Eaves Addresses Media Monday
October 28, 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' upcoming WCHA opener versus Denver 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.
What is Jon Krall's status' 'The x-rays are negative, so it looks like a bruise. There is possibly some ligament damage. He'll skate when he can tolerate weight on that leg, but it 's not broken. That's good news. We'll take it day by day. '
Did you get accomplished in the first six games what you had hoped to' What are you still working on and looking for' 'We accomplished some of the things that we wanted to do. If you take a look back at what we said, we wanted to try to get everybody in and try to put people in different situations and we did that. We certainly have a better idea of what our team can do at this point, but we still have a long way to go. At the very beginning we said we were going to be on a roller coaster ride until Christmas time, and I still think it is going to be the case. Just take a look at our two games this weekend. There were opposite sides of a coin. The first game we get smoked in the first period and we end up losing the game. The second game we get off to a great start and we end up winning that game. It's been a little bit of a roller coaster ride, and we expect that to continue until Christmas. Hopefully the peaks and the valleys won't be as great when we get closer to Christmas time.'
What was it like coaching against (your son) Pat ' 'One thought that I had going into that was when you start coaching, you focus on what your group of kids is doing. I didn't really notice him until he was the kid that put the puck in the net a couple of times, much to my displeasure. We got blitzed in the first period. We were trying to scramble on the bench. We even changed goalies. Bernd forgot his goalie stick at the bench and Rob Malnory was trying to hand it to him and I said `No, just keep it here. He'll remember it and it will buy us some time.' We were getting so blitzed we were just focused on what we could do to stop the rush of water from coming into the boat. It was nice afterwards to sit and talk. And it was nice to see Ben even though he didn't get to play. So that was the bonus part of it. It wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be.'
Are you happy with the way Jackson and Fahey bounced back after being scratched last weekend' 'Yes. Once again it comes back to one of those things that we talked about earlier in the year ' one of the good habits that we all want our kids to have. That is to have control of things that you can control. They were very mature about it. We spoke as adults. We said `This is what you need to do, do you understand why'' They said yes, and they bounced back very well. I thought Brain Fahey played as good of hockey on Saturday night as I have seen him in the six games. He was controlled and he didn't get himself in big trouble. Mark was our captain this weekend and I really thought he stepped to the front and took a leadership role. I thought both those guys did a good job in responding.'
What is the strength of this team right now ' 'I believe that it can be our conditioning and hard work. I believe that our group of young men is very well conditioned. That's attributed to the boys, to our strength and conditioning staff, and to John Hynes. This is one of his passions. He takes great pride in that. We can build on that. Right off the bat I say that. And I see in our play that our tempo is high. That is a good thing. We got beat on Friday night because we couldn't handle their tempo in a small rink with their quickness. That was a great lesson for us that will serve us well later in the year because we will play more teams like that where we'll have to deal with that. Our kids had not played in that size rink against that quickness. We were just like peewees playing against college kids for a while, but then we settled down and that will serve us well down the line.'
In the first six games of this year you have left the opponent a mystery and focused on your team. Is that going to change this week ' 'It started to change a little bit last week. We started to take a look at video. You mostly talk about your group of people, what we need to do because that's something you can control. But it would be silly not to look at film. We started to introduce that to the guys last week in terms of here are things, here are some tendencies, and what would be effective in this kind of situation. We started doing our homework last week and will do more of that now.'
Are you really into video' Is that a big part of your coaching repertoire' 'No, I wouldn't say so. I think that we use it judiciously. We use it wisely. I think that you can overuse video and lose your kids in the process of teaching them some things. As a player one time I was with an organization that made us watch the whole game. What's the point of that ' I looked around the room and half the guys are asleep anyway. You have to use it smartly.'
Has the fact that Denver also played Boston College helped you with your game plan for this weekend' 'They lost by the same score, almost the same thing happened to them. They got blitzed in the first period. It was an identical game plan by BC. I know George [Gwozdecky] is being a very smart coach. He talked about it in the paper after the game about how they fell behind early and couldn 't get back in the game, as we did. They'll be prepared. They play hard. They go to the net like no other team I've seen in college hockey in a couple of years. Their goaltending is good and they are a physical team. They build a lot of what they do on the hard part of the game as well. It'll be a good tilt.'
Who has had a tougher adjustment: you or the players ' 'I would say the players. The reason that I would state that is because coming from the program that we did, we were working with young players. The lesson that they taught us as coaches is that we need to be patient with them. Coming here that is part of who we are. I think for some of the guys here, especially some of the older guys they have been playing a certain way for so long that they have to change more than the coaching staff because we were prepared to be patient.'
Has Tom Gilbert been a surprise to you' 'Yes, just because I didn't know very much about Tom. We didn't recruit him. He has shown that he can play. As a freshman he shows some innate things that you don't teach to people. That has been a very pleasant surprise. We are just going to have Tom keep doing that and get better.'
What innate things' 'He has the ability to compete over the puck and get out of the way of people trying to hit him. He seems to have a sense of when to jump into a play and support it from a defensive position. Those are things that he has a feel for that he is able to do. I don't think those things are taught. Those are the things that he has as an athlete.'
Do you have a feel for the rest of the WCHA yet this year ' 'No'like you guys, you read the releases, obviously [North Dakota's] Zach Parise is hitting all the marks that he's been speculated to, he's averaging over three points a game. Having coached Zach and seen him play, he's a very good player. It's going to be a handful for anybody in this league to contain him.
You've asked the defensemen to step up and play a little more this year. How has that gone' 'It is part of our scheme to play as a unit of five. They support the rush, is the proper term. We are still fine-tuning it. Defensemen kind of lick their chops because they think `I can get up to play and score some points.' There is very much a smart part about it, a feel to it where you don't rush the play, you support. There's a big difference between the two. Some of our defensemen want to lead the rush and as a result they leave us a little weak on the back side. There is a responsibility that goes with it, but once they find that balance it can be very effective.'
