Latest / Coaches Corner / MHOC Coach Mike Cavanaugh - Zoom Call Oct 4

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MHOC Coach Mike Cavanaugh - Zoom Call Oct 4 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  All right, coach, welcome back everyone. We're getting started underway this weekend,
• 0:05
  first first weekend back playing Coldgate. Coach, just want to get your
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  thoughts heading into this opening weekend and how the team's looking in practice so far
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  and everything else. Yeah, we're certainly excited. It's been a long off
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  season and uh, you know with the new rules now we're able to get
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  on the ice. Well we can get on the ice in August. We
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  don't get onto a little bit after Labor Day. But it's been a fun
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  preseason and I think we're all anxious to get going and get on the bus,
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  go to Coldgate and see what we got onto the hood. Awesome.
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  All right, Well we'll open up for questions similar last year. You guys
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  could just use the raise your hand and we'll get underway. Randy, you
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  want to start us off, absolutely, Coach calv how are you. I'm
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  great, Randy, how are you very good? Good to see you.
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  Good to see you to you as well. You've got a lot of veterans
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  coming back, which is I guess a beautiful thing, especially on the blue
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  line. Can you tell me you know what it means with lucas and spets
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  and Reese and all their experience and the steady played Missinio, who played like
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  a veteran last year. To have that veteran presence on the blue line,
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  what does that do for you guys? Yeah, I think that obviously one
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  of the strengths of our team. When Harrison Reese and Jake Flynn decided to
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  come back for a fifth year, that certainly shored up our defensive corps.
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  And you know, I think we have a potential All League player and Andrew
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  Lucas. John Spetts is an outstanding two way defenseman, and Thomas Senio had
• 1:42
  a breakout freshman year last year. So we have five players there who have
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  a lot of experience and played a lot of games for US. And then
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  you know, we have Jack Pascucci who had a year for US last year
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  and you know, I think he's growing every day as a player, and
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  Owen Simpsons and other newcomer who's looked pretty good in the preseason. So definitely
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  excited about our defensive court. Then up front, you know, I'm thinking
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  of nic OPhone and Chase Bradley, who had kind of breakout years last year.
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  Both had ten goals, twenty points, a couple of NHL draft picks
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  going into their senior year. Do you think there's potential for them to you
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  know, I mean they've they've improved and produced each year steadily a little more.
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  You think there's even room for for more from them? I hope,
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  So, I hope they're not stagnant Randy. You know, I think the
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  mark of our program is that players continue to get better and improve while they
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  hear over the course of their time. And uh, I think there's you
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  know, the sky's a limit for nickets as far as he wants to take
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  it. He's got all the attributes to be a top notch college hockey power
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  forward and then eventually, you know, transition that into the pro game.
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  But you know, he needs to continue to you know, move his feet,
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  eat and skate and play both, you know, a two hundred foot
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  game and at the same token down the offensive zone just be a force to
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  be reckoned with. And I'd like to see him shoot more pucks. He
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  has the ability, I believe, to shoot more pucks. And then finally,
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  just kind of a generic question, it's, you know, with going
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  into a season with the new home, what's that done for your routine and
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  preparation you're off season, and then obviously when you got to hit the ice
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  after Labor Day, having you know, the new home open for a new
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  season. I think the biggest thing, Randy is you just see players around
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  the rink a lot more. There's just so much for them to do here
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  now, whether it's you know, go down in the shooting room and work
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  on their shot. There's recovery, you know, vehicles here that they can
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  use, whether it's a hot tub, the cold tub, and you know,
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  there's things around the open ice in the morning. It's just a lot
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  more accommodating for our players. And I think I've noticed I've seen them around
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  the rink a lot more than I have in the past. Thank you,
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  good luck this weekend. Thank you, Randy. Bob will go over to
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  you, Hey, Mike, does it help that you start on the road
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  with a relatively new group of guys to get the camaraderie going right off the
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  bat and all the road games that you have early on? Yeah, I
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  guess I'll be better answering that question on Monday. But no, it's it's
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  something that we did look at. It. It wasn't ideal we would have
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  liked to have. We kind of had a scheduling snaff foo. We would
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  have liked to have had these two games at home, but with the veteran
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  presence we have Bob, I wasn't as concerned about having to play these games
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  on the road. And if you'll look at our schedules, I think it's
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  eight of the first ten or on the road, so it's quite a few
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  that we're playing on the road early. But sometimes, as you alluded to,
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  it can also bring a team together, so you know, whether you're
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  home or on the road, you still got to play the games. I
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  know the National tournament's played on the road, so it's something that we have
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  to just be accustomed to. And we got to play our game. And
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  I've always said that it doesn't matter whether your home or on the road.
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  We've got to execute and play our game. Daniel head over to you.
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  It's a pretty different Colgate team than the one that was in the tournament last
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  year on new coach Slayers, but still the same in goal. So from
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  the tape that you've seen from years past, what type of goal is I
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  think it's Guylander or Geelander? And what are you gonna have to do to
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  to get the puck by him. Well, I think he's an excellent goaltender,
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  and you know, we try not to focus too much on goaltenders Dan
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  because there's so many good ones in the league, and I think it can
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  become paralyzed as a team if you focus on, Hey, he's very good,
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  he's got a great glove. Don't shoot at his glove, and then
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  that starts. We have to just get traffic in front of him. We've
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  got to get volume to the net. We have to have second and third
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  chance opportunities and continue to get a lot of that, a lot of multiple
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  shot shifts. I was telling our team, you know, I actually really
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  like this week because you don't have any film on him. It's a completely
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  different new coaching staff. They've lost a lot of players from last year's team,
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  and it reminds me of when I first started. You didn't watch a
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  whole lot of film on the other team. You just worried about your team.
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  And I kind of like that, and that's a mindset that we're going
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  into this weekend with with some of the guys that you traded on offense,
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  seems like a little less speed, but maybe a little more size. Does
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  that help you at all, creating that traffic in front of the net,
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  getting those dirty goals, those type of things. You know. I was
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  reading something and I posted it for our players that Mike Sullivan was talking about
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  with Pittsburgh Penguins. I was out there actually recruiting, and I watched a
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  couple of their practices and I was naturally reading the papers out there, and
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  he was talking about they're looking to play fast, and it's not predicated on
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  how fast your skaters are. So we definitely lost some speed in Ryan Torberg
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  and Justin Pearson, there's no question about it. But that doesn't mean we
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  can't play fast, you know, And that means the puck always moves faster
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  than the individual, and if we can have great puck movement and think and
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  play the game a step ahead, we can play as fast. If not.
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  It's funny. I had one of my old mentors, my high school
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  coach, was here watching practice yesterday. He goes, Gude, I think
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  you're quicker than you were last year, and I was like, I don't
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  know if that's the case, but we're certainly playing faster and that's something that
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  we're going to continue to preach here this season. Joe will hud Over you.
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  Thanks, Colin calv As. You get a couple of days away from
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  game one, how have your five freshmen progressed and are they ready to play
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  major roles? Will they have to play major roles? Yeah, Joe,
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  it's a great question, and fortunately for us, no, they don't have
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  to play major roles. And you know, when I first got here,
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  we had that big recruiting class of ten players, you know, with Spencer
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  Nas and Johnny Austin and oj and all these guys, and they had to
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  play key roles for us and power play penalty kill five on six, and
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  it's hard to win when you count on your freshmen to play those key roles.
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  We're going to be able to work them into our lineup, and I
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  expect them at some point certainly to be progressing to playing major roles, and
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  some of them may get those opportunities early on, but we're not relying on
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  them to have to do that. You know, as we said, we
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  have five experienced defensemen back there coming back up front with Capone and Bradley and
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  Shandor you know, Maddie Wood, Percival Salmon, and there's a lot of
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  players who played some key roles for us last year that we'll be looking to
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  step up and we can rely on them early and work our freshmen in gradually.
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  And mentioning Samu, what improvements have you seen in his game and what
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  does his role have to be for you this year for you guys to be
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  successful. Well, it's nice that he's been able to start September and October
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  with us. I think that was tough for him last year. He's just
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  playing I think with a lot more confidence, Joe, and I think a
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  lot of that confidence can be, uh, you know, related to the
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  fact that he's comfortable, like he understands what the campus is all about in
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  the academic curriculum and uh, he's comfortable in his surroundings, and I think
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  that's certainly going to help his game. Thank you? Anything else for coach
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  guys? Well, if nobody's got another have you made any decisions on what
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  you're doing with your goalies? I mean, I know you don't want to
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  give away state secrets three days before game one, but are you are you
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  close to deciding on how what you're going to do with your goalies? I'm
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  trying to uh, you know, I think both of them right now.
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  Uh, you know, I'm happy with all three goaltenders right now. I
• 11:01
  think they've you know, perform very well in the preseason. I think it's
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  been very valuable that Vince Delletti has gone from a volunteer to a full time
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  coach. He's here every day with them now, which I think is certainly
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  beneficial for our program. If you had to ask me today, I would
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  say that certainly. You know, our Sinny and Ethan are probably two of
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  the three who were going to play some games here early on in the season,
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  but we have not decided on who will start on Saturday night yet.
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  So more than what you expected perfectly stated. Yeah, I didn't expect any
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  less, and I surely didn't expect anymore. I'm just curious now that you
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  have vinced on full time. But what was the how much time was he
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  able to spend before this season as a volunteer. Yeah, he was able
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  to come in for practice, maybe he once or twice a week. And
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  where he's even more valuable not only the goalies, but I've put him kind
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  of in charge of player development as well, So routinely every morning he's on
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  the ice, not just with goalies, but other players, and he's he's
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  done a fabulous job of designing a player development kind of a worksheet, if
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  you will, for our players and on nutrition and you know, academics and
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  just growing them as individuals while they're here. And it's really extensive what he's
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  done. So but having him here, he's here every day now, Dan,
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  He's going to be at every game unless he's out recruiting, So it
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  makes a world of difference. Randy will head to you, Yeah, coach,
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  just want to follow up on in the preseason, when you're getting a
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  feel for guys and how they play with each other, how do you kind
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  of figure out what those opening night lines are and those those pairings on defense
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  and those lines are, And is anybody kind of standing out for really showing
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  some chemistry together early on? Yeah. I've done it a bunch of different
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  ways, Randy. Sometimes I've spent the first couple of weeks just moving guys
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  around. This year, I went with a different approach instead of doing that.
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  I kind of had some ideas of guys like Sam Wu's line I thought
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  played really well at the end of last year, him, Jake Black and
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  Perceval. I thought they had some chemistry. So I started them together this
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  year and they haven't changed really, you know. Now, is that set
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  in stone for the season. No, But this year in preseason I kind
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  of kept them together and I've had some other ideas of some guys that may
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  work well together, and we haven't varied too much from that. We have
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  shifted some guys around a little bit, but going into the first week,
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  guys, you know, have had some familiarlity playing with each other in preseason
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  thanks in those early games. If you're shifting guys around midgame online, just
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  what's the thought process behind wanting to switch one guy into another line? How
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  do you decide, Oh, I think this guy might be a fit with
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  these guys on the fly in the middle of a game. You know,
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  we play thirty four games, and it's hard for a guy to play well
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  in all thirty four games. And sometimes it's just not a guy's night.
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  You know, it happens. He might be feeling under the weather, he
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  just might not be there night. They might be fighting the puck. I
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  don't know what it is, but if two guys are going on that line
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  and one isn't, then usually that's when you make a switch. You know,
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  or sometimes you have three lines or you just ye. Then you try
• 15:00
  to spark the team and you mix some guys up see if you can find
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  a way to get things going that way. I don't think you're gonna have
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  a lot of success as a team if you're constantly doing that. But because
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  you do need to have some continuity and some familiarity with your linemates and you
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  have to let them work through. I don't think you can be trigger happy
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  either, and the first time a guy makes a bad pass, you're switching
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  them off that line. I don't think that's gonna be helpful for your players.
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  You have to show some confidence in them, that you believe in them.
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  And you know a guy goes oh for three. If Rafael Devers goes
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  oh for three, Core is not gonna sit him. He's gonna let him
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  try to get that hit in the fourth time at bat, you know he
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  has enough in the bank. So I think it's a feel. I don't
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  necessarily say that there's a you know, there's an algorithm or it's black and
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  white how you do it. It's sometimes it's just a feel for the game.
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  Mike, get to read on your special teams at this point what you've
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  seen in practice. Uh, you know, we're gonna work on a lot
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  that a lot today. We worked on our penalty killing yesterday. But we're
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  still trying to figure out what our power play. I mean when I say
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  figure out, you know, I think we have four pieces in place on
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  on a couple of units. We're trying to figure out maybe who that fifth
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  piece is on each unit right now. And we've got power play today and
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  tomorrow. Anything else for coach guys, awesome, Well, thank you coach,
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  good luck this weekend. And all right, thanks guys. Great seeing
• 16:37
  everybody again. Look forward to seeing you next week. Colin am I