Eaves Addresses Media Monday
October 14, 2002 | Men's Hockey
Wisconsin men's hockey coach Mike Eaves spoke to the media on Monday during UW 's weekly news conference. Eaves talked about the Badgers' season opener and addressed various issues about the team.
A transcript of the news conference follows. The news conference video is available by clicking on `multimedia' on the red menu bar.
Would you call it a successful weekend' 'It depends on how you define success. In an overall view it was a step in the right direction. I think that perhaps the biggest thing is that it will energize the team to continue to working hard. We were right back in the weight room at 7:00 a.m. this morning. [We had] a little chat about that. It was nice to have a day off and enjoy it, but we took just a half a step forward and now we have to continue'we have a long way to go. Let's get back to work. Nobody is watching them when they are in the weight room at 7:00 in the morning, but this is where it's [a] win or [a] loss. We have to get back to work. I think with the energy that was created, that energy turns into motivation to keep going.'
Did you come away from the weekend with any certainties ' 'This morning I was looking at the list of players. We watched the video over the weekend and broke things down. It is like a puzzle. The pieces are starting to come together a little bit, but it is still so far off. When I look at individual players and try to figure out: what [are] the strengths and weaknesses' How can we get more out of this young guy' How to get more out of him is still such a big part of it this early.'
On using freshman in key situations: 'Specifically, you can talk about the last minute of the second game when we had the freshman line out there. During the course of the game, all weekend we struggled on faceoffs. That group had done pretty well on faceoffs and had been pretty responsible. That is the way we are going to coach. If a group is playing well, and they deserve to be out there, they will play. It does not matter if they are freshman or seniors. I just felt they had done a pretty responsible job on faceoffs and in their own zones so that is why they got the nod.'
On Dan Boeser not playing on Saturday: 'Dan was real disappointed just because he is a competitive athlete. Sometimes coaches have to make the best call. An athlete like Dan is very emotional and he thinks he can play. We did the 10-10 test before and it was OK, but it was not great. Watching him on the bench, his face was flushed. He made some decisions that he did in the first game because he was not in great shape. For a guy like Dan, his body type and everything, I think he needs to be in great shape. Rather than put him at risk, we had him condition on Saturday and we will have a great week of practice. Hopefully he will be able to get in two [games] this weekend. I think it was the right thing to do if you are playing percentages and you want to play it smart, although he would never agree with that.'
Thoughts on the offense: 'The second night we did a better job of creating quality shots. The first night we had a lot of shots, but never got the second pucks, did not drive the net like we needed to. The third goal was a classic goal on Saturday night. We had a forward in front of the net that got tangled up with the goaltender and our weak-side defense was able to slide in and bang it home. We created better quality chances the second night because of our effort.'
Thoughts on the first couple games and how the schedule might effect their standing later on: 'It is still part of the process that we have to go through. What else do we do' We do not know our team. I think you have to weigh both. At this point we understand it is a process. I think we chose intelligently to do it this way so we have a chance to get to know our team. It could come to bite us in the fanny later on, but the fact is we have to put first things first and that is to get to know our team.
Are you going to research Alabama-Huntsville, get to know their personnel a bit' 'We are just going to again focus on us. We are going to get some other people in the lineup that we did not get in this past weekend, give them a chance to play. Hopefully, we can focus on our game again in terms of what we need to get going and right now that is where we have to put our energy. '
