Eaves Address Media Monday
December 04, 2006 | Men's Hockey
Wisconsin men's hockey head coach Mike Eaves addressed the media at the Badgers' weekly Monday news conference. Eaves answered questions about practice during last week's off week, the team's health, North Dakota and the recruiting battles Wisconsin has had with North Dakota, among other topics. A full transcript follows.
To view the archived video of the news conference, click on the audio/video link on the left side of the page.
QUESTION #1: Mike, did you get what you wanted out of last week at practice, some competition, some, maybe a little, you know, intensity out of them'
MIKE EAVES: That's a hard thing to measure, I think. You take a look at what we set out to do, and we had a battle plan and we scripted it and we followed the script. Whether or not it was effective will be determined by this weekend. I guess it'll be part of that formula.
But I think the guys worked really hard. I think once they realized that this wasn 't going to be a slack week, that we were going to press forward, that we got a lot out of them. I think they enjoyed the week in terms of the competitiveness that we had within the team. It made the days go by quicker. It made the practices go by a little quicker, the fact that they were competitive. They worked hard. I know they felt good about themselves when they left.
QUESTION #2: Mike, how deep is the hole you're in, from your point of view '
EAVES: Well, Andy, that depends on what the other teams do. I mean, if we can do our part and other teams, you know, they continue to play and they lose some and they win some, you know, that'll determine how deep a hole it is.
Right now I think our focus has to be on getting some points every weekend. I think that becomes a thing that we talk about, controlling what we can control. That becomes our focus. And if we do that, we give ourselves a chance to get back to being in the battle and, you know, get home ice and all those kind of things. How far we'll crawl up will be determined by how everybody else does.
QUESTION #3: The way your team is set up, I think last year you said that you could play on any ice. It didn't matter if it was NHL-sized, Olympic-sized, whatever. Is this team more conducive to playing on a smaller sheet the way you have to play'
EAVES: You know what, Andy' The best way to answer that is I don't know yet. We haven't played enough on a small sheet of ice to really determine that. We've played mostly on a big sheet of ice. So the best answer I can give you is that is yet to be determined.
QUESTION #4: Piggybacking on that a little bit, in general, is it easier or more difficult to play a simple game on smaller ice'
EAVES: Well, I think it's a simpler game because of the fact, the lack of time and space dictates what you need to do. And if you do that, then your game plan will be simpler. If you try to get outside those realms, then I think you get yourself into trouble. So part of our job will be this week practicing is to sell that idea and have guys recognize that during practice.
QUESTION #5: Mike, there were, the last time you played North Dakota, you obviously had three guys hurt. And while none of those sequences appeared to be, you know, malicious or anything along those lines, do you worry about the idea of vengeance on the part of your players, especially those three'
EAVES: No. Until you brought it up, it never entered my mind. When you play North Dakota, you just know it's going to be a physical series. And all three of those hits, the injuries that happened were just a byproduct of playing hard. There was no viciousness. That was just good, hard hockey.
I mean, in Ross's case, I couldn't even see it on the video to say that, well, you got cheap shot-ed or you didn't get cheap shot-ed. He just, he came back to the bench, he was dinged up. So when you play North Dakota, you know it's going to play high energy. They're going to finish every check. And playing on a small rink, that even picks up to a higher level.
QUESTION #6: Kind of a two-part question. Aaron Bendickson, know anymore about if he 'll be able to start skating . . .
EAVES: We'll find out this week as we go through the week. He's, I mean, he's cleared to do some more skill work today. Today's going to be pretty much of a grind, so I don't know how much he'll be able to take part of that. We'll see when we get to the rink and how he feels.
QUESTION #7: There's only been two games this whole season where you 've had your full roster available to choose your lineup from. How important is that, I mean, when it gets down to depth and you're looking for guys that are going to create a spark, to have your full complement of players to choose from and create some battles for spots'
EAVES: I think if you asked us that at the end of the year when we're getting ready for playoffs, it might be more of an important issue. But right now, we're still experimenting a little bit, trying to find guys and have guys find what they can do with this club, so it's not such a big issue right now.
QUESTION #8: Mike, when you were up there last year . . .
EAVES: Oh, Brian, is that your phone ringing'
REPORTER: No . . .
EAVES: Oh, okay. Sorry.
REPORTER: When you were up there last year, you were able to sweep them. How were you able to do that in a rink that's difficult to play in against a team that you mention is very tough to play against'
EAVES: That was an evolving process. I mean, that was about a four-year process to go up there and finally win. We've talked about the fact that the guys that were here last year that were seniors, the first year we were there, we got spanked pretty good. And then the second to last year, we went up there, we played pretty well in two hard-fought games, and we couldn't score.
We got a goal called back on us, and the guys, that whole thing was part of the process of us learning what it takes to win in that building, and the following year, it kind of fell into place. We were an upperclassmen team. We had been there. We had been to some real battles. We knew what to expect. They were a little bit of a younger team, you know, and the way that that came together was that we came out, played the way we needed to against a young team and got the wins.
QUESTION #9: Mike, without getting into specifics obviously, you and North Dakota, your team and your coaches have gone head to head on a lot of recruits here recently. And one would think that the choice is pretty distinct between what's here and what 's in Grand Forks. What have been some of your observations about some of the battles that you've gone through, why you've won, why you haven 't won with some of these guys'
EAVES: A very brief way of stating it, it comes down to the individual person and what they, when they take a look at both schools and what they feel in their heart and what the selling points are of both schools. It's different in every case, but for, you know, as you said, in my mind, I know where I'd want to go. But at the same time, they do a heck of a job of selling what they have, and some young men like a smaller campus, smaller setting, and it comes down to their individual feel about where they are.
