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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 2, 2015Mike EavesQ. It's been about two months since you faced Penn State last. If you could look at the differences from then to now, what are they? COACH EAVES: I think there are a lot of differences, and that's a long time in the life of a freshman hockey player. They have played a lot more games and been through a lot more practices, and they understand school and the social responsibilities that they have. It's an awful lot to put on their plates, so we are at a different place than we were then and looking forward to going back and seeing what we can do against them. Q. Mike, having looked at the video of Corbin's hit from Saturday night, do you have an issue at all with the sanction that was handed down today by the Big Ten? COACH EAVES: No. I stalked to Steve, and he told me what their decision was, and we move on now. Q. Your offense seems to be coming around, your power play seems to be coming around. Is the defense lagging? Your offense seems to be clearly ahead of your defense in terms of how it's developing and being productive. The defense, what is not there that you would like to now see? COACH EAVES: First of all, the young people that we have, we have some gifted kids, Ryan Wagner has been a goal scorer, Hughes, Adam Rockwood have all been productive people, so I think they're getting used to the pace and the strength. Even with the teams that we had last year, that was a good, solid team, our ability to play without the puck from going into our zone is going to take more work. I actually am not surprised. I think they feel more comfortable with the puck, but they're still learning. The learning away from the puck is exponentially bigger than their play with the puck. Q. Mike, it's been a while since you've been on the road for an extended period, Februaryis going to be that. Are there lessons from that first stretch of time to open the season that you think carry over and will benefit you at this point? COACH EAVES: I sure hope so. I mean, being on the road with a young group of guys, we went to Alaska, Colorado, Green Bay, these are not easy trips. So we have some experience because of those trips, but now we have four "away" trips, two home series, and then we have to go on the road to Detroit to extend our season, so the fact that we play more on the road, we have to figure that riddle out, we have to become really good at solving that riddle on the road and get that feeling and that experience like we know what it takes, because in the end to extend our season we're going to have to do that. Q. Obviously nobody pays closer attention to this team than you do. If the casual fan were to look at the box scores of the games, having watched them so closely and having coached them what are the biggest reasons why the team has struggled this year? COACH EAVES: Biggest reason is youth, just plain and simple. I think for me to change that answer would be foolish, and I know I sound redundant but we've said since the beginning it's like a farmer planting a field with new seeds. You can go out there every day and see if they've grown at all but it takes time. In saying that we're seeing growth, and I think the one thing that's great with our fans is we haven't won as much as we would have liked to at home, and when we walk out on to the ice there is nobody screaming and yelling at the kids or the coaching staff, and the number one reason is because they're seeing growth and effort, and they're intelligent hockey fans, and because of the growth they're seeing and the effort, they're encouraging them to keep going. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Mike. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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