that we've been playing
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  Speaker 2: with all year long. So that was a bit of
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  Speaker 2: a concern and we've addressed that this week again. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I thought we played a pretty good road game on Friday.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we didn't score, and we had a couple turnover,
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  Speaker 2: as I said, end up in the back of our net,
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  Speaker 2: and that was the difference. BC.
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  Speaker 6: We talk a lot because of the kids upfront about
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  Speaker 6: their offense and maybe not enough about their defense. Fowlers
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  Speaker 6: turned into the one of the best goalers in the league.
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  Speaker 6: And their D, I don't know, the meet Caps seems
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  Speaker 6: kind of underrated. Can you talk about that a little
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  Speaker 6: bit please?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I think their d are very good. I
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  Speaker 2: would agree with you. You know, they've added a couple
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  Speaker 2: freshmen to that group, but they have a pretty experienced
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  Speaker 2: group with Powell and rest Chuck, you know, Gustavson. They've
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  Speaker 2: got some experienced defenseman back there who've played a lot
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  Speaker 2: of college hockey, And I would agree with you. I
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  Speaker 2: think they're underrated as well.
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  Speaker 6: Are you at the stage now where you think Tiscano,
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  Speaker 6: even though what happens on Saturday, Tiscan has become a
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  Speaker 6: pretty good, all nice advantage for you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I do. I do. I think, especially you know,
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  Speaker 2: when we get the out into it early. I think
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  Speaker 2: it's a great home mis advantage for us. And what
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  Speaker 2: did you see from Jake Percival this past weekend? I
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  Speaker 2: mean we had talked last week. It seemed to be
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  Speaker 2: scuffling a little bit. Did you see better from him? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: I thought he played pretty well. I thought he was
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  Speaker 2: back to playing his brand of hockey. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: you're going to have ups and downs throughout a season.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm not too concerned about Jake because as long
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  Speaker 2: as he's skating and competing, he's a valuable component for
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  Speaker 2: our club.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Thanks Dan, we'll jump over to you thinks.
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  Speaker 5: So we got the CHL ruling last week. Yeah, we'll
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  Speaker 5: play college hockey. Just what was your initial reaction to
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  Speaker 5: the news.
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  Speaker 2: So my initial reaction is if we all worked together,
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  Speaker 2: I think it could be beneficial for hockey in general.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if the CHL still tries to compete and
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  Speaker 2: keep kids longer than they should in junior hockey. Then
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  Speaker 2: then it's going to be a sticky situation and hopefully
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  Speaker 2: that the NHL will jump in and rectify it, because
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  Speaker 2: they can't. They're really the only ones who can step
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  Speaker 2: in and say, let's make sure everybody plays nice in
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  Speaker 2: the sandbox, you know. But if they don't want to
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  Speaker 2: and the NHL stays out of it, which I hope
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  Speaker 2: they don't, because it could be really good for all
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  Speaker 2: of hockey and especially for the NHL if we just
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  Speaker 2: have you know, the pyramid is partly there's junior hockey
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  Speaker 2: and then there's college, and then there's the NHL. And
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  Speaker 2: some kids may skip that college step, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: Conobidard might and the Sydney Crossby might, but the majority
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  Speaker 2: of hockey players cannot skip that step. And if the
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  Speaker 2: NHL advocates for that type of development system, then I
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  Speaker 2: think it's gonna be great for everybody, because the CHL
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  Speaker 2: is going to get some American players that they normally
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't have got who wanted to go to college, and
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  Speaker 2: even Canadian players like Maclin Celebraini. They're going to go
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  Speaker 2: to play junior hockey in Canada or wherever before they
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  Speaker 2: go to college. But the problem is if they go
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  Speaker 2: to play Canadian hockey and they don't let them go
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  Speaker 2: to school and they don't let them get a diploma,
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  Speaker 2: you know, those types of things. That's where we're going
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  Speaker 2: to have.
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  Speaker 5: Issues for your own program. Just what discussions have you
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  Speaker 5: had about how this could impact you guys.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're looking at some players that could certainly help us.
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  Speaker 2: It's interesting, Dan, because there's a lot of things moving
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  Speaker 2: parts right now. We're still trying to figure out where
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  Speaker 2: the roster limits are going. You know, I don't think
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  Speaker 2: it's safe for college hockey to have twenty six roster spots.
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  Speaker 2: Me look at our team right now. We have three
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  Speaker 2: players out, so that means we'd be practicing with twenty
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  Speaker 2: three players and only two goaltenders if we were stuck
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  Speaker 2: in it was a hard twenty six set number. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what you do if you had two
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  Speaker 2: goaltenders out, which we did at one point this season.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you're is that twenty six, like I said,
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  Speaker 2: a hard, fast twenty six or can you have replacement players?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. Like these are the things we need
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  Speaker 2: to get answered. And it's a little frustrating because you're
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  Speaker 2: trying to build your team for next year, but you
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  Speaker 2: don't know what the rules are yet, so we're all
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  Speaker 2: kind of, you know, in limbo right now. It might
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  Speaker 2: be early.
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  Speaker 5: But how much are you going to look at the
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  Speaker 5: CHL compared to the VCHL where you've had a lot
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  Speaker 5: of success in the USHL, which is just obviously a
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  Speaker 5: well known college feeder.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're going to continue to look at the USHL.
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  Speaker 2: I think you bring up a great point. There's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of CHL players who I think are going to
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  Speaker 2: be eligible that are better than players in the VHL.
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  Speaker 2: It's a better league. You're going to get better players.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: So that's something we're going to have to take a
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  Speaker 2: look at for sure.
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  Speaker 5: Then yesterday AIIC announced that it's dropping program and just
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  Speaker 5: former conference mate even though you were only here a
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  Speaker 5: short time in Atlanta Hockey, but team you've played plenty
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  Speaker 5: since you got here. Just your reaction, your reaction to that.
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  Speaker 2: News, you know, I'm not surprised. I guess I was
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  Speaker 2: surprised yesterday when I saw it. I'm not surprised. In general,
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  Speaker 2: I think you're going to see more teams doing that
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  Speaker 2: because as we get into this nil and revenue sharing,
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  Speaker 2: and if they go to twenty six scholarships, there's not
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  Speaker 2: many teams. There's going to be a lot of teams
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  Speaker 2: that realistically can't compete with that. And I've said, the
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  Speaker 2: strange thing is there's more structure and pro sports than
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  Speaker 2: there are in college sports right now, because you have
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: salary caps, and you have contracts where people can't just
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: jump from one team to another. You know, there's entry
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  Speaker 2: level contracts where you can't make ten million coming into
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  Speaker 2: the league, or you know, there's structure in pro sports
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  Speaker 2: right now. There's not any structure in college athletics. So
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't surprise me. I think there's gonna be a
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  Speaker 2: lot of teams. Let's say we can't compete for a
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: national championship. What are we doing? You know, why are
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: we bleeding money? Let's just go Division two where we
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: can compete. Yeah.
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  Speaker 6: Is there a great disparity from what you know in
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: the league from teams.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: As far as nil is concerned. No, I don't know
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  Speaker 2: the specific numbers in our league. Joe, I would say,
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  Speaker 2: this great disparity between the big ten, you know, and
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  Speaker 2: the rest of us. Yeah, you know, so as far
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  Speaker 2: as money goes, yeah, I would say that there's definitely
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  Speaker 2: disparity there. I mean Big ten is the only power
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: for conference in college hockey, right, they have SEC Big
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  Speaker 2: twelve and you know, I guess BC's and ACC school
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  Speaker 2: But you know, I don't think that. I don't even
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  Speaker 2: think that they are. And I l collective is at
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  Speaker 2: the level of the Big ten, Right?
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  Speaker 4: Is it possible we see you know, bigger name schools
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  Speaker 4: coming to Division one hockey. You know there's people love
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: to always speculate about what school would make for a
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: good hockey school. Do you see any shift in the
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: other direction for you know, big brand schools.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know, it's an interest question. I mean it
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: would have happened already, wouldn't enough, you know, I know,
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  Speaker 2: like Illinois talked about it. You know I've always heard
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Washington and Oregon and Washington State. I mean, yeah, they're prime,
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  Speaker 2: Like there's a lot of good hockey players within three
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  Speaker 2: hours of those schools. But do they really want to
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: add that expense because it's not just adding men's hockey,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: it's adding women's hockey too. To say compliant with Title nine,
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  Speaker 2: it's a big expense. You got to build an arena,
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  Speaker 2: you get scholarships. You you know, why are they going
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  Speaker 2: to want to take off their bottom line to add hockey?
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  Speaker 2: Because I don't know how many hockey programs actually make money.
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  Speaker 2: We don't really have a television deal, and the television
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  Speaker 2: deal is what makes you money. I read something where
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: and I don't know if this is true. You'd have
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: to fact check it. But I don't know if Ductors
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: makes money and they're a big ten school, you know,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: I mean for what they have to spend. So if
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: you're Washington and Oregon and let's say you're making twenty
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: million dollars a year as an athletic department, why would
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: you want to cut into that adding hockey. That's probably
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: two sports that are going to cost you so that
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: that that's just the business side of it. I think
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: it would be great because it would be awesome if Oregon, Oregon, Washington,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Washington State, Oregon State, you know, had hockey. That'd be great.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: We got anything else for coach guys? Awesome? Well, thanks everyone,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: good luck this weekend?
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: All right? Thanks y Yeah bye,