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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 16, 2015Mike EavesTHE MODERATOR: Head Coach Mike Eaves is here and will take questions. Q. Mike, I know you haven't been on the ice yet today but has the response of your players after the win, has it been to your liking thus far? COACH EAVES: Haven't been around them at all, Andy, so it's tough to measure that. I haven't even talked to Jim Snider who was with them this morning about their energy in the weight room. So it would be hard for me to gauge right now. Q. How about the response from the coaches, Mike? COACH EAVES: Well, as a coach, we debated about what we should do today in terms of, how do we move forward from here? So we make a little progress on Saturday night and the guys, you know, the energy in the room was good. As one would hope. So now, I think we have to make sure‑‑ there is a tendency to, okay, finally got a win on the road, take a breath. But at the same time I think we have to be careful and not lose our position and slide back. So we're moving forward this morning or this afternoon. We're going to get back on the ice and not bury them but we're going to continue to improve on skills and let 'em know that we are pushing forward and we need to continue to make progress. Q. So to follow up on that, are you saying there are two philosophies, you can say, okay, pat 'em on the butt, good job, guys, or look, you did a nice job, don't get too comfortable? COACH EAVES: Exactly, that's the only way to do it. I don't think there is a lot of comfort going on there. I think guys are, when they come to the rink after a win, they're more willing to listen and work hard, so I think we have that. Rather than back off we're going to use that to push forward. Q. Mike, could you assess Adam Rockwood's progress to this point and Cameron Hughes' progress thus far. Both guys have had a lot of responsibilities on their plates from the get‑go and where are they now compared to a couple of months ago or couple of weeks ago, even? COACH EAVES: They're a lot further ahead than they were when they first got here. I think coming back after Christmas they're different players. You can see it on the ice. Their comfort level their confidence level has risen to a new high. I think for Adam, he also had to kinda get back his strength after his enzyme deficiency issues so I think he's physically feeling good again but you can see it in their play, the jump in their step, their comfort with what we are having them do as a team as far as our systems play so its way further ahead. Q. Did you like what you saw with the line combinations you put out there on Saturday and do you plan to stick with those? COACH EAVES: I like the way they ended. We didn't think that Rockwood, LaBate and solely started off very strong, they got scored on on the first shift and I was thinking oh brother but they played well in the third period and their line produced the winning goal. They got better as the game want along so I think we will look at that a little longer. At this time of the year it's easier‑‑ let's say we don't like that line or somebody on that line, let's say Jeff is not going, we knew we can move 13 up there and he gives them a little element. So going through some tough spots and having guys hurt, we've learned that who we can play with who and get energy. That will help as we go down the stretch. Q. Seemed like Joseph LaBate went better as the game went along, he made a couple of head's up plays, there, didn't he? COACH EAVES: Yes, he did. I think he enjoys playing with Besse and we talked about that but he understands what we're trying to do in terms of stimulate the lines after Friday night. He played well. He was very businesslike on Saturday. He didn't have great high's and low's, he was right in the middle and played consistent throughout that whole game. Q. Could you give us an update on Patrick? I'm curious if you‑‑ what's your reaction when you get news like that? Is it because you've been down this road before you've taken a puck in a variety of place on your body before and you know it hurts, did you get concerned? What's your reaction? COACH EAVES: You know, you play that game long enough at that level you're going to get dinged up. Mark is in the back of the room here and he would attest to the same thing. What happened is that nothing was broken, which was a miracle. He's got some headaches and he's dealing with those, but he's way better off than it could have been. You just know you play this game long enough, things like that happen. Q. Can this next month change the way you look at this entire season as a whole? COACH EAVES: No question, just from the standpoint that we know what's ahead of us. We set these short‑term goals for the second half of the season. It's interesting you walk in our locker room, there's the standings, right there. We're down here at the bottom, and that's not a very pleasant thing to look at. We're not used to that. But right underneath where we are we set our second half goals in big, bold letters that our guys can see, ask what's what, they focus on as they walk by the standings boards. Those short‑term goals are be 1‑0 on Friday, 1‑0 on Saturday and play our best hockey in Marchbecause we know if we do that we give ourselves a chance to extend our season when we go to Detroit and that's the reality. That gives us good focus and to your question if we can play our best hockey by the time we go to Detroit for the Big Ten tournament then we give ourselves a chance to extend our season and that's what he it's about right now. Q. Michigan State is on a run here, what's it like preparing for a team like Michigan State? COACH EAVES: We were just upstairs watching them 5‑on‑5 and I was watching their penalty killing. They play really hard. They block everything. This one young man blocked a shot with his left ankle, couldn't get off the ice, hobbling around, stayed out there, ten seconds later he blocks another shot with his left ankle! Had to crawl off the Ice, and he was out there for the next shift! So they're playing with great desperation and playing hard and we will expect that as they come in here. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Mike. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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