Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 1 - MHOC Show w Coach Cav 2-24

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Seg 1 - MHOC Show w Coach Cav 2-24 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Five from Bear Smokehouse Barbecue here in downtown Hartford, along
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: with head coach Mike Cavanaugh. Adam Jardino with you. Bob
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Joyce not with us because he's across the way Cafe Aura,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: where he and Gino Oriema will be running a show
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: at seven o'clock, So we've got one hour to chat
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: some yukon men's ice hockey before the conversation turns to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: women's hoops and coach the team is playing well, continuing
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to play well, an overtime victory on Friday against the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: main Black Bears, a three to two win. What was
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the takeaway from that victory?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I think we played one of the most complete
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: games we've played all season long. I really liked our
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: effort and our compete level, especially five on five. You know,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: the only blemishes we had in that game was killing penalties,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and we've done a great job killing penalties this year
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: and lead the country. And shorthanded goals that night Main
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: you know, a couple of them were just kind of
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: some funky plays.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Nonetheless, I thought overall it was a really strong game
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: for us.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: What made it such an effective five on five game
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: for you?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Well, I think we did a great job of managing
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the puck through the neutral zone. You know, we didn't
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: really turn the puck over, and that's something that what
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: makes main so great is when you turn the puck
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: over and they come right back down at you and
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: they have a tenacious four check as well. So we
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: were able to, I think stay out of our own zone.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I think the time of possession in that game might
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: have been we were around in the offensive zone. I'm
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: saying somewhere around. We were somewhere around fifteen minutes and
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: they were nine. So wow, that was that was a
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: big difference. And when you can do that consistently, you're
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: gonna win a lot of hockey games.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: The first goal of the game, so you never trailed,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: led one nothing, then they tied it two to one.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: They tied it, you wanted an overtime. So that first
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: goal was set up by John Spetts at the point.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: What it really wasn't a shot. I mean it was
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: intended to sort of he sort of spotted Caden and
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Shay hand down low. I mean take us through what
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: a defenseman is seeing in that moment where you're just
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: trying to get a puck through.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I would say that what John did really well, there
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: was he had his options. The first thing you do
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: is you're trying to get the puck on goal, you know,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: and if you can shoot for a stick, then that's
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: something else you can do. If you can't, you know,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the old aphorism is just get it to the net. Yeah,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you know, get it to that area. And he did that,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: and Cayden was on the back door. And Kayden did
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: a fabulous job of losing his guy and getting to
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: the back post and he was right there Johnny on
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the spot. So should say Kayden on the spot for.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Spats when we talked to you last week midweek said okay,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: he's banged up, maybe he'll give it a go. And
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Spets was able to play. So what did you see
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: from him? I mean, was he yet ninety percent? Did
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: he get pretty close to one hundred percent?
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Oh? I think he was pretty close to one hundred percent.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: He probably could have played Wednesday night against Alaska with
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the break. We just aired on the side of caution.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: You know, there's something that he's a he's a you know,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: top defenseman leader on our team and we certainly need
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: John Spets in our lineup, and we did not want
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: to risk him for one game to possibly lose him
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: for more. So I thought it was prudent of our
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: trainer Ed Blair to it suggests that we hold him
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: for that game and have him fresh for main and
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: he was definitely right.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred and fifty five career games for John Spets,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: So just a guy who doesn't like to miss games, obviously,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: and it was good to see him back. For Kayden Shahan,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: what is the biggest growth that you've seen in his game?
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Because I think early on Yukon fans would have seen
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: him and it was pretty obvious the tools that are there,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and you know, you can you can be an average
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: hockey fan, but you see Caden skate and you think, okay,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: there's a lot in this package.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the biggest growth he's always been a
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: goal scorer. And when a player is a goal scorer
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and they go up a another level, it's harder to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: score goals. Sure, and when Caiden went to the USHL
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: that first year, he didn't score like he did before
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: he went to the USHL. His second year he did.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: And Caden's one of those guys where I could see him,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: you know, next year possibly having a year like Joey
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Muldowney's having. I thought Joey was a very similar type player.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: It's a hard adjustment for a freshman, especially one from Seattle,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: coming to the East Coast and getting acclimated to college,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the curriculum, the academic curriculum that the kids have to
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: go through, playing at a higher level where the kids
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: are a lot older than you. And he's done a
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: great job. And the biggest improvement I've seen in his
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: game is his defensive game. I think his two hundred
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: foot game has come miles since he's got here, and
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: it's really encouraging to watch. And the one thing is,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: like I was went for a run with Tyler Helton
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: today and we were talking about Hudson's line. The great
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: thing about Hudson's line. You know, there's some lines in
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: the in the league that are very, very good offensively,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: but they trade chances, and that's not Hudson's line. Hudson's
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: line can play against any line. They're not going to
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: trade chances. They play the game the right way, and
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: in turn, they also create a lot of offense because
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: of that.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Thirty one points and thirteen goals over the last six
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: games for that line. Is there anything different that that
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: line is doing right now where they're able to cash
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: in basically two goals a game.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: No, I just think that they play the game the
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: right way. And Hudson's been a catalyst for a lot
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: of lines, Like if you look at throughout his career,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: you don't have one hundred and ten or one hundred
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: whatever he has for points, I don't even know. I
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: know it's over one hundred, but you're not the all
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: time leading scorer for Yukon in the Hockey East era
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: by accident. There's the reason why. And he just he's
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: his game is very compatible with a lot of different
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: types of players.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about the overtime at some point here, but
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to circle back to something you had
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: said about Maine and the forour check and how they
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: make it tough for opponents. In the last two seasons,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Yukon is the only team to have recorded forty or
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: more shots in a game against the Black Bears, and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: you guys have done it twice. So why do you
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: think that your group is able to kind of solve
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: them at least in that department a couple of times.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I probably we are very similar teams. We play the game.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: We have very similar styles of hockey the way we play,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and their players are very good and our players are
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: very good. And I said before going into the game,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I compared it on a much lower level, obviously, but
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: the US Canada game that we all watched in that
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Four Nations, the talent's even. It's who's going to make
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: the fewest mistakes, who's going to do all the things
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: that don't take talent, Like, there's so many things in
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the game that don't take talent, and they really truly
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: great players. So I've always been fascinated watching Sydney Crosby play,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: winning face offs, backchecking, you know, defensive zone coverage, all
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: the little things, and I think Patrice Bergeron was one
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: of the best at it as well. They do all
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: the little things that don't take talent, and they've got
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: probably more talent than anybody on the ice, but they
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: focus on those things, and I think that's what's really
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: you know, I think that was what helped us get
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: over the edge against me.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: And I'll ask you about face offs in overtime on
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the other side of this break, because you guys, when
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: it mattered, you were able to control four of the
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: final five face offs, get some possession there and ultimately
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: get that game winning goal. We're here with head coach
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Mike Kavanan. This is Yukon Men's Ice Hockey Coaches Show
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: live from Bear Smokehouse Barbecue in downtown Hartford. I'm Outam Jardino,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and this is Yukon Men's Ice Hockey from Learfield, presented
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: by Diame Bank