Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 1 - MHOC Coach's Show w Mike Cavanaugh Feb 19
Transcript
- 0:00Another edition the Penultiment edition of Men's Hockey Coaches Show with Mike Cavanough Adam Jardino
- 0:06at our side on this Monday night. Cav first of all, welcome back.
- 0:10And it's been a couple of weeks since your team's been action. How'd
- 0:13your how's your team? Men? How'd you? How'd you handle the week
- 0:17off? You usually a couple of days often involved in that stretch. Yeah,
- 0:20I think it was pretty good. We gave them last Monday and Tuesday
- 0:25off from skating. We did have a workout off ice, workout on Tuesday,
- 0:33practiced Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, gave him Saturday Sunday off and we'll
- 0:39back at it this week, you know, Monday through Thursday before we get
- 0:42ready for BEU. And it does not get any easier, one ranked team
- 0:45after another, Nope. And that's the beauty of the league. I think
- 0:48it's you know, especially this year, it's probably as deep as I've ever
- 0:55seen it this year, and but it's great. I mean, right now,
- 0:58we've just have to get ourselves playing really good hockey going into the playoffs.
- 1:06That's our goal right now, and at this stage with some time off
- 1:10about two week three You're able to get guys healthy that needed to get healthier
- 1:15at this stage of the season. Yeah, no question. There were a
- 1:17few guys that really could use the time off. A couple of guys didn't
- 1:21even practice last week. We're just trying to get them healthy. So great,
- 1:23which was good. We had a full practice today, which was nice.
- 1:26Michael, it has been a struggle to put the puck in the nets.
- 1:30I don't know if you've ever seen anything like this. It is.
- 1:33It is one of the most unique things I think I've ever seen with a
- 1:36college hockey team. Yeah, I agree with you. It's been We've tried
- 1:40everything. I think, you know, we just gotta stop thinking about it
- 1:42and just you know, at times, you know we've missed the net and
- 1:49we've caused some of our own issues. But you know, I thought when
- 1:52we played at you masked our last game that we played, I thought we
- 1:56were in front of the net. We got pucks here, we hit a
- 1:57couple of posts. You just can't. We've had games where we have scored
- 2:04goals, and I think we have to focus on that more. Just the
- 2:07positive. If you've got to score goals in the future, then you know
- 2:13you've got to manifest those thoughts and that belief that it's going to happen.
- 2:16So we've got to continue to work on our defense, and I think we
- 2:21play pretty good defense and whole teams, you know, under three goals,
- 2:25and just keep plugging away. Sooner or later it'll crack again. We've talked
- 2:32about that where earlier in the year you were saying, you know, the
- 2:35analytics bear out the fact that this team should be and will be scoring more
- 2:38goals. Are those numbers still in your favor where you're seeing those numbers saying,
- 2:43hey, we really should still be scoring them. We're more than we're
- 2:46actually scoring they are, But it's still it's just frustrating. It's still not
- 2:50you know, after a while, it gets hard. We just got to
- 2:55find a way to do it. At the end of the day, the
- 2:57only stat that matters is goal and having more goals and the opponent, and
- 3:04that's what we're at that time of year now, where that's all we have
- 3:07to focus on. Does it eat away or it has it eaten away?
- 3:10At the guys, I think it's been frustrating for everybody. You know,
- 3:16when you're playing pretty well and you're not getting rewarded for it. That's frustrating,
- 3:23but that's sports too, and sometimes you just got to really, I
- 3:29think, dig deep and stay mentally strong and keep believing in the way we're
- 3:35playing and hopefully it goes it'll turn for you. The penalty kill unit is
- 3:40something that seems to still be performing really well. I mean, I guess
- 3:46Providence on the road, that was basically the reason that you came out of
- 3:50there with that two to one victory. So another three penalty kills perfect night
- 3:54on that department on Saturday last week against UMass. So what is clicking right
- 4:00now with that unit? I just think they're well, why do we get
- 4:04you know, really good goaltending? And then two they're in sync and they
- 4:11work together. You know, we're not. Penalty kills will struggle when everybody's
- 4:17not on the same page. If someone's going aggressive and another guy's going passive,
- 4:23that's when they'll struggle. But if everybody's on the same page, you
- 4:27can be a good penalty killer. I have a good penalty killing team.
- 4:29The other thing is like in Providence, we took too many penalties. I
- 4:33thought we cleaned that up last week against you Mass. Look at it's the
- 4:39block numbers you know, Harrison Reese is one of the higher ones. John
- 4:43spets, but shake personal is right there and I'm sure and a lot of
- 4:46them come on the penalty kill. Ye, he really sells out, he
- 4:47does. He doesn't. He's had some big blocks too, like in six
- 4:53on five type situations. So he's a very good defensive player and gets in
- 4:59the shot. You know, that's certainly been an area where he's excelled this
- 5:03year. It's one of those guys that he was soph more from Avon,
- 5:09Connecticut. Has he Where is he in his development from you know where he
- 5:16came on as a freshman last year. Yeah, I think he's built on
- 5:20last year. I think was he have seven goals or something this year?
- 5:24So, you know, he gives us solid minutes and he's getting a little
- 5:29power play time now and he's obviously one of our top penalty killers and defensive
- 5:34players. As I alluded to earlier, it was a five on six type
- 5:38players. So he just needs to key you know. I think there's more
- 5:43offense in his game and I think we'll see that in the future. Mike
- 5:47Chase Bradley continues to excel. Maddie's been in a bit of a goal scoring
- 5:51slump, that's nothing new. You look at the plus minuses though, I
- 5:55mean, yeah, Hudson's got five and twelve on the season, but his
- 5:58plus is at plus nine right now, and he just just continues to chuck
- 6:01away. I mean we've talked about this in the past, where yes,
- 6:03his goal numbers may be down from a year ago, but he's still a
- 6:06good two hundred foo player that you hope he is. Oh, he's outstanding
- 6:10and the area too, especially lately in the last probably eight to ten games,
- 6:15he's been great on the faceoff dot as well. Yeah, it's really
- 6:17good. Yeah, I notice that he's done a he's done a good job
- 6:20there. So he's played very consistent all year long, Hudson, I should
- 6:27say for four years. He's been very consistent. So he's, uh,
- 6:31you know, arguably the heartbeat of our team. Let me ask you about
- 6:33that face offs. What's what's working for him now is he's got a low
- 6:38center of gravity to begin with. I mean, I remember, was it
- 6:41Bobby Travino that was no, the other guy for u Mass I can't think
- 6:45of his name for Copena. Yeah, yeah, he was really good in
- 6:46the face off. That is it? That low center of gravity. I
- 6:48remember talking to Yakam Kannilik about that what makes what made him so hard?
- 6:53Yeah, I think that I think that helps. I think I think Mike
- 6:59Pereira and Mike Finnegan had been doing a lot of work with our centers.
- 7:03We're just you know, Mike cuts a lot, Mike Finnegan cuts a lot
- 7:05of tape for them to look at, and Mike Perreira goes over with them,
- 7:10you know. So I think that's certainly helped. Having a good idea
- 7:15of what your opponent's going to do and what your opponent's strength is. But
- 7:17Hudson works at it. He works at it an awful lot. You know,
- 7:20see him after practice constantly working on different strategies to go against different guys.
- 7:26And for Hudson is the captain you mentioned, he's the heartbeat of the
- 7:29team. How has he been in terms of handling the times where it could
- 7:34be frustrating but knowing that guys are looking to him to be that encouraging voice.
- 7:40Yeah, he's he's I've said this a couple of times, probably the
- 7:44most positive kid on our team. He's always bringing positive energy and upbeat and
- 7:48today and even in practice like he celebrates goals in practice. He just that's
- 7:54who he is, that's his personality. So while I'm sure he's frustrated at
- 7:59times, just like the rest of us, he still brings that positive energy
- 8:03every day. All right, Later, Adam did interviews today. I was
- 8:05a little busy this afternoon and had a basketball game to do. What's the
- 8:09batting order here tonight? We know you have Jake Rashard and Matthew Wood.
- 8:11Who's who's first? Matthew would first, Jake second. All right, that'll
- 8:16be coming up a little later towards the bottom of the hour. It's the
- 8:18Yukon Hockey Coaches Show where live at Bear Smoke House Barbecue. Come join us
- 8:22for dinner on the Yukon Sports Network from Learfield