Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 3 - MHOC Show w Coach Cav 2-24
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: We welcome you back to Bear Smokehouse Barbecue here in
- 0:02Speaker 1: downtown Hartford. Head coach Mike Kavanaugh Adam Jardino with you,
- 0:06Speaker 1: thanks to John Ashmead on site. Thank you to Matt
- 0:10Speaker 1: Schweiker down in Winsteed, Salem and coach. We didn't totally
- 0:15Speaker 1: revisit the Alaska Anchorage game, which has happened since the
- 0:18Speaker 1: last time we had one of these coaches shows. You
- 0:20Speaker 1: had revealed after the fact and understandable that that game
- 0:24Speaker 1: made you just about as nervous as any game on
- 0:26Speaker 1: your schedule this year, just because of what implications it
- 0:29Speaker 1: could have had for the NCAA tournament picture if things
- 0:33Speaker 1: didn't go well. So just take us through what you
- 0:35Speaker 1: saw out of the team being able to get a lead,
- 0:38Speaker 1: almost loose a lead, and then come away with the win.
- 0:41Speaker 2: Well, I was only it's nervous because you know it's
- 0:46Speaker 2: a team that our team doesn't see often, and you
- 0:51Speaker 2: can only surmise that your team's looking at their record
- 0:57Speaker 2: and saying, Okay, we can show up and win this game,
- 1:01Speaker 2: and luckily we have leaders that are not like that.
- 1:05Speaker 2: But also at the same time, it did not want
- 1:07Speaker 2: to abdicate our position of a top ten team in
- 1:09Speaker 2: the country, so sure, and if we lost that game,
- 1:12Speaker 2: I think we would have. So that's where my angst
- 1:15Speaker 2: came with that game. But to the kids credit, they
- 1:19Speaker 2: came out and we had a three to nothing lead
- 1:21Speaker 2: right out of the gate and we're able to lock
- 1:24Speaker 2: it down in the third, which was another area that
- 1:26Speaker 2: I was very pleased with our senior leadership because we
- 1:30Speaker 2: played the game the right way and we did not
- 1:32Speaker 2: play snob hockey and we under we got a power
- 1:34Speaker 2: play goal to go up before two, and played the
- 1:36Speaker 2: game the right way to close it out.
- 1:38Speaker 1: And for contact for those listening, Alaska Anchorage was somewhere
- 1:41Speaker 1: in the fifty seven to fifty eight range for the
- 1:44Speaker 1: pairwise at that time, so one of the numerically one
- 1:47Speaker 1: of the seven bottom teams in the country. So that's
- 1:49Speaker 1: just where the math kind of comes into play with
- 1:51Speaker 1: the pairwise. And since we're on that topic, you also
- 1:54Speaker 1: have you know, we've talked in the past about you've
- 1:58Speaker 1: hung photos of trophies in the locker room to inspire guys.
- 2:01Speaker 1: This year, it's a little bit of a different approach
- 2:03Speaker 1: with right around New Year saying hey, this is what
- 2:06Speaker 1: we want. The NCAA tournament. Here are the pairwise rankings,
- 2:09Speaker 1: and let's go out and get this thing. So I
- 2:12Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting that your take on that
- 2:16Speaker 1: is if you want to achieve a goal, manifest it
- 2:21Speaker 1: and don't shy away from saying it out loud.
- 2:24Speaker 2: That's just how I believe, and maybe it's not for everybody.
- 2:27Speaker 2: I know there are some coaches that feel like they're
- 2:30Speaker 2: going to jinx themselves. I don't want to be the
- 2:34Speaker 2: type of leader with our team that's ever going to
- 2:36Speaker 2: masquerade around the obvious. It's a goal that we all
- 2:41Speaker 2: aspire for. It's something that we've become close to getting,
- 2:45Speaker 2: So why not talk about it, and as you just said,
- 2:49Speaker 2: manifest it going forward. And I don't ever want our
- 2:54Speaker 2: players to come back and say, Coach, I wish I
- 2:56Speaker 2: knew how much that game meant to us making the tournament.
- 3:00Speaker 2: There's been a couple of years where we've lost lost
- 3:03Speaker 2: in the ctice final to Quinnipiac, and if we had
- 3:05Speaker 2: won that game, we might have gone to the tournament.
- 3:08Speaker 2: So I wanted to make our players understand that this
- 3:11Speaker 2: is how important this game is. And with this group,
- 3:15Speaker 2: I've got a very mature group that has been through
- 3:19Speaker 2: a lot of wars and they understand it, and I
- 3:22Speaker 2: think that they crave that type of.
- 3:26Speaker 1: Motivation, and it's you'll hear it in the conversation with
- 3:29Speaker 1: both Tray Scott and Jake Richard, who I asked them
- 3:32Speaker 1: both about that, and both of them were just as
- 3:34Speaker 1: quick to say, yes, we like this, but we know
- 3:38Speaker 1: that the process is still the thing that gets us
- 3:40Speaker 1: to where we are.
- 3:42Speaker 2: And we never we never confuse the process with our goals.
- 3:47Speaker 2: I think it's always important and we've had a bunch
- 3:50Speaker 2: of our players. I'll ask them sometimes to come up
- 3:53Speaker 2: with a theme for practice, and it's it's always about
- 3:57Speaker 2: It's not about the summit of the mountain. It's the
- 4:00Speaker 2: journey up the mountain, and it's not about the journey
- 4:03Speaker 2: as much as who you're on the journey with, you know.
- 4:06Speaker 2: And I love it that they're the ones driving the narrative,
- 4:12Speaker 2: and you know that's I just think it's always been
- 4:17Speaker 2: something that we've never been afraid to talk about. The
- 4:21Speaker 2: elephant in the room.
- 4:24Speaker 1: We're gonna hear from Jake Richard and Trey Scott. We
- 4:25Speaker 1: heard from Jake last year and actually earlier this year
- 4:28Speaker 1: as well. We have never talked with Trey a freshman,
- 4:30Speaker 1: so give us a little insight. What does he bring
- 4:32Speaker 1: to this program?
- 4:34Speaker 2: Well, he's We talked about him a little bit earlier
- 4:36Speaker 2: about how much poise and confidence he has with the puck.
- 4:40Speaker 2: I think he's an underrated defender. And being completely transparent,
- 4:46Speaker 2: I didn't know much about him as a player, and
- 4:49Speaker 2: the way the whole thing went down, I remember Tyler
- 4:52Speaker 2: coming into my office saying we have to make a
- 4:55Speaker 2: move on Tray Scott and I said, who's Tray Scott.
- 5:00Speaker 2: I didn't know anything about him, you know, And I
- 5:02Speaker 2: look him up and he's from Lunenburg or I just said, okay,
- 5:07Speaker 2: where's he playing and where did this all come from?
- 5:11Speaker 2: And he just said, he's a kid I've been watching
- 5:13Speaker 2: for a while. I really like him, and it brought
- 5:15Speaker 2: me back to I saw his passion for Trey as
- 5:19Speaker 2: a player, and it brought me back to I remember
- 5:22Speaker 2: being on the road way back when when I started
- 5:24Speaker 2: recruiting and I had just started for Jerry Yorke, and
- 5:26Speaker 2: I always wanted Jerry to see every player that I
- 5:28Speaker 2: thought we should offer. And I saw this kid one
- 5:31Speaker 2: night and I knew we didn't have time for Jerry
- 5:33Speaker 2: to see him. I said, Jerry, I got to offer
- 5:35Speaker 2: this kid after the game. I want to offer him,
- 5:37Speaker 2: and he said, go ahead, Mike, do it. I said, really.
- 5:39Speaker 2: He says, if you're that passionate about him, I trust you,
- 5:43Speaker 2: and it's always resonated with me and I've never forgot
- 5:45Speaker 2: that lesson. So when Tyler I could see the passion
- 5:48Speaker 2: in his eyes and he was adamant that we had
- 5:52Speaker 2: to have him, I said, go ahead, like, let's go,
- 5:55Speaker 2: let's go get him. And I didn't really know much
- 5:57Speaker 2: about him, and I actually never saw him play live
- 6:01Speaker 2: before he got to Yukon. I obviously watched a video
- 6:05Speaker 2: of him, but I like to watch all of our
- 6:07Speaker 2: players play live before they come, and he was one
- 6:10Speaker 2: kid I didn't. But uh, I'm sure glad we have him.
- 6:13Speaker 1: Now he's captaining the top power play unit for you guys. Well,
- 6:16Speaker 1: we're gonna hear from Jake Richard and Trey Scott when
- 6:19Speaker 1: we return. This is Yukon Men's Ice Hockey Coach a
- 6:22Speaker 1: show from Bear Smoke Cow's Barbecue in downtown Hartford. More
- 6:25Speaker 1: coverage still to come in one more conversation with head
- 6:28Speaker 1: coach Mike Kavanaugh. This is Yukon men's ice hockey from
- 6:30Speaker 1: Learfield