Coach Mike Eaves meets with the media
December 08, 2009 | Men's Hockey
Dec. 8, 2009
MADISON, Wis,-Badger Head Coach Mike Eaves talked with the media Monday afternoon, discussing last weekend's sweep of the Michigan Tech Huskies and looking forward to this weekend's series. The Badger men's hockey team (10-5-1, 7-4-1 WCHA) travels west to battle No. 3 North Dakota (9-5-2, 6-5-1 WCHA) in a crucial WCHA series. The puck will drop at 7:30 p.m. Friday night and 7 p.m. Saturday night.
To view the media conference, click here.
BRIAN LUCAS: ...Coming off a weekend sweep of Michigan Tech, the men's hockey team travels to North Dakota for a Friday and Saturday series. Friday's game at 7:30 on NHL Network and Fox College Sports Central. Saturday's game will be on Fox College Sports Central. And with that, we'll take questions. There's mics on either side of the room.
QUESTION #1: Coach, with this North Dakota series, it seems like there's always, you know, a lot of physicality to it, a lot of energy. What is it that really makes this, you know, just a little bit different than, you know, your run of the mill series, I guess?
Mike Eaves: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that is just the way that North Dakota plays. They're a team that wants to play physical, take time and space away. They play on a small sheet of ice. They have big guys that can skate, so ever since coming back here, I mean, starting with Dean Blais, that's the way they played when he coached and it's carried on through this coaching staff right now. And you know, when you play successful hockey, those are the type of things you do, and they've been a very solid program for a long time. It's a proven formula, they play to that, and we'll go up there and, you know, we ask our kids to play the same way for basic reasons, because we know that the formula calls for that if you want to be a good hockey team.
QUESTION #2: Thinking along those lines, do you think your team equipped itself well a couple of weeks ago on the small ice sheet? You carry over some of those same lessons that you learned then?
EAVES: Without a doubt, without a doubt. Those are our first two games on a small sheet of ice, and we played well enough to win both, won one, and so we take those experiences. I think, you know, for a hockey player or any athlete when you play on different sizes of a sheet of ice, and you take that experience from your last, when you take that forward with the next one. So we'll practice all week on a small sheet of ice just reminding ourselves what it's like to play with less time and space and get ready to do that again.
QUESTION #3: Mike, do you like being off the radar, the national radar, in terms of rankings or does it bug you that you're not higher?
EAVES: No. I think that will just take care of itself in time, Andy. You know, I have brief moments of having those thoughts, but then I just, you know what, that's something I can't control. And I think we, it'll keep our focus on what we have to do, and that's just keep winning.
QUESTION #4: Coach, when you talk about the balance that you're getting from this hockey team, you know, points wise, lately, I think it's like 20 different players now have scored, you know, throughout the course of the season.
EAVES: Well, it becomes a weapon for us. To have great balance is hard to play against because we have people capable of doing things with and without the puck. And so if you're looking to match up and play this line against this line, well, you know, well, who is their best line or who's capable of being a weapon for them. And I think by having depth and having that balance, that in itself becomes a weapon for us.
QUESTION #5: If I recall correctly, you were the only coach to pick North Dakota to win the league in the coaches' poll. You've always had respect for them, but has it grown here in your time? They play the way that you guys like to play. They've certainly had success going to Frozen Fours. Where does, has your respect level increased as your time has been here with them?
EAVES: No, it's always been the same. Coming in, knowing their history, watching college hockey for a while there because our own sons were playing at it, you stayed in touch with it, and they were always there knocking on the door to get in the tournament or battling for the tournament championship. So it's always been at a high level, and that hasn't changed.
QUESTION #6: I know Michigan Tech would have liked to have given you more of a battle this past weekend. As you look at that, do you, I think you've used a term before, not necessarily . . . this past weekend, fools gold. Is that the case at all with what you just saw this past weekend against Michigan Tech?
EAVES: Well, in reading the comments by the coaching staff, they were dinged up big time and, you know, three of their top forwards perhaps and their best defensemen arguably were out. And I know he's just, I think the thing is, you know, he'd like to play us with a full roster to see if they could give us more, but. I think that we go up there at the end of the year, and they will use this past weekend as motivation for their club to really try to get some respect back from us. And you know, we took care of business. We did what we had to do. We got the wins, and that was our object going into this weekend.
QUESTION #7: I don't know if you've had a chance to look at North Dakota pre-Chay Genoway's injury, post-Chay Genoway. Have you seen a difference?
EAVES: No. To be honest, I haven't seen that much video. We're doing that right now. You can take a look at the point production by their defensemen. Chay had ten points, and he hasn't played in a couple weeks, and the rest of the guys who have been playing, I don't think anybody has more than five, so that says a lot right there. He's their quarterback. He is their offensive guy back there that can make their power play go and be an offensive threat.
QUESTION #8: Is there a specific thread that runs through why you've had success at North Dakota, playing there, especially recently?
EAVES: I just think that we play to how we want our team to play, and that's hard, smart, and as a team. And I think our kids enjoy playing up there because it's such a great atmosphere, packed rink, small sheet. You're going to be, it's like a pinball machine in there sometimes. Everywhere you turn, you're going to run into somebody or something is happening. You have to be into the game. I think athletes enjoy, and in this case hockey players enjoy playing in that type of atmosphere. Just like at the Yost Arena. That was a great college game, you know, high energy, big crowd, small rink, good players. It all adds up to bring the best that people have.
QUESTION #9: Coach, I know a lot of talk at the beginning of the season was that this was a more veteran team. How have they lived up to your expectations of being a veteran team to this point in the season?
EAVES: We're growing. We're growing in the right direction. You know, it's about us as coaching staff and this group of players reaching their potential. We could talk about being a veteran team, but that is only worth its weight in gold if they reach their potential, and we're starting to do those things as we go on the road and we win some games and we go through some tough times. Those are the things that bring out that potential that you have inside, and trying to keep everybody on the same page. So we're going in the right direction, and the direction that we need to go in order for us to reap that potential.
QUESTION #10: Mike, North Dakota appears to be going through something similar that you went through a year ago in that closing teams out, getting a lead, hanging on to it, and finishing a game. At some level, do you think with your guys that became so ingrained that it was, that was a bad habit that you couldn't get rid of that maybe you were never able to kind of get them out of that thought process?
EAVES: It's hard to say, for two reasons. First of all, in terms of what North Dakota has been going through or going through right now, I'm not in the inside to knowing what the intricacies of what they're dealing with. And for our guys, you know, last year and what we were going through, that's in the past and, you know, we're dealing with what we have to deal with right now. So it's tough to talk about that.
QUESTION #11: Brendan Smith's recent streak, 7 games, 15 points, obviously he's putting the points up. Has he improved as a defensemen as well and putting that all together? You talked about reaching one's potential. He's obviously a little bit closer.
EAVES: His play without the puck has definitely gotten better. There has been clips that we've been able to show, especially in one-on-one situations. He used to have a habit of, as a forward came toward him, he's looking him at the chest, but then his eyes would kind of wander down to the puck, and a good forward is going to make a monkey out of you when you do that. But there's been a couple clips where he has, the puck does not exist, is the verbiage we try to use, when you don't play with the puck because you want to go through the man. There have been a couple great clips of him being able to do that and finishing the check and, as a result, not putting himself in a position to get beaten one-on-one. So there has been some good growth. It's kind of interesting how they're coming together.
QUESTION #12: So you know, you said that it wasn't the toughest Michigan Tech team that you were going to have to face, but it's got to still be nice to see, you know, Blake with three goals, you know, John Mitchell, Brendan Smith with two goals on Saturday. Certainly nice to see the offense functioning at the high level it should against a weaker opponent.
EAVES: Well, what it gives you is confidence. And for a goal scorer, the ultimate confidence is scoring goals. For a goaltender, the ultimate confidence is to stop pucks in a game. And so you have that feeling inside intrinsically, and so going into this week in practice and looking forward to this week, there's a certain level of strut that you have in your step, and you believe that. You know, we want our guys to score in practice because it helps that feeling, but when you do it in a game, it takes it to another level. So to have these guys score like that in a game, and even Andy Bohmbach, who gets back to back . . . goals, those are the kind of things that, hey, I can score, I did score, and history will repeat itself.
QUESTION #13: It might seem like a no-brainer, but is Michael Davies your most improved player?
EAVES: In my mind, at this point, he certainly is, and I say that, back of my mind saying I hope he doesn't slip. I'm not going to let him slip, but without question. He's a young man that is a fully rounded hockey player right now that, as a coaching staff, and I think his teammates would have great trust in putting him on the ice in any situation, up by a goal, needing a goal, playing in a tie game. He has grown and matured and is reaching his potential, and it's really fun to see that happen, because it's been, well, you've been, you can document it. He's been in and out and all over the map with us, but he's gotten the message and he's stayed with. It's tough to change, Andy. It's tough to change. And you battle a lot of things in that process, but over the course of, and even this summer, the things that we tried to lay out for him. And I don't know what the final trigger was, the final straw that made him get to the, come to the light side instead of the dark side in terms of that stuff, he's done it. His teammates see it. His teammates talk about it. They reinforce the things he does. He's growing into a leader. How about that? How about those words talking about Michael Davies? He's growing into a leader. He's taking ownership of not only the way he plays, but of his team. So concisely, to answer your question at this point, yes.
