Latest / Coaches Corner / MHOC Coach Mike Cavanaugh Zoom - January 7

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MHOC Coach Mike Cavanaugh Zoom - January 7 · Coaches Corner

0:02
Speaker 1: All right, coach.
0:03
Speaker 2: Back to Hockey East action following the the winner break
0:07
Speaker 2: two game matchup versus you Mass lowl this weekend. Just
0:10
Speaker 2: want to get your thoughts heading into the weekend series
0:13
Speaker 2: starting with Friday and Hartford.
0:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we certainly we're pleased with, you know, our
0:20
Speaker 3: weekend against Long Island. I thought those were two important games,
0:24
Speaker 3: especially for US nationally in the NPI, you know, and
0:29
Speaker 3: now we're back in a league play and it's it's
0:33
Speaker 3: always a grind when you're in league play. So I
0:36
Speaker 3: know Lowell played out in the Cactus Cup and I
0:41
Speaker 3: watched a couple of those games, and you know, right now,
0:45
Speaker 3: Dylan Bentley's arguably the hottest player in the country. He's
0:47
Speaker 3: got I think five goals in his last three games,
0:50
Speaker 3: and he's always played pretty well against us, so we're
0:52
Speaker 3: certainly going to have to, you know, know when he's
0:58
Speaker 3: on the ice, and you know, I think they've been
1:01
Speaker 3: playing pretty solid. I've watched those games out there. I
1:04
Speaker 3: saw the game against Maine where I thought they played
1:07
Speaker 3: really well up there. So we know we're gonna have
1:09
Speaker 3: our hands full this weekend.
1:13
Speaker 2: Awesome, Jim, We're gonna start with you because I know
1:15
Speaker 2: you got to got to jump off in a few minutes.
1:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I appreciate it.
1:20
Speaker 4: I just have a couple for you, Cap, Happy New Year,
1:23
Speaker 4: same tea, Thank you. I just want to hit on
1:26
Speaker 4: Tyler Music and you know, obviously his numbers last year
1:29
Speaker 4: were really.
1:29
Speaker 1: Good, they've improved.
1:30
Speaker 4: What what has he done to improve his play this year?
1:34
Speaker 3: You know, I just think he's just kept working Jim,
1:37
Speaker 3: you know, he he I mean, I've never talked to
1:42
Speaker 3: him about this, but he probably came into school a
1:44
Speaker 3: little bit early.
1:45
Speaker 5: Uh.
1:46
Speaker 3: You know, it's hard for a true freshman to come
1:49
Speaker 3: in and really make a difference. I think in college hockey,
1:51
Speaker 3: you see most goaltenders when they come in they've played
1:54
Speaker 3: an extra year of juniors and they've seen a lot
1:56
Speaker 3: of pucks. And he dealt with some injuries too early
2:00
Speaker 3: on in his career. I think now, you know, knock
2:03
Speaker 3: on wood, he's been healthy and he's you know, really
2:08
Speaker 3: embraced the role of being the number one goaltender.
2:13
Speaker 4: Just looking at your offense a little bit. I want
2:15
Speaker 4: to just hit on Shahan and what he's done in
2:18
Speaker 4: terms of improving his production.
2:20
Speaker 1: What have you seen in his improvement?
2:23
Speaker 3: You know, it's it was coming at the end of
2:25
Speaker 3: last year. I think he's always been able to skate
2:29
Speaker 3: really well, and he shoots the puck extremely well also,
2:34
Speaker 3: And now he's just I think he's comfortable in our systems, Jim.
2:38
Speaker 3: He's really clicking with his line mates and he's playing
2:42
Speaker 3: with a lot of confidence. And you know, it reminds
2:45
Speaker 3: me a lot of Joey Muldowney. Last year. It was
2:48
Speaker 3: very similar with him. You know, he was a kid
2:50
Speaker 3: that came in and I thought towards the end of
2:52
Speaker 3: his freshman year he really made great strides and he
2:55
Speaker 3: was someone we trusted to put on the ice. And
2:57
Speaker 3: I feel the same way about Cayden.
3:01
Speaker 4: And last one for me, just as special teams numbers
3:04
Speaker 4: look really good. If you had to pick something out
3:06
Speaker 4: from both the powerplays penalty killer, you're doing well right now?
3:09
Speaker 1: What is it? Well one?
3:12
Speaker 3: Uh, we don't take in a lot of penalties, So
3:16
Speaker 3: you know, if you're not having to kill five or
3:17
Speaker 3: six penalties a game and it's so down to two
3:19
Speaker 3: or three, you know, you certainly can be a lot
3:23
Speaker 3: more aggressive.
3:24
Speaker 1: Uh.
3:25
Speaker 3: You know your guys are rested because we have you know,
3:28
Speaker 3: Muldowney tattle.
3:30
Speaker 1: Uh.
3:31
Speaker 3: They play on the power play as well. So if
3:34
Speaker 3: they're you know, three or four power plays and three
3:37
Speaker 3: or four penalty kills, you can get tired. But you know,
3:42
Speaker 3: I think that we've started to work some other guys
3:45
Speaker 3: into the penalty kill. For a while, we were just
3:47
Speaker 3: killing four killers up front, but now we've kind of
3:50
Speaker 3: got a rotation of six or seven now that guys
3:53
Speaker 3: have uh understand, you know, what they're doing, and guys
3:58
Speaker 3: that we trust out there. So I think that also
4:00
Speaker 3: helps when you can, you know, roll, like I said,
4:04
Speaker 3: seven penalty killers out there that have to kill only
4:07
Speaker 3: thirty seconds in a whack. It's much easier than you know,
4:11
Speaker 3: trying to roll two sets of penalty killers.
4:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, listen, I appreciate it everybody for letting me go
4:17
Speaker 4: first here. I'll try to say it before the game
4:19
Speaker 4: on Saturday.
4:19
Speaker 3: Sounds good, Jimmy looks look forward to seeing you.
4:23
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
4:23
Speaker 6: Thank you, all right, Joe, go ahead, Thanks morning, cav
4:28
Speaker 6: How are you, Good morning, Joe?
4:29
Speaker 3: I'm great.
4:30
Speaker 1: Thanks.
4:31
Speaker 6: Following up on Jimmy's question about Tyler, do you think
4:36
Speaker 6: he's a kid who almost thrives on working more? I mean,
4:38
Speaker 6: last year I obviously had a good year, splitting time
4:41
Speaker 6: with Callum, but he's even been he's even played better
4:44
Speaker 6: this year. Do you think part of that is just
4:46
Speaker 6: because of being the number one guy?
4:50
Speaker 3: I think a lot of it has to do with
4:52
Speaker 3: his work ethic. I don't know if it. You know,
4:54
Speaker 3: he played well last year, right, very good last year,
4:58
Speaker 3: So I think he's a adapted very well to Alex Weslin.
5:02
Speaker 3: I think the two of them have a great rapport
5:05
Speaker 3: and Alex has done a good job with him and
5:07
Speaker 3: as well as Cam. Cam's gotten a lot better as well.
5:11
Speaker 3: You know from what I've watched in practice from the
5:13
Speaker 3: beginning of the season to now. So I just think
5:16
Speaker 3: Tyler's growing maturing, and that's what we want from players
5:20
Speaker 3: in this program. We want to see them continually getting better.
5:25
Speaker 6: Tray Scotts kid who missed a little bit of time,
5:26
Speaker 6: but he's played, looks like he's played really well when
5:29
Speaker 6: he's come back. He's gotten an assist in like five
5:32
Speaker 6: of six games. And you number one point guy on
5:36
Speaker 6: the on the power play. Where have you seen improvement
5:38
Speaker 6: in his games cap from the start of the year
5:41
Speaker 6: to now.
5:42
Speaker 3: Ah. I thought in the beginning of the year he
5:46
Speaker 3: was fighting the puck a little bit, and in some cases,
5:51
Speaker 3: you know, he got injured, and I think that was
5:54
Speaker 3: a really good reset for him because I think he's
5:56
Speaker 3: been completely He was starting to get better fo he
6:00
Speaker 3: got hurt, and then he just got off to a
6:03
Speaker 3: slow start, Joe, and that happens sometimes, But now I
6:06
Speaker 3: feel like he's really dialed in and playing great hockey.
6:12
Speaker 3: And then one other guy in the blue line.
6:13
Speaker 6: We thought, Randy and I thought that Kaylee's performance in
6:17
Speaker 6: the LU home game might have been one of his
6:19
Speaker 6: best games of the year to us, at least to me.
6:23
Speaker 6: I can't speak for Randy. I never do well sometimes,
6:26
Speaker 6: but it seems like his consistency has gotten better.
6:30
Speaker 3: He has his defense. You know, a lot of people
6:33
Speaker 3: look at kay and he's an undersized defenseman and oh,
6:36
Speaker 3: he must be a guy that runs your power playing.
6:38
Speaker 3: He's an offensive guy. Well, he does have good offensive skill.
6:43
Speaker 3: I think his defense is his calling card. I think
6:46
Speaker 3: it's so underrated, but he's really tough to beat one
6:51
Speaker 3: on one. His stick is elite. He makes great plays
6:56
Speaker 3: and he defends with his feet. So you know, he's
7:00
Speaker 3: been a guy that we really trust, especially late in games.
7:05
Speaker 1: Thank you, Hi, Randy, Go ahead, thank you.
7:08
Speaker 7: Good morning, cav Good morning Randy. One final question on
7:14
Speaker 7: music and it's I could be wrong, but does it
7:17
Speaker 7: is he challenging the shooter maybe a little bit more
7:20
Speaker 7: this year as far as his angles and being a
7:22
Speaker 7: little more aggressive at the top and outside of his crease.
7:27
Speaker 3: Shee's. I don't know. I'd have to ask him. I
7:29
Speaker 3: haven't noticed it. I mean, I just think he's playing
7:33
Speaker 3: a really efficient I think he's efficient in his movements.
7:37
Speaker 3: I think he's controlling rebounds. That's an area where I
7:41
Speaker 3: think he's really gotten better and he's just playing with
7:45
Speaker 3: a lot of confidence. So but I'm sure that in
7:49
Speaker 3: certain situations when it's called upon, Yeah, he's probably challenging
7:52
Speaker 3: the shooter offensively.
7:56
Speaker 7: It seems all year you've had that consistency as far
7:59
Speaker 7: as balance on all four lines, no matter what the
8:03
Speaker 7: combinations are. Is that a testament to you know, so
8:07
Speaker 7: many guys that have come back this year just having
8:11
Speaker 7: the familiarity from last year, and no matter what combinations
8:14
Speaker 7: you put together, it seems night after night you're getting
8:17
Speaker 7: that consistent play from all four lines.
8:21
Speaker 1: Yeah.
8:21
Speaker 3: And I just think that, you know, we have good forwards,
8:25
Speaker 3: We have some good forwards. Who understand how we want
8:27
Speaker 3: to play. You know, there's nothing revolutionary about our style
8:34
Speaker 3: of play. We work hard, we finish checks. When we
8:38
Speaker 3: get the puck, we try to get it to the net,
8:40
Speaker 3: and we try to make plays, you know, and we
8:44
Speaker 3: try to keep the game simple. I think when we
8:47
Speaker 3: maybe over complicate the game, that's when our offense can
8:50
Speaker 3: get stale. But when we keep the game simple and
8:52
Speaker 3: we play north, you know, we can create a lot
8:57
Speaker 3: of opportunities for ourselves.
8:59
Speaker 7: Okay, And finally on UMass loll. You know, they always
9:03
Speaker 7: have a sound structure and they're tight in the neutral zone.
9:06
Speaker 7: I imagine that's the case this year. I'll be looking
9:09
Speaker 7: at them a little bit before Friday's game. But what
9:13
Speaker 7: are the challenges they pose? And you know, what's the
9:16
Speaker 7: what's the counter to what they run?
9:19
Speaker 3: Well? I think norm has been added a long time,
9:21
Speaker 3: and they're always well coached there. They're disciplined, they're structured
9:26
Speaker 3: in their systems, they don't beat themselves, and they always
9:30
Speaker 3: get solid goaltending. So we know that in all likelihood
9:35
Speaker 3: it's probably a one goal game, and we've got to
9:37
Speaker 3: be comfortable playing in those games.
9:41
Speaker 1: Thank you, Sure, all right, Daniel go ahead.
9:46
Speaker 8: You've said in the past that plus minus isn't a
9:49
Speaker 8: stat to really pay attention to unless someone's super high
9:52
Speaker 8: or super low. But Vikings plus eighteen right now, which
9:56
Speaker 8: is the next highest, is Kai at ten. So just
10:00
Speaker 8: what has made him so effective just in or maybe
10:06
Speaker 8: not effective, but what's made that number so high for
10:08
Speaker 8: him this season.
10:10
Speaker 6: You know?
10:10
Speaker 3: And what's more impressive is he plays against the other
10:13
Speaker 3: team's top line quite a bit. He's just a superb defender. Dan,
10:19
Speaker 3: He's just elite with his stick, you know, at six six,
10:23
Speaker 3: he covers a lot of ground. His skating has gotten better,
10:26
Speaker 3: But I think where he's very underrated is his puck skills.
10:29
Speaker 3: He just makes good decisions with the puck. Very rarely
10:33
Speaker 3: does he try to force something. And when you find
10:36
Speaker 3: defensemen that are struggling defensively, it's usually because they don't
10:42
Speaker 3: make a tape to tape outlet pass. They'll put it
10:45
Speaker 3: in a guy's skates. They'll try to force a play
10:49
Speaker 3: through the neutral zone that turns over and comes back
10:51
Speaker 3: at him, you know. So he just makes good decisions
10:55
Speaker 3: with the puck. He's an elite defender an offense, he's
11:01
Speaker 3: better than what he gets credit.
11:02
Speaker 8: For was he when you first saw him in stores?
11:09
Speaker 8: Once he transferred in, was he better than you maybe anticipated?
11:12
Speaker 8: Or has he made pretty notable stride since then? Is
11:15
Speaker 8: there a combination of the two.
11:18
Speaker 3: You know, he had played for Nick Perusi obviously Northern Michigan,
11:21
Speaker 3: and Nick had said, this is a kid that came
11:24
Speaker 3: in pretty raw, but he worked his way in to
11:26
Speaker 3: be one of our top defensemen at Northern. I think,
11:29
Speaker 3: you know, his best hockey's in front of him, and
11:31
Speaker 3: Nick had him labeled perfectly. I think that it's exactly
11:36
Speaker 3: what he was, and he's gotten better and better for
11:40
Speaker 3: us here and again he's another one who watched his
11:43
Speaker 3: film with Tyler Helton. He works at his game. He's
11:46
Speaker 3: down here in the morning working on his deficiencies. So
11:50
Speaker 3: he's someone that puts in a lot of work to
11:52
Speaker 3: be very good.
11:54
Speaker 8: Then, just looking at your top line, the tattle line,
12:00
Speaker 8: Ryan shooting under ten percent, Joey's shooting around eleven percent,
12:04
Speaker 8: Jake's shooting just under eight percent. Is that just a
12:08
Speaker 8: product of bad luck or maybe going against the other
12:11
Speaker 8: team's top line, or is it just a little bit
12:13
Speaker 8: of a statistical oddity.
12:16
Speaker 3: Well, I don't think it's going to stay there long,
12:18
Speaker 3: which should bode well for us, hopefully that those numbers
12:22
Speaker 3: do go up because they're both they're all three are
12:25
Speaker 3: excellent goal scorers, and the fact that we're getting contributions
12:30
Speaker 3: from everybody else is one of the reasons why we've
12:33
Speaker 3: been successful, because if we were relying just on them,
12:36
Speaker 3: it would be you know, we wouldn't be scoring the
12:39
Speaker 3: way we are. So I'm excited to see when they
12:44
Speaker 3: break out of that. I think we could be a
12:46
Speaker 3: real dangerous team if that happens. Thanks, Well, when that happens,
12:51
Speaker 3: I should.
12:51
Speaker 1: Say, Tom, go ahead, Yeah, Mike.
12:58
Speaker 9: SPEC's kind of leading into that how versus when or
13:03
Speaker 9: if versus when? You know, this is that time of
13:06
Speaker 9: the year you cross into the new year. It's trophy season, right,
13:09
Speaker 9: You've got Connecticut Ice coming up, You've got the regular
13:12
Speaker 9: season title and all of those things. What's your level
13:16
Speaker 9: of confidence in this team compared to other teams at
13:19
Speaker 9: this time of year? You more confident than you've ever
13:22
Speaker 9: been or as confident? And if so, what gives you
13:25
Speaker 9: the optimism this year?
13:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a it's a slippery slope, domb because I
13:34
Speaker 3: I have a lot of confidence in this team. To
13:36
Speaker 3: play very well Friday night. I try to stay away
13:38
Speaker 3: from getting two past that. And I know it's a cliche,
13:42
Speaker 3: and you hear coaches say you got to take one
13:44
Speaker 3: game at a time, but if you don't, you got
13:48
Speaker 3: to drive yourself crazy, and the anxiety level that you'll
13:52
Speaker 3: put yourself through isn't worth it. It just isn't. Because
13:57
Speaker 3: I can't look forward to Saturday nights game at Low
14:00
Speaker 3: or Vermont, or we got BC coming, we got to
14:03
Speaker 3: go to Maine like all of a sudden, you just
14:06
Speaker 3: you'll work yourself into a tizzy. So I just really
14:09
Speaker 3: try to stay focused on this game at you know,
14:13
Speaker 3: People's Bank on Friday night, and if we prepare really well,
14:18
Speaker 3: then I feel very confident going into that game that
14:21
Speaker 3: we have a chance to be successful. That being said,
14:26
Speaker 3: you know, looking in the telescope, yeah, I think that
14:30
Speaker 3: this team hasn't given me any reason to believe that
14:35
Speaker 3: winning the regular season title is pie in the sky.
14:39
Speaker 3: Thinking it's certainly there, and I'm not sure that you know,
14:44
Speaker 3: there's one team running away with it. So if we
14:50
Speaker 3: keep playing the way we're capable of playing, and we
14:53
Speaker 3: put in the work, all those goals are attainable. Tom,
14:56
Speaker 3: I feel confident that all those goals could be attainable
14:59
Speaker 3: this year.
15:00
Speaker 9: And you know, I just want to You've always one
15:03
Speaker 9: of the things that has been a little bit unique
15:05
Speaker 9: is that you've always said how you've never been shy
15:08
Speaker 9: about talking about those great goals. No, so when you
15:12
Speaker 9: talk now about about more, more of the one game
15:14
Speaker 9: at a time mindset, is that kind of a sign
15:17
Speaker 9: of where things have come here that now you can
15:20
Speaker 9: focus on, you know, you don't have to kind of
15:22
Speaker 9: hold those things up as Pie and the sky goals.
15:25
Speaker 9: It's almost like a matter of fact thing. Yeah, if
15:28
Speaker 9: we do this and this and this, we're gonna get
15:31
Speaker 9: there like you did last year.
15:32
Speaker 1: Yeah.
15:33
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we talk about the four majors, the
15:35
Speaker 3: Connecticut Tournament, the regular season title, the hockey, the Lambolo Cup,
15:39
Speaker 3: and the National Championship. You know, we try to play
15:42
Speaker 3: for four majors every year. And I talked to the
15:45
Speaker 3: team all the time about, you know, we have a
15:47
Speaker 3: microscope and a telescope, and in the telescope we have
15:50
Speaker 3: Las Vegas, you know, and the Boston Garden. But in
15:54
Speaker 3: the microscope right now of the river Hawks. Because you
15:58
Speaker 3: can't win those things without being successful Friday night, and
16:02
Speaker 3: you've got to stack up a lot of small victories
16:05
Speaker 3: do But yeah, our expectations here in this program they
16:09
Speaker 3: haven't changed. We certainly feel capable with the group we
16:14
Speaker 3: have of winning those those trophies, but that's down the low.
16:21
Speaker 3: You know, we can't win it Friday night. We only
16:24
Speaker 3: beat Lowell Friday night. And it's a really hard thing
16:27
Speaker 3: to do. It's a really hard thing to do. Is
16:30
Speaker 3: just stay present in the moment whatever you're do, and
16:33
Speaker 3: forget about hockey. Is all of us get caught up
16:35
Speaker 3: in a lot of different things in life where we
16:39
Speaker 3: worry about what's down the road instead of what's in
16:41
Speaker 3: front of us. Right now, that's one last thing.
16:45
Speaker 9: Has it become now that you don't play at Hartford?
16:49
Speaker 9: Now that's the exception rather than the rule. It's more
16:52
Speaker 9: of a treat for the guys to go and play
16:54
Speaker 9: these games, you know in Hartford.
16:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, all the time. I think they enjoy it. But
17:02
Speaker 3: you know, I said to them, do you guys want
17:04
Speaker 3: to stay down in Hartford after the game and then
17:05
Speaker 3: we'll bust up to Lowell afterwards. They're like, no, well,
17:09
Speaker 3: we want to go home, you know, get back to
17:11
Speaker 3: our which surprised me. There's nobody on campus, but they
17:15
Speaker 3: still like coming back here and they want to have
17:18
Speaker 3: their meeting here and they feel comfortable I think in Tuscano.
17:22
Speaker 3: So hey, I know that they do enjoy playing down there,
17:25
Speaker 3: especially when we're getting good, good crowds. It's an electric
17:30
Speaker 3: atmosphere when we're getting six to eight thousand people in there.
17:34
Speaker 3: So I'm hoping that we can get a really strong
17:37
Speaker 3: crowd Friday night. Thanks keV.
17:40
Speaker 1: Sure, all right, bridget go ahead.
17:43
Speaker 5: Coach had a few here for the broadcast on Saturday,
17:48
Speaker 5: and Jimmy wanted me to ask one more to you
17:50
Speaker 5: as well about your shot numbers this season and you're
17:55
Speaker 5: averaging about thirty four shots per game. That's up towards
17:58
Speaker 5: the top of the country nationally. Just do you have
18:02
Speaker 5: any philosophy behind what you're telling the guys to get
18:06
Speaker 5: those shot numbers up? What's been leading to that kind
18:08
Speaker 5: of output?
18:11
Speaker 3: Well? What did Wayne Gretsky say? One hundred percent of
18:14
Speaker 3: the shots you don't take don't go in, right, So
18:17
Speaker 3: we want to get as many pucks as we can
18:18
Speaker 3: in the net. I think getting pucks to the net,
18:23
Speaker 3: whether it goes in or not, creates chaos, and you
18:27
Speaker 3: know a lot of times goaltenders in this league, you're
18:30
Speaker 3: not going to beat them clean with one shot. It's
18:33
Speaker 3: going to have to be a deflection, it's going to
18:35
Speaker 3: have to be a rebound, it's going to have to
18:37
Speaker 3: be a second a third opportunity. So the only way
18:41
Speaker 3: you get those second and third opportunities by making sure
18:43
Speaker 3: you get the first. And that's certainly a focal point
18:47
Speaker 3: of our team is to make sure that we're getting
18:49
Speaker 3: pucks to the net.
18:51
Speaker 5: And we're talking to muldowney for this week in Hockey
18:54
Speaker 5: East in like a few hours from now, can you
18:57
Speaker 5: just talk to me about him and what he's done
19:00
Speaker 5: for you guys this season. And I don't know if
19:01
Speaker 5: you have anything like funny to share about him that
19:04
Speaker 5: we might be able to bring up when we talked
19:06
Speaker 5: to him later today.
19:10
Speaker 3: Well, he's a rabid Buffalo Bills fan. I know that,
19:12
Speaker 3: but I don't know about that. Joey just comes and
19:16
Speaker 3: does his job. He's a very very humble.
19:21
Speaker 1: Kid.
19:21
Speaker 3: He doesn't need the fanfare. It doesn't necessarily want the
19:25
Speaker 3: fan fare. He wants to go out and he wants
19:27
Speaker 3: to win hockey games. And he reminds me a lot
19:31
Speaker 3: of Brian Gionta, you know, in that way where Brian
19:37
Speaker 3: didn't care whether he had a point. He didn't care
19:41
Speaker 3: like he wasn't worried about scoring goals. He was worried
19:43
Speaker 3: about winning games. And you know when we won a
19:45
Speaker 3: national title and know one, he didn't score goal the
19:49
Speaker 3: entire NCAA tournament and you would never know it because
19:51
Speaker 3: he affected the game so much in so many different areas.
19:54
Speaker 3: And I feel Joey is a very similar type player.
19:58
Speaker 5: Have you ever put them in contact with each other?
20:00
Speaker 3: I have not. Brian does live in Buffalo now, I
20:05
Speaker 3: originally from Rochester, but I have not put them in contact.
20:10
Speaker 3: Joey might have. You could ask him. I mean, yeah,
20:12
Speaker 3: Bryan's got a presence around the ranks because of his
20:15
Speaker 3: boys up there, so I'm sure that they've crossed paths,
20:19
Speaker 3: all right.
20:20
Speaker 5: Interesting. I like the comparison. I also wanted to ask you,
20:25
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, you alluded to this a little bit before,
20:29
Speaker 5: but it seems like you guys in BC have you're
20:32
Speaker 5: up towards the top of the Hockey East standings. You've
20:34
Speaker 5: probably been two most consistent teams in Hockey East this season.
20:38
Speaker 5: You and you mentioned like maybe not taking a lot
20:41
Speaker 5: of penalties has something to do with that. But what
20:43
Speaker 5: do you thinks led you guys to being as consistent
20:45
Speaker 5: as you've been this year.
20:47
Speaker 3: I think just strong goaltending, playing connected as a team,
20:52
Speaker 3: and I think our seniors. You know, there's not many
20:56
Speaker 3: teams in the country I think that have seven seniors
21:00
Speaker 3: with the way things are today with the transfer portal
21:02
Speaker 3: and kids leaving earlier to go pro. You know, in
21:09
Speaker 3: the first fifteen years that I was at BC, very
21:15
Speaker 3: rarely we might have had I think three kids totally
21:19
Speaker 3: leave early to go pro. You know, everybody stayed four years,
21:24
Speaker 3: and it's just nowadays kids are leaving earlier to go pro.
21:29
Speaker 3: So between that the transfer portal, it's hard to get
21:31
Speaker 3: a big senior class. But when you do and there
21:35
Speaker 3: is committed as our seniors are, it certainly you know,
21:44
Speaker 3: brings stability to your locker room.
21:47
Speaker 5: And then last one for me, you guys are on
21:49
Speaker 5: a four game win streak, obviously some coming before the break,
21:53
Speaker 5: and then after anything from those four games, the most
21:57
Speaker 5: recent games that you want to see carry over to
21:59
Speaker 5: this weekend, and then maybe just in general in the
22:01
Speaker 5: second half.
22:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just want to see the consistent play up
22:06
Speaker 3: and down our lineup. I believe both games we played
22:12
Speaker 3: against Liu, every forward that we played in the twelve
22:15
Speaker 3: forwards that we played in the game all average double
22:18
Speaker 3: digits and even strength minutes. That means I'm just rolling
22:21
Speaker 3: four lines now, you know, Muldowney was shard tattle. Some
22:26
Speaker 3: of them get more minutes because of special teams. But
22:29
Speaker 3: when your roll on four lines and every single one
22:32
Speaker 3: of those lines is playing double digits, that allows you
22:36
Speaker 3: to play with pace. It allows you to wear down
22:39
Speaker 3: opponents because not everybody does that or has the ability
22:43
Speaker 3: to do that, And that's something I'd like to see continue.
22:48
Speaker 5: All right, thank you, coach.
22:49
Speaker 1: Sure, all right, Dan, we'll end it with you.
22:53
Speaker 8: Almost let you get away without asking you about Tage
22:56
Speaker 8: making the US Olympic team. What was it like seeing
22:59
Speaker 8: his name on there? And how excited are you to
23:02
Speaker 8: watch him in Milano?
23:04
Speaker 3: Really excited, you know, just watching his growth as a player,
23:09
Speaker 3: who's been so fun. I texted with him this week.
23:13
Speaker 3: I know he's excited. You know, it's the best hockey
23:18
Speaker 3: you're going to watch. I mean, it's best on best
23:20
Speaker 3: and the fact that he's one of those what do
23:24
Speaker 3: they have twenty four players on the team. I don't know,
23:27
Speaker 3: but he's one of those players, one of the best
23:31
Speaker 3: twenty four players in America. That says an awful lot.
23:35
Speaker 3: I'm so proud of him. I'll be rooting hard for him.
23:39
Speaker 3: You know, we have Andy Bassett who's a great supporter
23:43
Speaker 3: of Yukon Athletics, and he's with the Travelers and does
23:46
Speaker 3: an unbelievable job running the Travelers golf tournament. He initiated
23:50
Speaker 3: this monument. I don't know if you've seen it at
23:53
Speaker 3: the Olympic Monument, and I've always wanted to get one
23:55
Speaker 3: of our players on that monument. So it's gonna be
23:58
Speaker 3: nice to have Tage's name on there.
23:59
Speaker 8: Now, is it a little special that your first Olympic
24:04
Speaker 8: guy is going to be from the US? And I
24:08
Speaker 8: mean kind of a Connecticut guy, not really a Connecticut guy,
24:11
Speaker 8: but not not a Connecticut guy.
24:13
Speaker 3: He owns he owns property in Connecticut, so let's call
24:15
Speaker 3: the Connecticut guy. Uh, yeah, it is. It's exciting to
24:21
Speaker 3: see that. You know, he was in one of our
24:23
Speaker 3: first recruiting classes, and you know he played on those
24:27
Speaker 3: first teams that we had in Hockey East and to
24:31
Speaker 3: see where his career has gone. Yeah, it's exciting. I
24:34
Speaker 3: think it's a great tribute to the program, to the state,
24:38
Speaker 3: and I think most of the state of Connecticut will
24:41
Speaker 3: be rooting for Tage.