Eaves Speaks About UW Men's Hockey
November 21, 2005 | Men's Hockey
Men's hockey coach Mike Eaves made his weekly news conference appearance on Monday, fielding questions on this week's College Hockey Showcase, the start the team has had this season, as well as the play of some of team's individuals, among other topics.
To view the archived video of the news conference, click on the audio/video link above. A full transcript follows.
QUESTION #1: Mike, a little bit of deja vu from a year ago with Michigan State and Michigan with regards to Michigan being top-ranked and Michigan State kind of struggling a little bit. You could make a case that maybe your team overlooked Michigan State a year ago looking toward Michigan and that kind of cost you. Do you approach this experience any differently'
MIKE EAVES: Well, if we're a wise hockey club, we will, if we can learn our lesson from last year. And I think, if you remember, Brian Elliott played against Michigan State and probably played his best hockey in warm-up and then went out and struggled a little bit. So I'm sure Brian will be a lot more settled in. And I think we as coaches will certainly point that out, the fact that let's learn our lesson from last year and not fall into that same trap.
QUESTION #2: How impressed so far this year have you been with the play of Joe Pavelski, just, you know, he's leading the team right now in goals and assists, or no, goals, but second in assists'
EAVES: Well, as a freshman, when you have a freshman leading your team in points, that's pretty, that says a lot. And our expectations were for Joe to come right back and take the lead in that fashion again. But more importantly, I think with what you notice about Joe, especially on Saturday night, the first game against Mankato State where we had, you know, added him onto the lineup, and Robbie, he really took his game to another level. His leadership was, not only did he speak of it, he went out and did it, and that speaks volumes for the type of young man that Joe is.
QUESTION #3: Mike, how much of a surprise to you is Ben Street '
EAVES: Well, not having watched Ben play before he got here, wasn 't really sure what to expect. Quiet, unassuming, and that's pretty much the way he plays, except he's so damn effective. If you're a hockey enthusiast and you know the little things of the game, he does a lot of the little things of the game very well that go unnoticed. And by golly, you know, he contributes offensively. He's just there. He does the little things. He's at the net. He finishes checks. He's got a good stick.
The gifts that he has an individual, he's got a very good stick in terms of the release of the puck. He can shoot the puck. And you saw in his goal on Sunday evening the fact that he pulled that thing to his backhand and it was top shelf before the goalie knew it was. So he's quietly effective. And I think as he grows, as he continues to grow in his confidence and getting to know the league, he'll continue to produce for us.
QUESTION #4: Mike, could you contrast Michigan State and Michigan, it seems like maybe they're different styles, and what you'll have to do to prepare for those different styles on back-to-back nights'
EAVES: Well, I'll be real honest. I haven't seen any video yet. I know where Michigan stands. I don't, they never change their style. They're just going to come. We'll be on a small rink so we 'll have to practice this rink on a small sheet and get used to less time and space. But they've got some good players.
Jack Johnson, who's a freshman defenseman, from what I understand they wanted him to turn pro right away, not even go college. So he's a very, very big, strong, talented young defenseman, so we'll have to, he just leads a group of players there that are very talented. And we'll have to be ready for that. Michigan State I know less about just because we haven't watched video and such. We'll get to that task here today.
QUESTION #5: It seems like every year at this time around the holidays, if you have a break or non-conference season, we're asking is it a good time for a break or to step out of conference. You always talk about putting hay in the barn. The way the team has been going and rolling along in the WCHA, would it be your preference to just roll up another WCHA series this weekend and just keep on going with the way the team is playing'
EAVES: It would be nice, to be quite honest, but that's not the way the schedule is, and the fact is we're going to play, as Coach [Alvarez] talked about and Lisa talked about, it's nice to get out of conference and see some styles.
Andy brought up the fact, we were talking about St. Lawrence, have we seen the way they play, you know, they're 9-3, as Andy pointed out. You know, they 're a very good team. Now we're going to go in and we're going to face a couple of different styles. And in the long run, Rob, that's going to be effective for us, when we get to the playoffs and regionals and stuff, having played the other teams and the styles they play will be beneficial for us.
QUESTION #6: Do you get the sense that your players value the opportunity to play the top-ranked teams' I mean, they've done fairly well against them in the past. Do they appreciate that as an opportunity'
EAVES: Absolutely. I think anytime you have a chance to, it 's a measuring stick, how good are we really. And now we have that opportunity this weekend to go into Michigan and play out of conference and play some good teams. And, again, you take a look at the big picture, down the line these games will be invaluable for us.
QUESTION #7: Mike, the topic that you brought up last night, especially for the Mankato coach, but the culture that you have of blocking shots and the things that everybody on this team is expected to do, how long does it take for the freshmen to get indoctrinated into that' Did they have wide eyes when that started, the Ben Streets, the Jack Skilles, or do they pick up right away'
EAVES: Well, knowing where Jack came from, the whole concept of blocking shots was something that was asked of him in his previous program. For Ben, I 'm not sure what it was, but we talk as a group about it in meetings. It 's one of the stats that we put up post-game to let guys know. We show it in video to reinforce it. And you can see that the results are there when other teams are talking about the fact they can get pucks to the net, it kind of plays with their head a little bit.
And we were talking in the back there about Mankato State, you know, they're so worried about our defense blocking shots, they're not thinking about beating the goaltender. And Coach Osiecki and I joke because he was a defenseman and I was a forward, and the job of the defenseman is to make the forward think long and hard enough that eventually he's going to screw up. And that's kind of what the shot-blocking has done for us, it's got inside the heads of our opponents and it throws them off a little bit.
QUESTION #8: Mike, because so many of your players came from the National Development Program, do they get it a little bit more that the target on your back is getting bigger with the more success that you have moving forward'
EAVES: I think anytime that you have success, that target is going to grow bigger. And that's a great compliment. I think that it only is going to make us better in the long run. I mean, ultimately you want to be playing your best hockey at the end of the year because that's when it really matters.
And by having teams come in, you take a look at Mankato State, we said at the end of the game last night, that team is going to win some games in our league. They play so hard and their goaltending was good that they're going to win some games. And the fact, one of the reasons that we had four teams in the Frozen Four last year is because our league is so tough, and game in and game out, unless you're willing to play hard and prepare to play hard, that you're going to have, if you don 't do that, you're going to have your hat handed to you.
QUESTION #9: Mike, when you went to Michigan a couple years ago, did you consider that a breakthrough for your program, getting the two wins there, considering that the program hadn't done that before' And not even just you, but just for your period here, was that a breakthrough for you'
EAVES: Absolutely. Without question. I think that that was, I think our guys looked at that as in a way we did something special here, to go in there. We hadn 't had a lot of success in recent years, and to go in there and have the success that we did was a statement of where we wanted to go and how we were doing at that present moment. So, yes, I would agree with your comment.
QUESTION #10: Considering the string you're on and the defensive string you put together with 12 straight, could you have asked anything more out of your team to start the season'
EAVES: Not much more. I mean, the bottom line is that there are points on the board. We have wins in the win column. In the bigger scope of things, Brian, I think that coaches are pretty aware of where their team is and where they need to go. And as glad as we are we have the points on the board, we are very much focused on getting better in certain areas and that's where our, every week we go back to the drawing board in terms of, okay, where are we at, what do we need to work on, and that whole continuing the process takes us toward the end of the season.
QUESTION #11: Can you talk a little bit more about the comments you made last night about preparation to play during the day rather, you know, you were not pleased with how they prepared during the day to get ready for the game'
EAVES: Well, it's an analogy between, it's something that my wife and I talked about as kind of an example. When you go to make a fire, you have to prepare to make the fire. You go out and get all the pieces that you need. If you use paper, you crumple the paper up. You get your little twigs, and then you get your big logs around it. You build it. And when it comes time to start the fire, you light the match, you throw it in there, and it's ready to go.
Last night what we did, we didn't prepare well enough when the game started. When the match was lit, we threw it in, we didn't have paper in there. We maybe had a couple twigs. So we're fanning the fire and blowing on it, putting more paper on it to try to get it to a point where it's going to burn. And that was a lesson of the game. And it's, I think it's anytime you can, it kind of creates a physical imagery for the guys.
Now everybody has built a fire, and you know what the steps are that need to be taken to build that fire. And I, for whatever reason, I didn't see it coming. Is it because the boys thought that they had Robbie and Adam back, that these guys were going to step into the lineup and we were going to ride on their wings and get it done ' And we just didn't, we didn't go out there and compete.
It was very evident in the very first couple shifts that we weren 't getting to loose pucks first. We weren't getting there being ornery. And we let them kind of take it. And then so, then we have to scramble. We have to go in between the first and second and get their attention, let them know what's going on and what we need to do. And some people had to sit during the course of the game to get the message.
But fortunately for us at the time, we were able to adjust. We had people step back up to the plate and get the job done. And at the end of the game we talk about the lesson, this is the lesson, gentlemen. And if we can, the best case, you know, is we won the game. If we learned our lesson, only time will tell. But that was the analogy or the example that we gave.
