Latest / Coaches Corner / Cav HEQF Zoom March 11

Transcript

Cav HEQF Zoom March 11 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, coach, regular season over with headed to postseason
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: quarter final matchup on Saturday. We'll find out who U
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: can't faces tonight after the opening round, But just want
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to get your thoughts on the team and the season
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: heading into heading into the playoffs.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we necessarily haven't got the results we've
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: wanted lately, but I really like the way we've played,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: and I think, you know, we've got to stay focused
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: on that, continuing to play a high brand of hockey.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: And really this week we're focusing on, you know, bearing
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: down on our chances and trying to work on as
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: much as you can in practice on scoring you know,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: greasy goals around the net. So a lot of our
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: drills have been focused on that. But overall, I've liked
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: how we've played in all three zones. We just got
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: to find a way to find the back of the net.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: All Right, who wants to start us off can jump
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: out once guys go ahead at them.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: But when it comes to working on those drills in practice,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: what if that look like? Because I can imagine working
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: on greasy goals kind of comes at the expense of
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: taking you know, chippy shots at your goalies and you
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: probably don't want to be doing that in practice.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think you take chippy shots at your goalies.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: You've got to be the screens, rebounds. There's lots of
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: drills where you can have rebound drills. There's lots of
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: drills where you know, you have a point shot with
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: two guys in front battling for positions. So we're not
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: taking out our goalies at them. You don't have to work.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: I can jump in. Coach. You probably sort of answered
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: this question within what you're working on. But you know,
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: the last especially the last few games, where the shot
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: numbers have been way way up. Not that shots tell
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: the entire story sometimes, but do you feel like you're
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: generating enough of the opportunities that you would want and
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: it's just that finishing piece. Do you feel like, as
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: much as maybe the shots are up, maybe more of
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: it's from the outside, whatever the case, depending on the opponent. So,
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: even beyond some of the stuff you're talking about, what's
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: kind of your view of the opportunities that you've had
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: the last you know, three or four games here.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think some of it's puck luck, you know,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I think you know, we all, especially in the playoffs,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: you're gonna need a little puck luck, but you also
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: create your own luck, and you create your own luck
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: by having the puck in the offensive zone. And it's
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: not only been the number of shots we've been putting
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: on goaltenders, it's also been possession in the offensive zone.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: We've our numbers of possession in the offensive zone has
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: been the highest to spend all year long as well.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: And when you're doing that, it's really hard for the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: other team to score when you're in their zone. So that's,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: you know, been a positive. And as I said, we
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: probably got to look. I think one of the areas
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: it's you know, it's kind of ironic, is that we're
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: we're getting more shots on net, and I think we're
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: passing opportunities to shoot up. Like I think that there's
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: even been times where we're overpassing the puck where we
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: should be delivering it to the net. And you know
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: where those numbers are, whatever they might be in the
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: thirties or forties, I think it could be more than
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: that if we don't pass up really good opportunities. You know,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: a lot of times you have an angle shot and
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I'm on a bad angle, I'm not gonna shoot this.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I'm going to try to pass it across the Royal Road,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: or I'm going to hold on to it and wait
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: for a better option. And that angle shot can create
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of goals. Sometimes you're not shooting to score,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: you're shooting to create another opportunity.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: The other thing, it does feel like the power plays
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: kind of come along. I know that a couple of
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: weeks ago we were talking about just the attempts that
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: you need to get in a little bit of a rhythm.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: It feels like you've gotten a few more. What have
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: you liked about the power play here recently?
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Well, I think they have a real clear purpose of
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: what they want to accomplish when they go into the game.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: And last week against Providence, I think we only had
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: two power plays, but both were excellent. We scored on
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: one and the other one we did everything but score on.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: It was you know, really well I executed power play.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: Obviously, every year is different, every team's different. But what
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: do you hope that this group can take out of
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: last year's playoff run in terms of, you know, whether
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: it's playoff games being played a little bit differently to
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: fewer special team attempts, to just what you have to
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: do to air down and find wins this time of year.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, if you look at our
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: games last year, you know our wins. You know, they're
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: tight games, the tightly contested games. And I think the
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: one thing is we have a group that knows that
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: they can win on the big stage. If you know,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: we're fortunate enough to get by Saturday whoever we play.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't think our team has any fear
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of playing in the Boston Garden.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: With the way this is set up where obviously you
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: don't know if you're playing until Wednesday night Thursday morning.
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: Not that any of these teams are that feign right
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: because they're all teams you've seen, But do you do
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: like a little bit of prep on some of the
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: options early in the week. Do you kind of just
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: like really even lock in on you guys, especially what's
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: sort of the process of you know, managed the week
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: considering you don't know until Wednesday.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: That's a good question. You know, we we've Monday and Tuesday,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: we locked in on what we need to work on
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: as a group. We chose to take today off of practice. Uh,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: you know, it was a rest day and then tomorrow
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: we'll have better Well, we'll know who we're playing, so
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: we can focus on our opponent tomorrow on.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: Friday, Okay, and then just the last one I have
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: for right now is just maybe a thought on Desay
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: and what you've seen from him this year and what
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: maybe you like about his game.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of things I like about his game.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: He he you know, he skates really well. Last week
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: he was pretty good on the face offstot against Providence. Uh,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: you know, I like that line. I think that he
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: and Blazer and Caden have played really well together. Uh,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: He's killed some penalties for us. So he's a really
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: complete player that I'm excited because I think his best
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: hockey's in front of him. keV Yep.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Anything else for coach, guys, go ahead.
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: Dan kind of in that same vein how much wait
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: do you put in earning your best finish ever in
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: Hockey East and having that be another accomplishment that you
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: can check off the list of all the ones that
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: you've had over the last few years.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were talking about that as a staff a
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: little bit. It feels like, and you can correct me
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: if I'm wrong, I think we had a better record
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: this year than we did last year in the league.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: But it feels different, you know, going into the tournament,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: just because you know, you're in a position where we basically,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: you know, you got to win to get into the
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: national tournament. So we weren't in that position last year,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: and we had a better record this year, so you know,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: it's great. I'm happy that this is the highest finished
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: we've had in the league, but our aspirations are a
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: lot higher than finishing third in Hockey East.
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you were twelve eight and four last year and
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: you're twelve nine and three this year, so.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: It's roughly the same.
• 8:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And did it help having just had a week
• 8:21
  Speaker 6: kind of like this where you played unh on Thursday
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: and then.
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: Providence on Saturday, where you had to spend one half
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: of a week focusing on one thing, and then midway
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: or later in the week, he kind of had to
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: switch gears and start getting ready for something different.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure it has a major impact on on
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: how we're preparing this week. I don't think so.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Thanks Adam, go ahead.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: I this a little off the beaten path, but just
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: in terms of the women's program and what they were
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: able to accomplish. Were you present for that game? I
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: don't know how your schedule fell in. Well, I guess
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: that was Saturday. So what is beer interaction with mckenndy
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Ben and the whole group, I guess before they head
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: off and do their thing this week.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a great relationship with those guys that
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: right next door to us. After the Providence game, we
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: had turned it on while we were waiting to get leave,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: I think in the first overtime, and then then we
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: took off and I actually wasn't on the bus, so
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: I called Tyler. I knew they were watching it, so
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: he told me that they won. So I was really
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: excited for them. They do an unbelievable job. It's a
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: great program. I'm going to be locked in, you know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: watching them against Princeton on Thursdays. So really happy for
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: the team, and you know, they've done an awesome job
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: over the past three years. They've been it seems like
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Northeastern and yu kond of been the chalk in that
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: league the last three years.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: Thank you, go ahead.
• 10:08
  Speaker 7: Nick, Thank you Colin, thanks for including me on this
• 10:11
  Speaker 7: coach How are you?
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: I'm great? How are you? I'm good? I'm good. Just
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: a couple of things.
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: First, when you get to this point in the season,
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: I'm sure that you know, having a good goaltender like
• 10:23
  Speaker 7: Tyler is something to lean on. Do you get a
• 10:26
  Speaker 7: sense that, hey, you know, this is a guy that
• 10:28
  Speaker 7: you can really ride through a nice postseason run here.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no question about it. He played for us in
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: the postseason last year. Uh, you know, one big game
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: for us last year in the Hockey East playoffs. He's
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: you know, won two Connecticut tournaments, playing exceptionally well in
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: all four of those games. So we have confidence and
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Tyler as our goalie.
• 10:58
  Speaker 7: What would you say is his best quality?
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: I think his composure is one. He's very efficient in
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: his movements when he plays. And I know our team,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: but because he's so composed and calm, the team is
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: calm because of that, you know. And it's nice when
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: you have a goaltender like that behind you. You can
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: play with a little bit more, you know, you play
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: more freely. I would say, you know, it's it's liberating
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: as a player to know that you have a guy
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: behind you that if you make a mistake, he can
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: cover for it.
• 11:46
  Speaker 7: And you know, looking back at you know, last year's run,
• 11:50
  Speaker 7: you know, this was the time of the year where
• 11:51
  Speaker 7: Joey obviously shined and had some big games for you.
• 11:55
  Speaker 7: Do you ever get a sense when you go into
• 11:56
  Speaker 7: a postseason like, hey, this, you know, this guy's really
• 11:59
  Speaker 7: shining in practice, you know, do you sort of see
• 12:01
  Speaker 7: it coming with certain guys.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I wish I could say yes, but you know, no,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: it's and we're gonna need the one thing I know
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: that this in the playoffs is you need secondary scoring.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: There's no way you can rely on one line, you know.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: And I learned that a long long time ago when
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I was part of the staff when we won the
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: national title in two thousand and one and our best player,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: and I thought the best player in the country was
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Brian Gionta, and he didn't score one goal in the
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: national tournament, but we still won because you know, he
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: did so many other things to help us win. But
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: we had secondary scoring. We had other guys that were
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: able to score. We didn't just rely on his line
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: to score. And you need that. You need that because
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: we know that. You know, now we'll have last change
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: on Saturday, but this is going to be in the
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: tournament where we might not have last change, and the
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: other team's gonna be able to get a matchup that
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: they want against Joey muldowney, and that's okay, you know,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: because he's got to be willing to play against anybody.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: But maybe that matchup is beneficial for that team. But
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: hopefully that opens up opportunities for some of our other lines,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: because we have roughly every line we have has scored
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: over twenty pretty close to twenty goals. You know, we
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: have a lot of balance scoring in our line up
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: and down our lineup, and we're going to need all
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: of that to be successful in the playoffs.
• 13:33
  Speaker 7: Sure that was gonna be my other question. You took
• 13:35
  Speaker 7: the words right out of my mouth. It's just like
• 13:37
  Speaker 7: balance with scoring. How much does it help to, you know,
• 13:41
  Speaker 7: have that going into a postseason run.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: It's imperative because you look at any NHL team. Yeah,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: you know, McDavid and Drysidle are probably gonna have to
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: carry Edmonton, but they're not gonna win unless they get
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: secondary scoring. Because there's gonna be some night with those
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: guys either off or they get shut down, and you're
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: gonna have to have someone else carry the load for you. Thanks, coach, Sure,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: for sure, anything.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Else for coach, guys, I have all one go ahead.
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: Then sorry, I have one work quick. Ryan Taddle got
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: to thirty points. I think it was the last game
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: or the game before. And he's just your fourth guy
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: who's had multiple thirty point seasons at Yukon under you
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: just what makes him so consistent as a scorer, having
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: played on a different line last year than in a
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: different group of guys this year, to still put up
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: that big of a number and be the team leader
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: this year.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: I just think he's so competitive in all three zones.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: He's just not an offensive player. When you watch him play,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: he's one of our best penalty killers. He takes a
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: lot of D zone face off, you know, the draws
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: because he's very good on face offs for us. And
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: he's just tenacious around the net, like he's not afraid
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: to go to the hard areas. So I didn't even
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: know that. You're like my statistician, Dan, You tell me
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: all these guys they break records.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: So that's what I'm here for.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate that, but you know we're going to
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: need him to be at his very best this weekend.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Awesome, coach. One last thing. Hockey's just announced their first
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: round of postseason awards, Taber Heaslip was named alongside Owen
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Fowler as the best defensive forward. If you could just
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: quickly talk about Tabor and his style of play.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Well again, that's news to me and I'm really excited
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: to hear about that because he has been a rock
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: star captain for us this year. He's a heart and
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: soul of our team. You know, he's first over the
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: boards on the penalty kill. His line has been playing
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: exceptionally well, and they draw tough matchups usually, you know,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: we play them against another team's top line an awful lot,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: and he's had a fantastic year, not only chipping in offensively.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I think he's plus ten on the year. And if
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: you're plus ten playing against the other team's top line
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: all the time, I mean that's a credit. And he
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: loves it. He loves that challenge, game in and game out.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Very very happy for him.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Awesome, awesome, Well coach, thanks for jumping on with us.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Good luck this weekend.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Thanks everyone, Okay, thanks guys, have a good day.
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: Thank coach, appreciate it.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Thanks Colling