Latest / Coaches Corner / MHOC Mike Cavanaugh Weekly Zoom Jan 29

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MHOC Mike Cavanaugh Weekly Zoom Jan 29 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, coach, coming off DT Ice championship, we're back
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: in conference action, top ten matchup this weekend home and
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: home with Providence. Just want to get your thoughts as
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: we head down the home stretch of hockey US play.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Well, we certainly we're excited to finally get our first
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: ct ice championship trophy, but we've moved on and trying
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: to get ready for the Friars now. And they're always
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: a tough opponent for us to play against. I think
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: that they have a balanced scoring attack, they're pretty good defensively.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: They've always had really good special teams and two excellent goaltenders.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: So there are a reason. You know, they're top ten
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: team for a reason, and we know we're going to
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: have our work cutout for us this weekend.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Awesome, all right, we'll open for questions. Joe, you want
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to start us off.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks, good morning.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Cav How are you.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: I'm great, Joe, you, I'm good.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Obviously, coming off such an emotional weekend in Fairfield, did
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: what was the mood in practice the last two days?
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Any sort of letdown momentum from the weekend, How would
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: you characterize it?
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: You know this this group's pretty good. They I think,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: you know, they obviously were excited after the weekend, but
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: you know, we've had like three weekends in a row. Joe,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: it's uh, and this is going to be our fourth
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: it's uh. You know, New Hampshire was an emotional weekend,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: going up to Maine was a really emotional weekend, and
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: then obviously this past weekend. But they're pretty good at
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: compartmentalizing and moving on to the next challenge in front
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: of us.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Can you talk a little bit about Philip. I mean,
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: obviously nice time for his first goal. It seems like
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: he's even more in the he's feeling he's feeling his
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: oats a lot more.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: For most Europeans, they play over here for a year
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: before they come to college, so they get somewhat used
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: to the North American culture. He's one of the few
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: that came straight from He was playing in the Swedish
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: junior league last year and the Slovenian kid, so it
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: probably took him a little longer to get acclimated Joe
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: to North American style hockey, and the rinks are a
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: lot bigger over in Europe, so but I really like
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: the way he's progressing. He's an excellent kid, four to
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: zero student. He's been a great addition to our program.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: And then last one for me for now. The teams
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: always seemed to have a knack for blocking shots. Obviously
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Spets and Massinio were really good at that. But you
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: had Jake with eight seconds to go to help save
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: the game. Is that a mindset? Is that a learned skill?
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: What makes the team a good shot blocking team? I
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: think you see any team that is gonna be successful,
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: it has to be able to block shots.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: It's just part of the game. It's it's boxing out
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: in basketball, it's being able to bunt in baseball. It's
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: it's a fundamental that you need to have in your game.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: And teams that are not going to block shots, I
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: don't think they're going to be very successful.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Thanks Bridget, we can jump over to you.
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: Thank you, Colin High coach.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Bridget got a few questions.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: I'll just ask if you first. So I wanted to
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: ask you about kind of where you guys are in
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: your I guess we're Tiscano. Is actually because you guys
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: are this is your second season there, writers are your
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: second full season.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Uh well, it opened two januaries ago.
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: Okay, So, and I had overheard a conversation this week
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: about how like Hockey East has gotten a lot of
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: big investments in facilities and programs recently, and I wanted
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: to know, now that you're you're in your second season
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: in Toscano and then you're able to show recruits it
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: and everything, what has that been like for your program?
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Well, obviously it's a great help for our program. We
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: were you know, I think the two biggest things I've
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: said about this arena are one, it gives our players
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: and our student athletes a facility where, you know, a
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: top notch facility where they can recover, where they can
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: come and work on their shot, where they can become
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: the very best player that they can be. We have
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: everything in here to help develop them as a hockey player.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: The second thing is it allows our student body to
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: walk across campus and come watch us play. I think
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: those are the two most important things when it comes
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: to this facility.
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: And then I'll just do this one as well. For
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: your goaltending situation you've had, you've had to you know,
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: you've had some challenges trying to figure out, I guess,
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: how to go about utilizing everyone. Can you just talk
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: a little bit about how you've been able to bring
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: those like get through the adversity, bring those guys in all.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: You have all new goalie group this year.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: So yeah, well it really hasn't been a challenge because
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: we haven't had them healthy. Really, I haven't had to
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: make too many choices because I think, for all, we've
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: only had two weeks this year actually this being the
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: third right now, because Callum's back, where we've had all
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: three goalies healthy. So Tyler was playing the majority of
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: the games, and Callum was injured early, and then Tyler
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: got hurt, and then Callum jumped in, and when they
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: were both hurt, Tommy Heaty played. So all three goalies
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: have played. But you know, I think Tyler and Callum
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: have certainly, you know, played well enough this year to
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: earn more starts in the net. Now, how we're going
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: to go about that going forward, I don't know yet.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: It's still only Wednesday. We'll make that decision tomorrow night.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Adam will jump over to you.
• 6:46
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I guess that is sort of the crux of
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: my question with the goaltending play is is it still
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: Tyler goes into this week having done what he did
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: last weekend and knows I've still got to earn it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 6: Do they have to prove anything coming off of last
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: weekend with that decision?
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: I think you got to prove something every day. I
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: think the real good ones try to prove something every day.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: I don't think they're ever satisfied with what they did
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: the previous week So, and that's what I expect. That's
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: an expectation here of the players. When Jake Richards shows
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: up today, when John Speest shows up, they got to
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: prove it. They got to go out there and show
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: me that they're getting better every day, because if the
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: minute that stops happening, you're not going to have.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: A lot of success. Where's the trophy in the lounge?
• 7:36
  Speaker 6: Okay, the guy is still getting a kick out of
• 7:40
  Speaker 6: it every time they walk by it.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: I don't know, you'd have to ask them, but it's
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: going to stay in the lounge all year long. I
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: know that.
• 7:48
  Speaker 6: And for Houston Cartman obviously getting thrown into consistent playing
• 7:52
  Speaker 6: time for the first time in his careers. So what
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: have you seen over the last few weeks with what
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: he brings.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: He brings a ton of energy, for sure. I really
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: like the way his game has progressed over the past
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: three years.
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: He plays a solid but when he's out there, I
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: thought early on in his career, I thought structurally he
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: could get lost. I think he's done a great job
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: of understanding positionally where he should be on the ice
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: and when he's not playing. He's also adds a value
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: because he just brings so much energy to our bench.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: That's good, Andrew, go ahead, I think have congrats on
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: the win this past week.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Thanks Andrew.
• 8:40
  Speaker 7: You know you of course, sure York used to talk
• 8:43
  Speaker 7: about this is the beginning of trophy season, you and
• 8:45
  Speaker 7: I and I think you've talked with other folks too
• 8:47
  Speaker 7: about how the beam pok could always be sort of
• 8:50
  Speaker 7: a catalyst towards a you know, that home stretch. I guess,
• 8:53
  Speaker 7: just how are you feeling about your team right now
• 8:56
  Speaker 7: now that you guys finally broke through and were able
• 8:58
  Speaker 7: to win this tournament.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: Well, I was super happy for Hudson Chandor and John Spets,
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: who had lost in that championship game three years in
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: a row. But for the other guys, to answer your question,
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: I think it went a long way for our younger
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: guys learning what it takes to win a trophy and
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: how hard it is. And we made some young mistakes
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: in that championship game at times, and I think you
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: can only grow from that. And when we're putting another well,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: hopefully we're going to be in that position again in
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: another month or so, and our guys can use draw
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: on that experience to help them, you know, the next
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: time they're faced with certain challenges in a game. So
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: I think it can be a great springboard for your team.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Now that being said, I also understand how quickly it
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: can change, you know. I remember a couple being pot
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: teams where all of a sudden you start thinking you're
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: really good and you can be humbled quickly. So I
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: know in this game, and especially playing in this league,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Andrew and I and our players know, like coming up,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: you know, if you look at our schedule coming up
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: in the league, it's two with Providence, it's Lowell, it's U.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Mass it's Maine, it's bu I mean, they're all like
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: a lot of those teams are in the top ten,
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: so you know, and then we're followed with Northeastern, who
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: we haven't played yet, who's playing really well right now.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: Vermont has played well all year long, so we understand that.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: You know, you have to continue to get better and
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: improve or you can. This game's very humbling.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Joe, we'll jump back to you.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Thanks HAVELV.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: How is Ethan doing and is there a timetable on
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: his possible return?
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: He's doing my much better. He skated yesterday for the
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: first time in a couple of weeks. But I don't
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: know if he'll be ready for this weekend yet, though.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you, go ahead, Thank av.
• 11:14
  Speaker 8: Nice to see you.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: I see you, Cooper.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I'm just grace.
• 11:18
  Speaker 8: What did you think of Hugh last week in his return?
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: I thought he was really good, And in fact, when
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: we shortened the bench towards the end of the game,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: I moved him up onto one of the lines. We
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: were playing three lines at the end of the game,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: and he was on one of those lines because I
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: thought he gave us a really solid effort on Saturday night.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: And again, that's another kid with a lot of experience.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: You know, Western Michigan played in a lot of national tournaments,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: so he has a lot of postseason experience.
• 11:50
  Speaker 8: Just a big picture question, because I've talked to you
• 11:52
  Speaker 8: a few different times over the course of the season,
• 11:54
  Speaker 8: about your young guys and all these new guys that
• 11:57
  Speaker 8: have come in there, can you put into perspective because
• 12:00
  Speaker 8: you're at the rink every day, like what this group
• 12:04
  Speaker 8: and what these young guys are like on a day
• 12:06
  Speaker 8: to day basis, So.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: I don't even look at him as young guys anymore.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: But yeah, they've been a fun group to work with,
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: you know. And a lot of them, you know, like
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Shahn and Gardula played together and juniors, you know, Whitcomb,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: but most of them played Kai, Trey, Scott, Witcomb, Gardula,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: shay Han, they all played in the USHL, so they
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: were all somewhat familiar with each other. But I think
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Mertz has fit in really well. I said, Phillip's really
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: finding his way now, you know. And so on any
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: given night, you know, we can have eight freshmen in
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: the lineup, and I think they've done really really well.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Thanks anything else for coach, guys?
• 13:00
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I got one.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: If I couldn't, I don't have my raise hand either.
• 13:04
  Speaker 9: Hey, Mike, what about these freshmen Connolly, Sawyer and Mustard
• 13:09
  Speaker 9: for Providence? What type of players are these guys?
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Mike?
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: Ah, They're excellent. So Conley, it was a World junior player,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: really really good player for them. I think, Well Elger
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: is another one who I think is a really good
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: young player for them. Will Elger. Uh, you know, Mustard
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: had a breakout season in the us HL last year,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: so they're they're very, very talented. But they also have
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: you know, Poison and Yoda. They've had a lot of
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: experience there so to experienced goaltenders. So you know they're
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: getting great production I think from their freshman class as well.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: But they also have a lot of guys who've played
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: a lot of experience in this league.
• 13:55
  Speaker 9: Mike, last couple of games, I guess, last three, it's
• 13:59
  Speaker 9: been tough to get goals. But you always mentioned when
• 14:03
  Speaker 9: you get to January it's big boy time. Something that
• 14:07
  Speaker 9: that Gary Yurk used to say this year. What's that
• 14:14
  Speaker 9: is that natural? This time of year just makes it
• 14:15
  Speaker 9: harder to score goals? The games get more.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Important, I think, so, I think you know, if you
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: look at Denver, they won a national title last year,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: and uh, they won their first NCAA game two to one,
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: they won the second one two to one. They won
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: the semis two to one, and they won the finals
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: two to nothing. I mean, it's when you're playing in
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: championship games, and when we lost to U mass And
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: in the Garden it was two to one in overtime.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: It's it's a it's a lot tougher, uh to score goals.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Teams tighten up. Look at the NHL playoffs, how much
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: how different that is from the regular season. So it's
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: just playoff hockey is different. When you're playing for a trophy,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: it's much tougher to score goals. Now you're going and
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: have outlier games, but I just know, typically when you
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: have two evenly matched teams that play the game the
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: right way, and usually that's what it is when you're
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: getting to a final game, it's it's it's tough to
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: fight for your ice.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Ridge.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: We'll end it with you, okay, thank you, So I'll
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: just hit you with two more then. So first of all,
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: for you, guys, haven't lost since December, so uh, since
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: since then or since December twenty nine, So since then,
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: you guys have gut points in every game. So what
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: are some things that you've been doing, uh in this half,
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: like since that that loss or even maybe before that
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: as well. That's that's helped you get to the results
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: where now you've been able to jump up to fourth
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: in the Pairwise.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: No, I don't think I get asked this question yesterday.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: I don't think we're really doing anything different. If you
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: look at before we went on break, you know, we
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: finished our first half with two with Lowell, who I
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: think with six or seventh in the country at the time,
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: and BC, who was one, and we took four out
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: of six points from BC. And we you know, played
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: two at Lowell on the road, and you know, we
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: won the first night and lost the second night one
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: nothing still played really really well. So I thought we
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: were playing well before when we hit the brake, and
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: I just think that we've continued to play very consistent hockey.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: Bridget, I guess maybe I should have worded it this way.
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: What are some of those things that you've been doing
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: in this stretch that you've really liked from your team?
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Well, getting solid goaltending. I think when you're winning games consistently,
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: you're managing the puck well, you're not turning it over,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: you're not giving up a lot of odd man rushes.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: I think that you know, we defend pretty well. I'd
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: like to see us create more in the offensive zone.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: I think that's an area that we can get better at.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: I think we're pretty good off the rush and we're
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: a good for checking team, but I'd like to see
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: a few more multiple shot shifts. I don't think that
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: we're getting enough of those right now, and that could
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: be one of the reasons why we're not We haven't
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: scored a ton of goals lately, but like a defensive way,
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I think we're playing pretty well.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: Last one is just because we're obviously going to talk
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: about the fact that you guys have jumped all the
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: way up to fourth in the pairwise and you know,
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: trending in a great direction, and then like looking back
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: at the Hockey East preseason, holl they only had you
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: projected for eight. Like when you see something like that
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: in the preseason, are you just like, oh, no, that's
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: not that's not accurate, Like we're going to be so
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: much better than that.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: No, I don't really get too caught up with that.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: You know, that's happened a lot here since I've been
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: at Yukon, So that's not really a concern of ours
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: because you don't know, and you don't know like going
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: into it. I'm not offended the way our season ended
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: last year. And some of the players that we lost.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: I get why some team people went have picked us eighth,
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: but every year is different and you've got to go
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: out and play the games. And that's why the end
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: of the year pool is way more important than the
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: preseason pool. Thank you, guys.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Awesome, Well, thanks everyone for jumping on coach. Thank you,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: good luck this weekend.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Okay, thank you,