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Mike Cavanaugh Weekly Zoom - PC Week · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  All right, coach, we'll turn our attention back to Hockey's play. Big
• 0:05
  series coming up with number ten Providence. Just want to get your thoughts heading
• 0:08
  into the weekend. Yeah, well, this is the home stretch for sure
• 0:14
  in Hockey East. No, we've got nine games left and certainly a challenging
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  schedule with you know, Providence this week at number ten. You Mass is
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  ten, I know in the pairwise rankings, and Bu I think it's three.
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  And Northeastern's climbed up in the in the in the rankings, you know,
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  big win over Bu last night, and then we finished with Vermont.
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  So we got a nine game stretch here and this is the beginning of it,
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  and certainly we'll have all we can handle with the Friars Friday night at
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  Tascano. They've very well coached, a good goaltender and sped back. I
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  think they've got some experienced defenseman, some talented offensively, they've always had a
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  good power play and uh, they're very deep up front and they come at
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  you in waves. So it's gonna be a great challenge for us on Friday
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  night. I will start it with Joe for questions. Thanks, good morning,
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  half, Good morning Joe. What was your biggest takeaway from the one
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  hundred and twenty minutes this weekend? What was your what was your thought about
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  what you learned about your team? You know, I thought we uh,
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  I thought we actually we played okay on Friday night. It was kind of
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  a funky game. I don't think we were as Sometimes when you get up
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  early in a game, you get away from your structure, and I think
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  it's human nature, and it's natural, let's score more and more, and
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  sometimes you compromise your defensive structure and for offense. And I thought I thought
• 1:53
  that happened a little bit on Friday night. I thought Saturday we were much
• 1:59
  more structured. I thought we played a really good game. I thought our
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  special teams both nights were excellent. I thought our face off play was pretty
• 2:09
  good. You know, it's a good Quinnipiac team. And while it's frustrating
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  to lose to them the way we did, you know, it's been a
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  couple of years in a row. Now, I think we can take a
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  lot of positives from the weekend and use it as fuel going forward. They're
• 2:29
  so fast moving the puck. How does that prepare you for Providence? Which
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  is pretty pretty fast in its own right. Yeah, Oh, they they
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  play a fast game, they're physical, they get a lot of pucks to
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  the net. I think both both arenas are pretty probably similar size. You
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  know, Providence has it just seems like everything happens faster there because I don't
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  know whether it's because the benchres is so long or the ceiling so low,
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  but it's it seems like things happen really fast in that rink. But you
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  know our rink, there's another rink that's probably similar, Like I said,
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  similar in size, and the game's gonna happen pretty quick. And games with
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  them have always been hard fought, physical games. Crazy stat I saw is
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  that you've given up more shots than anybody in the conference shots against? Is
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  that? Is that a problem? Is that something you try to erase it?
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  Is it meaningless? I didn't even know that, you know, I
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  try not to get. What's funny, Joe, is that you know,
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  we have a stat package that we subscribe to. It's never the same as
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  what they do in the rink. So it's so hard. I think it's
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  such an arbitrary number, and I think obviously you don't want to be,
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  you know, getting out shot fifty to twenty in a lot of games.
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  You're not going to win a lot of games if that's the case. But
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  you know, the majority of the time, that can be a very deceiving
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  stat because sometimes you have to kill eight minutes or nine minutes in penalties and
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  a lot of the shots come on power plays, you know, what are
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  the shots five on five? And I think we should focus we have to
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  focus more on how many Grade A opportunities are we're giving up as opposed to
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  just shots from the outside. And more importantly, I was, you know,
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  how many goals are we giving up as opposed to the shots? So
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  thank you? Yep, all right, Bob will jump over to you.
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  Hey, Mike, what about the depth of Providence. It seems like they
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  have a lot of guys that have scored a lot of multiple goals and points
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  this season for them. They do they are I said that, you know
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  earlier, they're very deep up front. They come in waves, they have
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  some experience up there, you know, the same token. Oh, I
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  think we have some pretty good depth. You know, we've been regularly rolling
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  four lines as well, So I think it's going to be, uh,
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  like I said, a great challenge. Adam will go over to you.
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  Yeah, a coach. I know we just came from that question about stats
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  and shots allowed and whatnot. But Providence, at least for the numbers we
• 5:24
  have access to, it's twenty two shots allowed per game by them. It's
• 5:27
  something that they do well. So how do you approach what they do defensively
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  to make sure you're getting pucks through to the net? I just think,
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  excuse me, I just think we have to focus on what makes us a
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  good team. Uh, you know, and I think when we're playing well,
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  we're taking away time and space and the defensive zone, we're playing with
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  pace through the neutral zone, and we're able to get multiple shots shifts in
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  the offensive zone. So I'm really focused on us doing what we do well.
• 6:02
  Eric, go ahead, Morty, Mike, you mentioned it in your
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  opening statement. I mean, I know you want to do just one shift,
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  one period, one game at a time, but the schedule is so
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  daunting. I mean, how do you when you look at that how it's
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  scary league? Right? Yeah? Well, you know, Eric, it's
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  exactly what you just said. You have to look at it as one game
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  at a time. We just have to look at it as we're playing Providence.
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  Friday night at Tuscano, and if you look at it in a you
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  know, the next eight games, it overwhelms you, right, But if
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  you just look at it as, all right, can we beat Providence Friday
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  night, Yeah, we play extremely well. You know, if we don't,
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  we won't. But if we play extremely well, that's manageable, all
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  right, and then after that game ends you move on to the next one.
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  It's just impossible to look at it. I guess the way I'm looking
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  at it is, Eric, it's a great opportunity for us to move up
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  national. But at the same time, I'm sure you know your team's ready
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  for this, right, Yeah, we've been used to this. Now.
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  We're ten years in the league and I have a lot of experienced players on
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  our team. You know, there's a senior class in a junior class that
• 7:28
  played in the finals at the Boston Garden, So they're used to this type
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  of competition and I think they embrace it. Thank you, Daniel. We'll
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  go over to you with how long you've been in the league, both here
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  and at BC, do you remember many times where it's been this competitive,
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  where a team like Lowell that you know full well is not an eleventh place
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  type team is in eleventh and Merrimack, who made the tournament last year,
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  is intent Like there's such depth from top to bottom throughout the league. Uh.
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  To answer your question, Dan, no, I have not. I
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  have never seen the league this tight and competitive. And whoever finishes eleventh or
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  however this playoff, you know, there's not nothing would surprise me when the
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  playoffs come, especially when it's single elimination. Uh. You know, have
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  BC and BU distanced themselves a little bit, yeah they have, but it's
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  still you know, be you lost in Northeastern last night. You know,
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  BC lost the Providence a couple of weeks ago. Like in a one game
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  thing. There's not one team I think in this league that would surprise me
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  if they they won in the playoffs. Whereas like in the Big East and
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  basketball, I think it would be shocking if the last place team in the
• 8:58
  Big East beat you, uh, you know in a one game situation that
• 9:03
  that would shock people. I don't think anything would shock anybody in Hockey East
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  when it comes to playoff time. After the Sacred Heart game, Hudson talked
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  about how a big area of focus has been finding an equilibrium between those peaks
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  and those valleys that you guys have had. What's that look like in practice?
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  How are you trying to implement that? That's a good question. I
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  don't know, you know, some of it you got to chalk up to
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  Dan, that it's just a really good leak, Like uh in, a
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  split with Maine sometimes isn't bad, and a split with you and h isn't
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  bad because they're very very good and so will we. And when two very
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  good teams play some you get a split sometimes. You know. Now you
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  know other areas, Dan, where we can get better and maybe try to
• 10:03
  get a sweep on a weekend for sure. You know, I thought special
• 10:07
  teams was an area that I've told you all along, and I think we
• 10:11
  need to get better. And I thought we took a step in the right
• 10:13
  direction this weekend with that. I thought scoring off the rush was an area
• 10:20
  where we needed to get better. I thought we took a step in the
• 10:22
  right direction this week scoring some goals off the rush. You know, so
• 10:28
  you try to address the areas where you need to improve and continue to play
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  at a high level in the areas where you've had some success, do you
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  have to kind of look at a big picture sometimes of we got to sweep
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  over main and maybe not ignore, but just not way so heavily the way
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  that that loss happened. It feels like a lot of times this year's or
• 10:56
  losses in the moment, it felt tough because it's a blown lead in the
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  third, or it's a bad couple of minutes. But does it help to
• 11:03
  just look at a big picture, like we still got to split with a
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  good team. When you lose the first night, you do. But I
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  guess to your point, like, yeah, like if we played five or
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  six good periods against Maine, right, we needed to play six of six.
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  And I think that's like when you're in this league, if we wanted,
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  we can't expect to play five or six periods against Providence, or four
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  or six periods or three of six periods and expect to sweep the weekend.
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  Like we just can't expect that. If if you're gonna sweep a weekend in
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  this league, you better be prepared to play six or six periods And sometimes
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  that might even be tough, you know, but that's what your expectations have
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  to be. And I'm sure Providence is sitting there saying the same thing.
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  You know, and I don't know who else, but like Ibu plays un
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  h this weekend, they're probably saying the same thing. You know, they're
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  only playing one game, but you know, hey, we have to play
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  three sixty minutes of hockey if we expect to win. We can't expect to
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  play forty minutes of a game and expect to win. The league's too good
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  and if you play one bad period, it could mean four goals against or
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  three goals against, and that's hard to come back from. Joe will head
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  over to you. Thanks. Nick Poison's having another good year, Cavity.
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  He's got good numbers against you in the past. What does he do particularly
• 12:41
  well? Oh, he's pretty physical. He's got a good skill set.
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  I think he goes to the net hard and he plays an honest two hundred
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  foot game. But you know, they got a lot of players like that,
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  though I think Yoda is similar Melanowski. They've got some, you know,
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  really good players that Tanner Adams is having a pretty good year for them
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  as a freshman, so he I think he's one of a lot of good
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  forwards they have on their team. What it's sped back to particularly well,
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  I think he manages the game really well. You know, it doesn't seem
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  to be a lot of second and third opportunities when he's playing really well.
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  So we're gonna have to work, you know, And part of that's because
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  they do a very good job defensively. It's tough to get to the front
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  of their net. But it's going to be certainly, you know, I
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  think a lot of the game will probably be decided, you know, in
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  the blue paint net front play on both ends. Do we have anything else
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  for coach? Guys? How's your health, caf ah, pretty good?
• 13:48
  Pretty good. You know, it's a couple of nick bruises and whatnot,
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  but as of today, it's pretty good. I've met you. Is not
• 13:56
  miskidding my health, Yeah, that's a different question, Joe, my mental
• 14:03
  health dealing with us every week. I'm surprised it's still so good. Yeah,
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  all right, guys, Well, if no one has anything else,
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  thanks coach, Thanks everyone, good luck this weekend. All right, Thanks
• 14:18
  guys, take care of thanks. Thanks Jav