Latest / Coaches Corner / Mike Cavanaugh Zoom - Vermont Week
Transcript
- 0:00All right, coach, coming off first Hockey East matchup of the season,
- 0:05split with UMass well overtime when they're Friday night, dropped game two Saturday one,
- 0:10nothing well to get a couple of quick thoughts on that series, and
- 0:14then heading into another hockey series up two games at Vermont this weekend, Yeah,
- 0:20I thought, you know, again, it's I feel like it's a
- 0:24recurring theme. I think I thought we played really well on the weekend.
- 0:30You know, anytime you get close to ninety shots on goal in two games
- 0:36and you and you're holding your opponent to roughly half of that, you know,
- 0:43you feel pretty good about the way you're playing. Unfortunately, we're still
- 0:47struggling to score goals. And it wasn't because we lacked grete a opportunities.
- 0:52It's just for having I wish I had an answer for it, but I
- 0:57don't, and and hopefully I just keep telling the kids to stay the course
- 1:00because eventually they will start going in. But that being said, we have
- 1:07to move on, and we have certainly an opponent in Vermont. I know
- 1:15this is Steve's first season up there, and they showed a lot of gumption
- 1:22and resiliency. I think coming back after a tough Friday night loss. Who
- 1:26they played that game pretty even against Providence there on Saturday night. So it's
- 1:33always tough playing up at the gut and we'll have a definitely a big challenge
- 1:38ahead of us. All Right, we'll open up for questions, Adam,
- 1:42you want to start us off, Yeah, coach. I talked with Andrew
- 1:47Lucas after Friday's game and asked him about, you know, staying the course
- 1:52and being able to get that late victory. Did you still see you know,
- 1:57obviously, being able to stay the course and getting a win on Friday,
- 2:00it's an easier pill to swallow than staying the course and not quite getting
- 2:02there on Saturday. So are you seeing the players still trusting all of that
- 2:08even after Saturday? Yeah? I do. I mean you can't just you
- 2:15know, say hey, we're going to stay the course when you win.
- 2:19So I mean, you gotta states stay true to that. And we've had
- 2:24great practices this week. And as disappointed as you know, I think some
- 2:35of us are with the record we've had right now, we've played really well.
- 2:40I can't honestly say that there was a game this season where I was
- 2:46like, we just did not really play well. There was a stretch on
- 2:50Saturday I thought Lowell kind of took it to us for about six or seven
- 2:53minutes in the second period, but we got it back by the end of
- 2:55the second period and dominated the third period, and unfortunately we weren't able to
- 3:01tie that game up, you know, and do what we did on Friday
- 3:06night. But it's not because of lack of effort or team camaraderie. It's
- 3:15like the team's pretty tight and we're doing things the right way and eventually it'll
- 3:21pay off if you continue to do things that way. Yeah, thank you,
- 3:28Joe will head over to you. Thanks Colin keV. When you see
- 3:32guys, maybe individual guys pressing a little bit too much, trying to go
- 3:38outside there laying, how important is it for you or one of your assistants
- 3:43to take them aside and say, look, we don't we don't need you
- 3:46to be Gretzki, we don't need you to be criter, We need you
- 3:49to be who you are. Yeah, I'm not sure we have a Gretzki
- 3:54or a Crider Joe, but no, yeah, I think that is.
- 4:00And we've had great leadership and those guys have been doing a really good job
- 4:03with that as well. You know, I watched a little bit of the
- 4:10actually I watched it all the Yogi baron Netflix show that was just released,
- 4:15and I kind of told the guys about it because he said, I never
- 4:21I was never in a slump. I just didn't hit sometimes, but I
- 4:25was never in a slump, you know. And I think that has to
- 4:28be your mindset. It's like, we're not in a slump. We're just
- 4:30not scoring goals right now, but they're gonna come. And I think you
- 4:34really it's a lot easier said than done sometimes, but I think you have
- 4:41to really keep focusing on are we playing the right way? Are we doing
- 4:45things the right way? And as a compete level there and it is,
- 4:48So those are the things we have to those are the things we can control,
- 4:53and yeah, maybe we have to bear down a little more. We
- 4:55certainly have to hit the net. I think we're missing the net at times
- 4:59when we have of really good looks, So that's something we can control.
- 5:02But other than that, I just want them to keep focusing on playing really
- 5:06strong, hard nosed hockey. And are you pleased with the work of the
- 5:12power play. I mean, obviously like the general game that scoring enough goals.
- 5:16But do you like the way that, especially the top five are working
- 5:20on a power play. I liked both units last weekend. I thought they
- 5:25created a lot of great chances, you know. You know, Maddy Wood
- 5:30hit a post there, then a kid made an incredible save on him.
- 5:33I don't know how he made that save, you know. But our power
- 5:38play also tied the game up on Friday night, So that was a big
- 5:42power play goal we got Friday night. So I did like I liked last
- 5:47weekend. I thought it was a power play that we were able to maintain
- 5:53momentum even though we didn't score in the game. Thank you, Daniel.
- 6:00We'll head over to you. What's made this such a great week of practice
- 6:03that you said earlier? Well, I mean maybe I'm just saying that it's
- 6:09been another good week of practice. We've had some really good weeks of practice.
- 6:14I thought yesterday our intensity level was high. You know, we worked
- 6:17on a lot of odd man rushes and scoring opportunities obviously, and guys were
- 6:23burying tucks. So there was energy when guys scored goals. So that's the
- 6:29type of stuff I was looking for, and I was happy with that yesterday
- 6:32and a stretch like this in the season. How important is it to have
- 6:36a guy like Hudson specifically because you talk about how he's just eternally positive,
- 6:43but really just the leadership in general to keep the team on track. It's
- 6:47been great. Nobody's like like jumping off the ship, if that's what you
- 6:54mean, Dan, They're all you know, they all understand, they've been
- 6:59around a long time that the way that we're playing is the standard that we
- 7:05want to set for our team. Everything but scoring goals. So we have
- 7:11to find a way to do that. I mean, we're top I think
- 7:13six to seventeen defensively in the country. Like statistically, it doesn't add up
- 7:18that we're not scoring goals right now. I think we were according to my
- 7:26assistance. I haven't looked at it as closely. We're like top five team
- 7:30and expected goals in the country, but we haven't scored. So if you're
- 7:39there and you're getting the chances, those are the things you got to keep
- 7:42focusing on. Eventually they're going to go. Then the defense, just what
- 7:47has made it so good this year? What have you been really pleased with
- 7:50on that end of the ice? Well, I think we've had the puck
- 7:53a lot like in a lot of games, like our offensive zone possession time
- 7:58is a lot higher than our opponent. And when when you do that,
- 8:03you know, the other team it's harder for the other team to score,
- 8:05obviously, and then when we do, you know, give the puck up.
- 8:09I think we've been very good structurally in our defensive zone and we've done
- 8:16a good job eliminating odd man rushes, and that's something that's going to have
- 8:20to continue to happen. Bob will head over to you cool, Hey,
- 8:28Bob se frustrated at all he hasn't found it yet. I'm ss I missed
- 8:35the beginning. There is Hudson frustrated at all that he has not found the
- 8:39back of the net yet because he's doing everything else well, as you mentioned.
- 8:41Yeah, I'm sure he is like anybody else, you know. I'm
- 8:46sure Maddie would was frustrated he had ten shots on net the other night.
- 8:50He's had like forty shots in four games, Maddie. Yeah, So I'm
- 8:54sure all the guys are frustrated, you know. I'm sure Chase Bradley's frustrated.
- 8:58I'm sure Tristan Frazier's frustrated or Taber. He's the rupping down our lineup.
- 9:03It's not like we're getting you know, a lot of scoring from anybody,
- 9:09so uh but they all you know, he hasn't shown it in practice,
- 9:13Bob, you know, I mean he's been a professional, and I
- 9:18know every day I'm going to get a great effort out of him in practice.
- 9:22Like what's Gutterson like for for an opponent? It's it's a great old
- 9:26school barn. I love going up there, I think, you know,
- 9:30especially when they get that student section going. It brings a lot of energy
- 9:35and it's a fun place to play. Thanks, Joe, go ahead,
- 9:43you're muted, Joe, kay. If your two goalies have been have been
- 9:50really good again, I mean, other than the year with Anson you've been,
- 9:54you've been pretty lucky to have goalies of equal talent, which I'm sure
- 10:00is more of a blessing than it's a pain. Can you just can you
- 10:03just speak to that and now that's how that's worked out. Yeah, it's
- 10:09especially this year, well one. I think Vince Stilletti does a great job
- 10:13with our goaltenders. You know, he's been our goaltending coach now for I
- 10:18think four years, and this year we were able to hire him full time,
- 10:22and I think Joe with the benefit. Sometime when you have two that
- 10:26are equally as good and they know that they can focus there have one game
- 10:33that weekend and that's the game that they're going to focus on, it's probably
- 10:37a little easier, especially when you know that and they have a really great
- 10:43relationship to two of them and they support each other well. But if that's
- 10:46the one game I really got to gear up and focus for, probably makes
- 10:52it a little bit easier for them. Thanks, we have anything else for
- 11:01coach, guys? Awesome, Well, thank you, coach. Appreciate it.
- 11:07Good luck this weekend, all right, Thanks guys, appreciate it.
- 11:11Thanks Cap, see you there. Thanks Cap.