Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 3 - MHOC Show Jan 22

Transcript

Seg 3 - MHOC Show Jan 22 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Back at Bear Smoke House Barbecue and Downtown Hartford for the Yukon Men's Hockey Coaches
• 0:05
  Show with head coach Mike Cavanaugh. On Thursday night, we have a basketball
• 0:10
  Coaches show twin bill six o'clock Men's Hoops with Dan Hurley and Mike Crispino.
• 0:14
  Then at seven o'clock it's Women's Hoop with Gino Oriema and Bob Joyce from Cafe
• 0:19
  aur in Manchester. That's here along the Yukon Sports Network, the Varsity Network
• 0:23
  app, and the Varsitynetwork dot com. Connecticut Ice is upon us, Mike,
• 0:29
  And this is something that for a couple of years now you've said it's
• 0:34
  a trophy. You've made sure the guys know that this is something that you
• 0:38
  want to go get and it seems like yet again talking with Jake flu talking
• 0:44
  with Jack Pascucci earlier today, the guys want to go out and get a
• 0:47
  trophy. Yeah, I hope. So, I mean that's one of the
• 0:51
  things that is a pillar of our program. You know, we want to
• 0:54
  graduate our players, we want to make them better men, and we want
• 0:58
  to win trophies. So it's a great opportunity this weekend. Sacred Heart is
• 1:03
  the opening act. The game is the earlier of the two games. Yukon
• 1:07
  is the host school at the XL Center. So did you have a decision
• 1:11
  to make in terms of which game you wanted the time slot on Friday night?
• 1:17
  Yeah, we did, and you know, we chose the early game.
• 1:21
  I think our fans are going to come out and support it. It's
• 1:23
  a Friday afternoon, and I feel like post COVID that a lot of people
• 1:30
  don't even go in the office on Friday exactly more so, but it's it's
• 1:34
  a you know, one the one reason I like playing the early game is
• 1:38
  because you know when it's going to start, and also you know, if
• 1:42
  you're successful, it gives you a little more rest for the next day.
• 1:47
  So the opponent is Sacred Heart. It's obviously Connecticut eight Sacred Heart, Yale
• 1:52
  Quinnipiac. How do you handle a weekend like this where I mean, do
• 1:57
  you prep for an opponent less than you would on a weekend where you know
• 2:01
  you've got you and h twice in three days? Now? I think you,
• 2:07
  I mean, we're going to prepare for Sacred Heart. I respect CJ.
• 2:09
  Maritol and runs a phenomenal program down there. You know, We've had
• 2:16
  many battles with them and they've got the better of us on a number of
• 2:20
  times. So I really have a lot of respect for the way he runs
• 2:23
  his program, the way he coaches his team, how hard his team plays.
• 2:28
  It's going to be a battle Friday, There's no question about that.
• 2:30
  But to answer your question, we don't prepare for Quinnipiac or Yale at all,
• 2:36
  like we're just preparing for Sacred Heart. The best way to prepare for
• 2:39
  Quinnipiac and Yale is to play our very best game against Sacred Heart and then
• 2:45
  watch the next game and you know, get to get a chance to scout
• 2:50
  them. Then you mentioned in the previous segment when talking about players that have
• 2:54
  improved a lot, Jack Pascucci were to to be talking with him and Jake
• 2:58
  Balou in the next couple of segments here. So for Jack, seven games
• 3:01
  last year as a freshman he played, he's now started seven straight games.
• 3:06
  For you've been in the lineup seven straight games, So from last year to
• 3:09
  this year, how do you grow that much where it becomes what it is
• 3:14
  with him being in the lineup. Well, I think it's you know,
• 3:16
  it's a credit to Jack more than anybody else. He's always kept a great
• 3:22
  attitude. He's worked hard. Tyler Helton works with our defenseman, and he's
• 3:27
  watched countless film with Tyler, and Jack has really learned to simplify his game.
• 3:32
  You know, Wyatt Newpower had a similar type experience here. He didn't
• 3:37
  play much as a freshman and sophomore, and you know, turned himself into
• 3:40
  Hockey East Defenseman of the Year or Defensive Defenseman of the Year. So Jack
• 3:46
  is doing a He's very coachable, He's a strong, tough kid, and
• 3:52
  he's playing to his strengths right now and it's fun to watch. I think
• 3:58
  one of the questions that we asked him was his partners pairing mate for most
• 4:04
  of the season, has Ben Harrison Reeese right? And he's said that they
• 4:08
  get along so well because they're both very boring defenceman. Does that sound about
• 4:13
  right, that there's just very boring guys out there. Yeah, I would
• 4:15
  agree with that, But boring's good. You know, there's a lot of
• 4:17
  times when you watch a hockey game if you don't notice a defenseman, he
• 4:21
  probably played pretty well. Like there's always going to be the Brian Leach and
• 4:27
  the Cale mccarr who Bobby Yorke type, like, you know, like you
• 4:30
  can't help but not notice them because they're up ice all the time and they're
• 4:32
  creating offense. But the majority of the defensemen are not Brian Leech or Cale
• 4:38
  mccarr. They're you know, very good quality, stay home defenseman. You
• 4:43
  know, Brandon Carlow for the Boston Bruins. There's countless defensemen like that that
• 4:49
  are just really solid, reliable defenders who can break pucks out and keep the
• 4:57
  other team, you know, out of your zone. And the other guy
• 5:00
  that we're gonna be talking to is Jay Valou four games back from injury when
• 5:03
  he went down. Initially, what did you think his season was going to
• 5:08
  look like at this point? I didn't know. I mean, it was
• 5:12
  very unfortunate. It was a Thursday before our first game we actually yeah,
• 5:17
  I think it was a last practice at home before we were going to go
• 5:20
  on the road. And it was unfortunate, and it took a lot longer,
• 5:26
  Like the the severity of the injury was a lot more intricate than I
• 5:32
  thought, so it took longer for him to come back. But again,
• 5:36
  when you talk about reliable, I think Bill Belichick used to say, just
• 5:42
  be a player. I know what I'm gonna get every day, you know.
• 5:46
  And I know what we're gonna get from Jake Valou every single day,
• 5:49
  whether it's Tuesday, Tomorrow and practice or Friday against Sacred Heart, I know
• 5:55
  exactly what we're going to get. And we're going to get a very reliable
• 5:58
  player, who's positionally sent, who's gonna win his one on one battles and
• 6:04
  just be the ultimate teammate trying to advance us to a final game. And
• 6:10
  you'll hear that conversation coming up next in which Jake pours heaps of praise on
• 6:15
  both Ed Blair and Moe for getting him to where he is now or he
• 6:19
  should Yeah, again, he's become better friends with him than I think he
• 6:24
  wants to be. But it's all part of the process rehabbing his way back
• 6:28
  from a knee injury. Those conversations come at you next