Seg 1 - MHOC Coach's Show w Mike Cavanaugh Feb 19

Coach Cav w Bob & Adam after a bye weekend for the Ice Bus following getting swept by UMass and teh goal scoring woes continue

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Another edition the Penultiment edition of Men'sHockey Coaches Show with Mike Cavanough Adam Jardino
at our side on this Monday night. Cav first of all, welcome back.
And it's been a couple of weekssince your team's been action. How'd
your how's your team? Men?How'd you? How'd you handle the week
off? You usually a couple ofdays often involved in that stretch. Yeah,
I think it was pretty good.We gave them last Monday and Tuesday

(00:25):
off from skating. We did havea workout off ice, workout on Tuesday,
practiced Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,gave him Saturday Sunday off and we'll
back at it this week, youknow, Monday through Thursday before we get
ready for BEU. And it doesnot get any easier, one ranked team
after another, Nope. And that'sthe beauty of the league. I think

(00:48):
it's you know, especially this year, it's probably as deep as I've ever
seen it this year, and butit's great. I mean, right now,
we've just have to get ourselves playingreally good hockey going into the playoffs.
That's our goal right now, andat this stage with some time off

(01:10):
about two week three You're able toget guys healthy that needed to get healthier
at this stage of the season.Yeah, no question. There were a
few guys that really could use thetime off. A couple of guys didn't
even practice last week. We're justtrying to get them healthy. So great,
which was good. We had afull practice today, which was nice.
Michael, it has been a struggleto put the puck in the nets.
I don't know if you've ever seenanything like this. It is.

(01:33):
It is one of the most uniquethings I think I've ever seen with a
college hockey team. Yeah, Iagree with you. It's been We've tried
everything. I think, you know, we just gotta stop thinking about it
and just you know, at times, you know we've missed the net and
we've caused some of our own issues. But you know, I thought when
we played at you masked our lastgame that we played, I thought we

(01:56):
were in front of the net.We got pucks here, we hit a
couple of posts. You just can't. We've had games where we have scored
goals, and I think we haveto focus on that more. Just the
positive. If you've got to scoregoals in the future, then you know
you've got to manifest those thoughts andthat belief that it's going to happen.

(02:16):
So we've got to continue to workon our defense, and I think we
play pretty good defense and whole teams, you know, under three goals,
and just keep plugging away. Sooneror later it'll crack again. We've talked
about that where earlier in the yearyou were saying, you know, the
analytics bear out the fact that thisteam should be and will be scoring more

(02:38):
goals. Are those numbers still inyour favor where you're seeing those numbers saying,
hey, we really should still bescoring them. We're more than we're
actually scoring they are, But it'sstill it's just frustrating. It's still not
you know, after a while,it gets hard. We just got to
find a way to do it.At the end of the day, the
only stat that matters is goal andhaving more goals and the opponent, and

(03:04):
that's what we're at that time ofyear now, where that's all we have
to focus on. Does it eataway or it has it eaten away?
At the guys, I think it'sbeen frustrating for everybody. You know,
when you're playing pretty well and you'renot getting rewarded for it. That's frustrating,
but that's sports too, and sometimesyou just got to really, I

(03:29):
think, dig deep and stay mentallystrong and keep believing in the way we're
playing and hopefully it goes it'll turnfor you. The penalty kill unit is
something that seems to still be performingreally well. I mean, I guess
Providence on the road, that wasbasically the reason that you came out of

(03:50):
there with that two to one victory. So another three penalty kills perfect night
on that department on Saturday last weekagainst UMass. So what is clicking right
now with that unit? I justthink they're well, why do we get
you know, really good goaltending?And then two they're in sync and they

(04:11):
work together. You know, we'renot. Penalty kills will struggle when everybody's
not on the same page. Ifsomeone's going aggressive and another guy's going passive,
that's when they'll struggle. But ifeverybody's on the same page, you
can be a good penalty killer.I have a good penalty killing team.
The other thing is like in Providence, we took too many penalties. I

(04:33):
thought we cleaned that up last weekagainst you Mass. Look at it's the
block numbers you know, Harrison Reeseis one of the higher ones. John
spets, but shake personal is rightthere and I'm sure and a lot of
them come on the penalty kill.Ye, he really sells out, he
does. He doesn't. He's hadsome big blocks too, like in six
on five type situations. So he'sa very good defensive player and gets in

(04:59):
the shot. You know, that'scertainly been an area where he's excelled this
year. It's one of those guysthat he was soph more from Avon,
Connecticut. Has he Where is hein his development from you know where he
came on as a freshman last year. Yeah, I think he's built on

(05:20):
last year. I think was hehave seven goals or something this year?
So, you know, he givesus solid minutes and he's getting a little
power play time now and he's obviouslyone of our top penalty killers and defensive
players. As I alluded to earlier, it was a five on six type
players. So he just needs tokey you know. I think there's more

(05:43):
offense in his game and I thinkwe'll see that in the future. Mike
Chase Bradley continues to excel. Maddie'sbeen in a bit of a goal scoring
slump, that's nothing new. Youlook at the plus minuses though, I
mean, yeah, Hudson's got fiveand twelve on the season, but his
plus is at plus nine right now, and he just just continues to chuck
away. I mean we've talked aboutthis in the past, where yes,

(06:03):
his goal numbers may be down froma year ago, but he's still a
good two hundred foo player that youhope he is. Oh, he's outstanding
and the area too, especially latelyin the last probably eight to ten games,
he's been great on the faceoff dotas well. Yeah, it's really
good. Yeah, I notice thathe's done a he's done a good job
there. So he's played very consistentall year long, Hudson, I should

(06:27):
say for four years. He's beenvery consistent. So he's, uh,
you know, arguably the heartbeat ofour team. Let me ask you about
that face offs. What's what's workingfor him now is he's got a low
center of gravity to begin with.I mean, I remember, was it
Bobby Travino that was no, theother guy for u Mass I can't think
of his name for Copena. Yeah, yeah, he was really good in
the face off. That is it? That low center of gravity. I

(06:48):
remember talking to Yakam Kannilik about thatwhat makes what made him so hard?
Yeah, I think that I thinkthat helps. I think I think Mike
Pereira and Mike Finnegan had been doinga lot of work with our centers.
We're just you know, Mike cutsa lot, Mike Finnegan cuts a lot
of tape for them to look at, and Mike Perreira goes over with them,

(07:10):
you know. So I think that'scertainly helped. Having a good idea
of what your opponent's going to doand what your opponent's strength is. But
Hudson works at it. He worksat it an awful lot. You know,
see him after practice constantly working ondifferent strategies to go against different guys.
And for Hudson is the captain youmentioned, he's the heartbeat of the
team. How has he been interms of handling the times where it could

(07:34):
be frustrating but knowing that guys arelooking to him to be that encouraging voice.
Yeah, he's he's I've said thisa couple of times, probably the
most positive kid on our team.He's always bringing positive energy and upbeat and
today and even in practice like hecelebrates goals in practice. He just that's

(07:54):
who he is, that's his personality. So while I'm sure he's frustrated at
times, just like the rest ofus, he still brings that positive energy
every day. All right, Later, Adam did interviews today. I was
a little busy this afternoon and hada basketball game to do. What's the
batting order here tonight? We knowyou have Jake Rashard and Matthew Wood.
Who's who's first? Matthew would first, Jake second. All right, that'll

(08:16):
be coming up a little later towardsthe bottom of the hour. It's the
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