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MHOC Coach Mike Cavanaugh - Colorado College Wk Presser · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Two home games coming up this weekend versus Colorado College.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Just want to get your thoughts heading into the matchup.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a great series with them last year
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: out in Colorado Springs. And, you know, they're an up-tempo,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: high-paced offensive team. I think they play very similar to
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: the way we play. They get up and down the ice.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I think they have good goaltending. They have some great
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: senior leadership, too, up front. I think Link is an
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: excellent player. Weinbergs and Beckner also is a really, really
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: talented player as well. And they're good on the back end.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: So I expect two high-paced, action-filled games on the weekend. Okay. Awesome. Joe,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: you can take this one. Thank you, Colin.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Coach.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Joe.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: How are you today?
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I'm great.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Yourself?
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I'm great. Couldn't be better with all my favorite people,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: so it's good. When you went back, Kevin, watched the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: tape of Friday and Saturday, or especially Saturday, did anything
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: stick out to you from what you had thought after
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the game?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Well, clearly we've got to do a better job killing penalties.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I thought we made some mistakes there and we'll make
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: some adjustments on that. That was an area that I thought, well,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: we could have been a little bit better. You know,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: we had four breakaways in the game on Saturday that
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: we did not, you know, score on. So, you know,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: we had some really good chances on Saturday and we
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: just didn't bury our chances. And sometimes that happens. So,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I do think we can try to establish more of
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: a presence in the offensive zone. I don't think we
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: created as many multiple shot shifts as I like. You know,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Mertag's goal was on a rebound, but I don't know
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: how many other rebound opportunities we got. So that's an
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: area where we certainly have to improve upon playing in
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: front of the opponent's net.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about a couple of the
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: freshmen in particular. Charlie Morrison, what makes him a player
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: who you think you can help build a blue line
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: around in years to come?
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I think he skates very well. He's got great
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: size and length. He's a tough, hard-nosed player. So when
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: you're that big and you skate that well, it certainly
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: helps your defending abilities. So that's an area where I
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: think he can you know, really affect the outcome of
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: a game playing, you know, 20 to 25 minutes of
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: really hard-nosed defensive play. He also has some sneaky offense,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: so I think he can contribute there as well.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: And Kay Davis had one of those breakaways. He doesn't
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: seem like he's afraid to stick his nose in there.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: No, I think, you know, Cole played on a team
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: last year in Windsor that was a– you know, really high,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: high end team. And he, he had a prominent role
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: on that team and I think he's come in and
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I've been really pleased with the way he's acclimated himself
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: to our program.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Is this the end of the Colorado college series? It
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: was just a home and home that you had signed
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: him up for.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah. So this will, after this year, the series ends.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Randy, go ahead. Thank you.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: Good morning, Cav.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Randy, you were cheating on us Saturday.
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: I had a football hockey doubleheader on Saturday. I got
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: the same thing this weekend, too.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: He thought he was going to do the championship game
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: on Saturday, Cav. That's what he told me on Friday.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: False, fake news.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: Just wanted to ask you, Coach, last week you had
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: mentioned that you know, when you get out there and
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: finally get to compete against other teams, you get a
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: sense of the guys.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: So what's the sense you get after they got to being? Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I think I thought defensively, we have some areas to
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: work on, which I, you know, again, it's, it's really
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: hard to replicate another team's offensive prowess. And we fell
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: prey to that a little bit. We, we were, They exposed,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: I think both Penn State and Bowling Green exposed some
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: weaknesses in our defensive zone coverage. So that's something that
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: we've addressed this week. You know, again, I would say
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: our special teams need to improve and that's an area
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: that we're going to work on, but I don't think
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  Speaker 2: two games is enough of a sample to understand, you know,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: exactly where your team's at yet. So, But from those
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: two games, I would say defensively and on our special teams,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: those are two areas that we need to improve upon
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: for this weekend.
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: Just individually, Sproul was able to get on the board
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: and he joined you midway last year. How good was
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: that for him to get out there and play significant minutes?
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it didn't surprise me because he puts in the work.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: I saw it all last year, the second half of
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the year, and this year nothing's changed and He's a
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: kid that, you know, was going to earn more ice time,
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  Speaker 2: I believe.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: Um, and then it just is the line combinations start
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: to come together early in the year. Anybody stand out
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: as far as chemistry, even if it wasn't a full
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: line or two guys that you think, um, or three that,
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: you know, showed some good chemistry. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: We're still working on that a little bit. I would
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: say Gardula and Whitcomb, I thought were pretty good together
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: this weekend. Uh, uh, But other than that, we're still
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: kind of sorting through some of those line combinations.
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: And then just a final thought on both goalies, how
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: you thought they handled the net this week.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought they both played pretty well. They both
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: gave us a chance to win hockey games, and that's
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: what you really want out of your goaltenders. Give you
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: a chance to win a game. Every now and then
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: you can steal a game. But you can't rely on
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: your goaltenders to steal hockey games. You've got to play
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: a sound 60-minute game. And if your goaltenders give you
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: a chance to win, that's all you can ask for.
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Go ahead, Adam. Thank you. Hello, Coach.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: So you talked about the penalty kill. And I know
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: in years past you've said that you really like when
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: you're penalty kill unit is aggressive and so we saw
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: the shorthanded goal so is there still that that mentality
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: where you think they're going to be aggressive and wanting
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: to kind of get those breakout opportunities and now it's
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: just a matter of picking different spots to do that
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: or is it a little bit of a different issue.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Uh well the goal the shorthanded goal actually didn't come
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: off of us being aggressive that was we we intercepted
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: one of their entries you know and got a partial
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: break uh yep I think we had a problem last
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: week of when I don't think we were in sync
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: when we were needed to be aggressive and when we
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: needed to basically there's times where you have to back
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: off and you have to be structured and eat pucks
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: and on a penalty kill. And last week I thought
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: we were in between a little bit too much.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: Or, you know, Joey coming into this season, you know,
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: he's obviously going to be a, a marked man still
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: had a goal in an assisted, you know, I'm sure
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: there's only so much you can do in hockey to,
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: to mark a guy like that. Did you see him
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: getting a little extra attention maybe year over year, or
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: was it just, I mean, he was good last year
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: and good again this year.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I don't think that, you know, that was an issue
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: last weekend. I don't think that, uh, you know, he
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: was being marked last weekend. Uh, I just think it
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: was– I really don't– I'm trying to recall. I don't
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  Speaker 2: remember either team trying to match players against him. So
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: that may happen as the season goes on and he's
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: going to have to deal with that, but I don't
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: think that was the case last weekend.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: That's it for me.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: Daniel, you looking to hop in?
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: Sure. is it, what's it like just the first weekend
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: with a new assistant coach with Sean on the bench? Like,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: are you learning his tendencies at all? Is, is he
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: kind of learning you guys? Like, does it, is there
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: a little bit of a break in period?
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sure there is. I think it's probably a
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: better question for him. You know, he, he's new to
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: the staff and he's trying to learn how we do things.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: And I think he's picked it up pretty quick. But
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: as far as having him on the bench, it didn't
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: seem noticeably different to me in years past. I've had
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: a lot of different assistant coaches, and I think they
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: all understand what their role is on the bench. And,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: you know, it's different than Tyler's role. I mean, Tyler's
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: running the defense and kind of our power play. So
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Sean's not running a special team yet. He just assists
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: like he'll come over to me and let me know
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: what they're seeing up top, so to speak. But yeah,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: From that standpoint, I thought he brought good energy and
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: he was there for our players when they needed him.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Who is doing the penalty kill?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Alex.
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: How much, like you obviously rely on Alex a lot
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: for your goaltending, but just how much else does he
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: do beyond the penalty kill for you guys?
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think. he should be pigeonholed as just
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: a goaltending coach. He's a really good hockey coach and
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: he understands shooters. Like he helps our shooters quite a
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: bit because he sees it from a goalie's lens and
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: where he can help them and how they can help
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: them score. So he's out in the morning and he's
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: working with a lot of our players, not just goaltenders. Yes,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: primarily that is his focus with the goalies. However, he
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: does assist in other ways on our staff.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Lay had two assists and felt like he set up
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: a lot more chances. Just what makes him good as
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: a playmaker?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Well, he's done a lot of work in the offseason
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: working on his skating, and I think he has picked
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: up a step. I think his cutbacks are elite. He
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: sees the game really well, and he just has such
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: a high hockey IQ that he's the type of player
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: that knows what he wants to do with the puck
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: before he gets it a lot, and That's really a
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: hard skill to teach.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: And then a few times when a guy got thrown
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: out of the face-off circle, I noticed it was Caden
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: going in to take some face-offs. I don't remember him
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: taking a ton in years past and it seemed like
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: he did all right. Like, is that something he's been
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: working on?
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: How many face-offs did he take? I don't remember him
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: taking a lot. I remember him taking one.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: Maybe I just remember him taking one and it was,
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: surprised to see him go in there so that could
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: be all.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Of it normally yeah he's not a guy that would
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: go in and take him but it might have been
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: a penalty kill situation and if the he gets thrown
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: out he's the only other forward we have out there
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: but all our players are adept to at least getting
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: in there and being able to tie up or uh
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: try to create you know something where we're gonna sometimes
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: you maybe just go forward with the puck and we'll
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: try to get into our forecheck right away if that's
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: the case.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Well, one last face-off thing that I'm much more confident
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: I saw. I think you had on one penalty kill,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Carter looked like he took a face-off and then immediately
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: hopped on the bench. Is he just that good at
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: face-offs that you want him out there?
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: I felt like he was going that night. And sometimes
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: it's just a hot stick. And when you need a
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: face-off in your defensive zone, I've done that throughout my career.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I've put a guy out there said, Hey, we win
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: this draw and get it out, get off. Because it's
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: so important, especially on the penalty kill. If you can
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: win that, get an icing, you know, that's going to
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: kill 10 to 15 seconds of their power play.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Thanks.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Did you think the officials were consistent Cav in handling
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: the new face off rule all weekend?
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be very difficult at first.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: I do think you'll see it clean up as the
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: season goes on, but, Whenever there's a new rule put in,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: there's always a feeling out period those first few weeks
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: and trying to figure out what the officials' expectations are.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: And the players are always going to try to cheat
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: on a face-off. So it's just learning how the officials
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: want the face-off to be executed.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Randy, go ahead.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just one more for me.
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: Amadovsky, like his first shift, I feel like he threw
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: two or three hits and brought a physical presence.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Years past, right?
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: That quote-unquote fourth line, and I know they're not a
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: fourth line, but they've been so important in sort of
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: establishing physicality. Are you looking for a similar kind of
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: style from him and the line pairings that he'll be on?
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I just... I think that has to be a
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: staple of his game. That's what he is. He is
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: a big, strong, power forward. When he's playing well, there's
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: going to be a physical presence on the ice. And
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: I think he's got to play to his strengths. And
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: I was happy to see him get out there and
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: deliver a few checks right out of the gate because
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: that's what's– as he keeps getting better as a player here,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: That has to be an element of his game, physicality.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Awesome. Anything else for Coach, guys? Awesome.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Coach, for jumping on.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Good luck this weekend.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Thanks, guys. Thanks. Have a good week.