Latest / Coaches Corner / WHOC Coach Chris MacKenzie Media Call - March 5

Transcript

WHOC Coach Chris MacKenzie Media Call - March 5 · Coaches Corner

0:04
All right, coach heading into semifinal matchup against Boston College Borrow night, seven
0:09
pm on sen Just I want to get your thoughts heading into into the game.
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Uh. Just excited to still playing, still be playing right now,
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You're basically playing for another sixty minutes. And uh, you know, ultimately
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we've had a lot of playoff games against BC over the years, and this
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will be another chapter in that story for sure. Awesome, all right,
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we'll open up for questions, Bridget if you want to start us off,
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you can go ahead and jump in. Okay, Hi, coach, all
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right there, congrats on the win. Uh So, from from my point
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of view obviously calling the game, watching, it seemed like you guys had
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a close to full sixty minute effort where you say that, yeah, it
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was. It was a good game. We were forts to get on the
1:00
board early, you know, and credit to Holy Cross, they really battled
1:03
back to try to you know, cloud their way back into the game and
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gave us everything we can handle. And I think that's something that we're going
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to be have to be ready for with BC. You know, we we
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haven't actually we haven't defeated them this year, so this is going to be
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a big test, and we're looking forward to it. I know we talked
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a little bit about about this before the game, about nerves and pressure,
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but it didn't seem like you guys came out and played with any of that
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at all. Like I didn't. From my perspective, I didn't notice any
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nerves, did you. No? I mean we get we stuck to our
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game plan and did what we need to do, and then the first period
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was tight. After that, I felt like we started to control the game
1:42
a little more and they're goaling made some big saves and you're just, you
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know, obviously fortunate. We would have liked to get out of the second
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period three nothing made it three to one, and uh, you know that's
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part of the reason why, Like I used to have hair and I coach
1:55
and now I don't. So that's now you know why. And if you
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want to get into coaching, you're to look like me, and I don't.
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I don't advise anyone to do that, to be quite honest with you,
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Well, you said you you used dad jokes to take away the pressure
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and the nerves. Did you feel like you were doing that a little bit?
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Yeah? Here and there, Yeah, there's some side jokes we have
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as a team, and it's, uh, you know, we just have
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fun with it, try to fun with it. You know. It's it's
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it should be a great experience, and it's we've been pretty consistent this year
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and and and uh yeah, there's a great team to be around our group.
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I'll let Tom go if he wants to go anyone right now, this
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is all right, Well, Chris, since you brought, since you broached
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the topic, give me your go to dad jokes. No, I'll just
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what I'll do is like during the week, I'll come up with a story
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or a theme and and like I'll just say it on the bench at the
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most weirdest time and it kind of makes them laugh here and there. It
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could be anything, you know, like one time, like one time,
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I'll give an example. One time it's called can opener. And one time
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we were just kind of fooling around. It was like, so a player
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was pinning the puck against the boards. I'm like, if they do this,
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do this and I put their stick between the boards and the player,
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you just peel them off. It's really easy. And we call it the
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can opener. And they're like, literally it was happening in the game,
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like kids on the team are screaming can opener. So it's just like something
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stupid. It's all inside jokes and weird stuff that no one's gonna get.
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But I don't know, it's kind of funny. Yeah, bring some levity
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to an otherwise stressful situation. Well, you know, every sport obviously is
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different. What what's unique about the process of building a winning program in this
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sport? Now you don't have a lot of margin for era on eleven teams
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make the tournament, But what what And obviously they're only so many teams that
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play it and only so many players. But what what are the you know,
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what are the unique elements of success in this sport? I think it's
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just having a fully committed group of players that are cohesive, have a consistent
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everyday approach. And look, you need talent, that's one thing. But
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I think the difference is like if you just have a have a group of
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people that like being around each other every day. I think in any in
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anything work sports, you're usually going to get positive results, and that's kind
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of that's kind of the case. It's more or less, you know,
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people that work hard every day, they're consistent, they care, they take
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care of the right things, they're not distracted with the wrong things, and
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they control what they can control. That's a lot of things that as cliche
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as it sounds, it is what it is like. If you you know,
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it's like that, and if you mix in some talent with that in
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a solid approach, usually you know, the results speak themselves. It's more
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of a culture thing than anything. When you came to Yukon, what was
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your perception of what was here, of this school of the program and what
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what was your first thing that you felt like you needed to do it was
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it was my first got here. You know. The team, the team
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had struggled the last two years, like four wins, three wins. I
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think they were they were conditioned that if they got down in a game,
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it was pretty much over. They were kind of conditioned to think that that
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took some time to get over. We had some great, great players on
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those early teams. I just think that it just took a few years to
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kind of change the mindset and the competitiors and we reprect progressively got better over
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the years. You can see the record results wise, but I'll tell you,
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like the culture was always always there. The team got along, they
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all worked together. It was always kind of there. We just didn't mess
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it up, to be brutally honest, and our job was to bring in
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great players, and the current players their job was to make sure that,
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you know, they were right there with them and guiding them the right way.
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And I think it took some time, but it wasn't a quick fix
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by any means. But it was progressively getting better all the time. That's
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really what it was. What what some of them said was fun coming to
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the rank. They said it wasn't really fun the last few years, and
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obviously results has something to do that, but the environment wasn't as much fun
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coming to the rank. So we really tried to make sure that they were
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looking forward to it every day and and you know, I think we succeeded
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with that, and we try to do that every year. So what's the
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prototype, Chris McKenzie player. I think somebody that off the ice takes care
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of their business like school, being a good citizen, organize good time management
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so they can come to the rank it free of any any issues outside of
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the rink, and they're able to focus on their game. People that put
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in the extra work. They're prepared, they're willing to prepare for an opponent,
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hard work and the competitive and every member of your team is three point
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zero right, Yeah, we like that. Yeah, I don't do very
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well if I'm worried about crazy stuff on Monday, prepare for the weekend.
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If we're worried about write ups with social misconduct or academic issues, I'm not
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going to do. I don't have a lot of patience for that because it's
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it's it's a great opportunity here, like any school, any place, it's
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a great opportunity to take care of those things and have the right priorities.
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So if your priorities are your well being, your family, school in hockey,
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if you keep those priorities in every decision you make, you're probably going
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to be in a good place. At least with me coaching, it feels
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like most of your team probably falls under that category. But who would you
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say epitomize is that? Yeah, there's a bunch. There's a bunch,
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you know it. Our captain Einsley s Fedek and Corinth Tormale are both they're
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overachievers there. They do well with school. They they put a lot of
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pressure on themselves if anything, because they care so much, but they just
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they they're not simizing their potential, and that's really all you want out of
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all your players. Catherine Stockdale another example, somebody that the best defensive ward
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this year really took it up a notch for senior year and she just,
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uh yeah, pleasure to be around, you know, Jada Havish, You
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know you consistent, consistent people to show up, and that's kind of what
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you need. So no one's perfect. We're all going to make mistakes.
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We don't want to dwell on them too long. But it uh, it's
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it's yeah, it's a fun group to be around. I don't know if
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anyone else has any questions, but I still have quite a few. More
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so it's okay, I'm gonna ask if you sure. And I want to
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go back to specifically to the Holy Cross game. You mentioned it would have
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been nice to have that three nothing lead instead of three to one going going
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into the next period. But I thought you didn't see a whole lot of
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shots, But what did you think? Keep the game? No, she's
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been solid. We have confidence in her, confidence in Meg Warner two.
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You know it. Uh yeah, we we we Uh, no issues there
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with t She's doing great. Karen. That the power play goal seemed to
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give you guys quite a bit of energy. That the powerfully looked like it
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was clicking pretty well, a lot of good pop movement. But specifically to
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Karen's game, what did you think of her? Oh, she was great,
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She was choot. She had a lot of peppen her step. For
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sure, she was going. So that was great to see. I think
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the team drived off that. You know, she got cheat on the board.
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She's she's going to be happy and confident, right, So that that's
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kind of what I saw too. Yeah, to me, it seemed like
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she was just brought that same energy throughout the entire game. And another player
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that I mean you you guys seem to dominate. The Special teams battle had
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the shorthanded goal too from Havish. Uh what did you think of your special
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teams and what did you think of Havish's game as well? Yeah, Jada
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was really going. I was really happy for the short handed goal. And
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look, she's been going all year. She's been consistent, strong, some
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ups and downs here and there, but really just giving her best effort and
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producing, you know, and That's that's what we need. You know,
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special teams and goaltending is big in the playoffs and you have to be able
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to do well both and I think we have a chance to do that right
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now. And then I also thought that Allard came out with this like the
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this energy and drive and she she got rewarded with a goal. She also
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just had a strong game overall. How how was it seeing her in her
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first playoff game give that kind of performance? That was great? Yeah,
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she was like like their line like grim Ley a large data. They were
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really going and uh, they always have a lot of speed and they I
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was just happy for him. They're able to, you know, get a
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couple of goals and do their things. So they stayed within there are limits
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in our structure and stayed within our game plan and it worked pretty well.
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So it was great. And then you're you're playing against another team that has
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some really talented young players. Sammy Tabor for BC helped them get out of
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that that round with a win in overtime. So what's it like to to
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kind of see like the next round of players in Hockey East impact this playoffs
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and and kind of maybe show you what the landscape might be going forward.
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Well, I just think the future is right. You know, there's talent
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in this league and everybody's everybody's competitive. If anything, our league from top
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to bottom is the most competitive. I think that hopefully. Can you know,
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anytime you get the playoff game, it's just unpredictable, that's really I
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think you've seen that already. Even though the top four seeds of advanced,
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I don't think anyone has taken anything for granted at all. You mentioned this
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a little bit earlier. The three games. BC took all of them,
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but they're all really close. However, when we talked to coach Crawley,
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those first two games were in October, so was a long time ago,
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and she was telling us like she changed our lineup so much since then.
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So like, the matchup probably has changed a bit from when you've played them
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in October, and I know you played them in that shootout game in December
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to now, So what in your mind has changed in how you were in
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October to this playoff matchup? Hey, I think, yeah, we're both
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different teams right now. You know, anything could change, It could be
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injured, just line up changes, progression of players throughout so Yeah, they've
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definitely had some changes, so have we. So it'll be lock. It'll
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be a great game. I think it'll be tight, and uh, you
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know, we're just hoping to come out on top. Over to you,
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it's already the playoffs, the semi finals at home. But does this matchup
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have a little extra juice because you haven't beaten them because they were the ones
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that ended your season last year, because you've played them so many times in
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the playoffs, just a lot of there's a lot of history with Yukon and
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BC, not just in hockey, but you know, maybe in other sports
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too. I think there's a lot going on there, you know, in
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general credit to b C. Like you know, when when teams are playing
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BC, people pay attention, like and it happened you see. You see
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it in the men's league, you see it in our league, and that's
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credit to their success. And you know, look we're looking for another it's
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another playoff. I don't know how much we've played them in the last five
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six years. It's been quite a bit. So yeah, it's just again
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it's another chaplain's story here, so you can jump. Okay, so you
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got nominated, well, you got named a finalist for the Hockey East Coach
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of the Year this I think it was yesterday. I know you probably don't
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like to talk about yourself too much, but what does it mean to you
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specifically with the way that this season played out compared to other seasons, finishing
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with the first seed overall? Like does what what is this season meant to
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you in terms of your your you know, your coaching and and you know,
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being nominated in a finalist for this, but look, if you've been
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nominated before, you know, and been a finalist before, it's not it's
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more I think it's more of a reflection of the team and what how they've
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how they performed action of the staff. It's not one person, you know,
15:01
the say coach of the year. It's more like staff of the year
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or a team of the year. When you really think of it, it's
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and it's more of maybe either meeting or exceeding expectations of what other people had.
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I mean, your your peers, meaning the other coaches vote on this,
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so they're acknowledging the body of work I think through the regular season,
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and the other finalists are definitely worthy. You know this thing, this this
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award was turning into the Dave Flint Award. He was winning this thing for
15:28
again every year, so it was awesome for him and he deserved it,
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you know. So it's but I think when you if you win in a
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war like this, it's more of just the effort the team gave, how
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they performed, the results they had. It's more of what your staff's about
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and what they brought to the table too. I don't think it's just one
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person, so it it's a group, it's a it's a team award really
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ultimately when you think of it, So there is another Obviously, you had
16:02
a few players on your team also named to different All Star teams and different
16:07
finalists for different awards in their categories as well, and we talked to you
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a little bit about some of them, but I didn't really get your full
16:15
opinion on Cam Wong being on that that top All Star team, the recognition
16:21
that that she got for that, because sometimes I feel like she doesn't get
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as much recognition as she should around with with all the other good players in
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the league. But to see her on that first team All Star team,
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what is that like? Is it nice to see her get that recognition?
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Yeah? She she has had a great year. I think the other again,
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the other coaches in the league vote on it, so they clearly acknowledge
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and respect the performance you put in this year. Camp's been great. She
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she's done everything for us and just another kind of like Jada you know and
16:56
Tia Chan acknowledged by the other coaches in the league. I think that's that's
17:00
a sign of respect that your opponent is acknowledging I've done how well you've done.
17:04
So Yeah, we're we we love cam We've had her here. It
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feels like fourteen years but it's only five. But she's grown tremendously and uh,
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we're happy to We're happy, obviously happy to have the last five years.
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And she comes from a wonderful family and it's it's great. I think
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in a previous conversation I had with you, you said, if you could
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come back in another life, you'd come back long. Oh yeah, no,
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this this kid. I'll talk to her in the summer, like where
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are you. She's like, I'm in Finland. I'm visiting a friend like
17:38
Hokey Doki and the like. It'll be like two weeks later or we all
17:42
we'll have a team chain email where everyone's updating everyone on what they're doing.
17:47
They have a specific day in the summer that they update everyone and send pictures
17:51
in. And the pictures are like it's like a movie, like where is
17:55
this kid going? And but she, you know, she shows up and
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she's ready to go, and it's it's fun to follow that. It's interesting.
18:04
If it is in Hawaii, it's Finland, it's California, it's Vancouver,
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it's the Midwest, it's Boston. Can't keep track of her all over
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the place. I think you mentioned the Hawaii part before, and I think
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he told her. Does she like right around campus on a scooter and stuff
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too? Oh? Yeah, oh yeah, she sure does. She just
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loves And the scooter's name is Patricia. We all the whole team knows this
18:26
somehow. I can't believe we're talking about this right now. But yeah,
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no, and it's just rips her. She'll park it like right in front
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of the rink. Why is the name of Patricia? I don't know.
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I don't know. If I say this on the air, well, she
18:42
think that's the greatest thing ever. They'll laugh about it. Yes, Okay,
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the oppressed dom is with this and Dan, they're just like what is
18:52
happening interviews on rails right now. If you do well, I would I
19:03
would have been I would have been disappointed if it didn't go off the rails,
19:06
Chris. I mean obviously the last time I saw you, you were
19:07
trying to run me over on Calhoun Way. So nice. Yeah, so
19:11
I would be I'd be disappointed otherwise, Uh, what what got you to
19:19
gravitate toward women's hockey after coaching men's hockey? What? What? What brought
19:25
you over to this side of the sport and ultimately what brought you to Yukon.
19:30
I so I just got married. It was about two thousand and seven.
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Got married, it was two thousand and nine. We're still at UMass
19:40
Low. My wife was working actually at You and Age, and I was
19:42
working at u MESS Hall coaching at UMSS Hall on the men's side. The
19:47
head coaching position at Niagara University opened up. This was two thousand and nine,
19:52
so you know, I was I was interested because we were going to
19:53
start a family and I'm from that area, so my family's in micro Fall's,
19:59
Ontario University where I played is ten to fifteen minutes away. Seemed like
20:03
a really good opportunity. The more I looked at it just seemed like the
20:07
right time to do it. Even Blaze McDonald was a head coach. He
20:12
was like, I think this is a good thing for you. And again
20:15
I had been around women's ice hockey because my sister played, She played college
20:19
hockey, she played professionally. She's still in Europe. She ended up getting
20:23
married after playing hockey in Denmark, and she like still lives there, so
20:29
she thought. I talked to her. She thought it was great. My
20:30
wife was clearly supportive, and we just ended up going to Niagara for two
20:33
years and then they actually cut the program, and then Ohio State for a
20:40
year with Casey's brother, my assistant coach, Nate Hanrahan was the head coach
20:44
there. He was my college roommate Ohio State. And then this Yukon job
20:52
opens up and there was some interest there. Really, ultimately I was very
20:56
happy to Ohio State. But ultimately my wife's from Connecticut, so we had
21:02
done all this moving around for me and my job. At least this was
21:07
a good opportunity. We had two kids at this point, well, one
21:11
on the way I took the job at Yukon. We took the job at
21:14
Yukon and yeah, that was May, May thirteenth of twenty thirteen, and
21:19
my son was born two weeks later, and it was just like a new
21:23
baby, new job, a lot of stress, a lot of that.
21:26
We're just going to Yukon. And I remember just telling her and myself like
21:32
this is We're not moving anymore, like this is it. We're going to
21:33
make this work here. This is a great spot. It is you know,
21:37
fast forward eleven years. She works at Yukon now. So it's a
21:42
good story. Our kids grew up. We live right beside campus, like
21:45
there's no reason. People sometimes ask me, there's no reason. What other
21:51
jobs better? You couldn't. I couldn't find one. You couldn't. You
21:56
couldn't pull it, pull me out of here, Like it's just a great
21:57
spot. And all the coaches that have been here forever approve it, right,
22:03
So it's it's hard to leave here. It's hard to leave Gino.
22:07
He tells the story. He wasn't planning on being here for a long time.
22:11
Look what happened, right, So it just it's a good spot.
22:15
Everyone. You're in athletics and you're at Yukon, you're in a good spot.
22:18
Did you talk to some of the other coaches on campus. Much do
22:22
you do you bounce that I did well. I just the first coach I
22:25
ever met was Ray Reed. The guy had been here for twenty something years.
22:29
And it didn't scare you off. No, it was awesome. I
22:30
loved him. And he knew of a couple of coaches that I knew from
22:33
Lowell and you know, he's I think he called them and Doug Doug.
22:38
Doug and Ward were the ones who hired me here. I still talk to
22:42
them today these days, you know. And it just yeah, it was
22:45
just a good story. It felt right. I wasn't one hundred percent sure
22:48
when I came with an interview. When I left, I was like,
22:49
wow, this place is pretty impressive. Like it was, it was,
22:53
and I was coming from Ohio state, where you know, the way they
22:56
the way they operate is really something else, and this was right there.
23:00
And I just, you know, with Connecticut being close to home, the
23:03
East Coast being close to home for my wife and me, like it was,
23:07
it was a big deal. Yeah, so I was determined to make
23:10
it work. Then you can go ahead and jump in, how'd you meet
23:17
Casey? Was that through Nate? That guy Jesus No, he's uh no,
23:21
so his Yeah, he's like a little brother to me. So yeah,
23:25
like his and his brother and I played together in college. We played
23:30
junior hockey together from the same hometown. So I've known Casey forever. So
23:33
and he was coaching at Newman d three years a head coach there, and
23:37
he he was was fortunate he came with me here, and I've always felt
23:44
like we're like a tag team. It's not just me, so it's it's
23:48
it's a unique thing. So yeah, we're fortunate to have him. He's
23:52
a great coach. Awesome. We have about five minutes left, so if
24:00
anyone has anything else, as he says it, okay, if I get
24:04
my last two in. So just another thought about that that Holy Cross game
24:11
and the way that that things panned out with some long reviews, and you
24:17
guys were in a good flow right at the time where you're having to sit
24:19
around for a little bit and and and wait for the reviews. But how
24:25
do you not let some some of those things affect the flow of your team.
24:30
I think that we've seen enough reviews this year where we know, like,
24:33
hey, regardless of what happens, take a deep breath and just keep
24:37
playing. Whether it's positive or negative, you can't really, you can only
24:41
control how you're going to react to whatever is about to happen. So,
24:45
yeah, the reviews, the reviews, you know, they if you can't
24:49
see the pockets, not conclusive. So it you know, there was a
24:52
goal line review, there was an off side review, and you know,
24:56
I think the reps based on the video, the refs probably made the right
24:59
call. Haven't looked at it. It's not it's just it's over now.
25:03
You've got to move on. But it's Yeah, the reviews haven't gone our
25:07
way, so we're hoping if we do need them, let's let's try to
25:10
get it back. Yes, yeah, that that off side one took a
25:14
long time. Uh. And my last question has to do with the power
25:17
play as well, and Walker's role on the power play, because she seems
25:21
to facilitate a lot of that the puck movement, the lower pup movement,
25:23
and like the low seams and has some really great setup passes on the power
25:27
play. And though she doesn't it's not the same line that she's on five
25:33
on five, she seems to have a lot of chemistry with her unit.
25:37
Yeah, we've tried different players on that goal line, and it seems like
25:41
Christine is most comfortable and has produced the most there. So she's earned that
25:45
time and you know she's she's doing a good job of that. So we're
25:49
happy. And again, like a lot, a lot of our players are
25:52
just finding ways to contribute and that's a big deal. Has that that seem
25:56
passed, like right on top of the Chris been an option for you guys
26:02
a lot on the power play this year a couple of times. Yeah,
26:06
it's been there on the other side too, can work too, but yeah,
26:10
it's it's kind of based off what hold Cross is trying to do.
26:12
We will think, okay, this in this opera, this pluck gets to
26:15
hear this. These are the potential spots that are open. She saw it
26:18
and you know when Tormala still had to make a great shot to put it
26:22
in. So it was good. But no, they did a good job
26:25
and moving it around really well. All right, that was my last one,
26:29
coach, So thank you for for helping us fill in some of the
26:33
thanks for having Chris. I can get one more in. Uh yeah,
26:37
what yeah, I know you see a lot of the women's basketball players at
26:41
your at your games, right, I know, I know Asy has a
26:44
friend on the team and pages from Minnesota. I imagine she comes in you
26:48
see some of that support. Yeah, I've heard they come to the games,
26:53
you know, I I I, uh, yeah, I've heard great
26:57
things about both those those two. I hear they're awesome and yeah, I
27:02
know they're I know they're friends with a couple of our players. So yeah,
27:06
they come to the games. It's great. I know when we were
27:08
in the smaller rank, they were like people were losing their minds about it.
27:11
I think in the bigger rank they can maybe blend in a little better.
27:15
But uh no, that's good. It's good. And I think there's
27:18
a real small community. The athletes are a smaller community on campus, you
27:22
know, and I think they all stick together and know each other in some
27:25
way. Yeah, thanks Chris, awesome. Well thanks coach for jumping on
27:30
with us. Good luck tomorrow, Thanks guys, Thanks, thank