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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 9, 2015Mike EavesTHE MODERATOR: The men's hockey team hosts Ohio State. Game starts at 7 p.m. Head Coach Mike Eaves is here and will take questions. Q. (No microphone.) COACH EAVES: Couple things we do after we win. We give a puck out, we have the Hard Hat Award, and the coaches go around and stop at each stall and shake the young man's hand and chat for a couple seconds about the game. On Saturday night, even though we didn't win, we didn't hand out the game puck or the Hard Hat, but we went around and shook each one of those young men's hands because we played a whale of a game. Just saw the stats. Our hits were up there, blocked shots, take‑aways, we outchanced them. We just didn't put the puck in the net. So we wanted them to know that sometimes the result doesn't grade out on the effort, and they did a lot of good things and they needed to know that. Q. Mike, your players, you talk to them, people outside of the coaching staff talk to them. They truly believe they're going to do something here down the stretch. How have you gotten them to that point? It's easier said than done that a team with four wins is sitting here truly believing they can do something in the playoffs, when the playoffs come, I should say. COACH EAVES: Part of that is they are able to see improvement on video. They sense they're getting better and even on the ice they know they're getting closer to the point where things are going to break for them. Once again, compliment our captains and upper classmen for carrying that torch. Along with the coaching staff, we have been able to keep the focus on our short‑term goals, and with what has happened, the guys seeing, via video, and what's happening on the ice, they know they're going in the right direction. Q. Landon Peterson played pretty well for having not played in a while, didn't he? COACH EAVES: Yes, he did. Early in the game he had some comments. He was nervous in the first ten minutes but settled down, and from the bench I saw him looking for the post a couple times with his skate, to find out where it was. He did a good job for us. He gave us a chance and jumping in there after not playing for a long time, compliments to him. Q. Mike, do you know if Grant is going to be able to play this weekend? COACH EAVES: It's day‑to‑day. We will see what we can do from a physical standpoint to see where he's at, but as of today it's day‑to‑day. Q. Mike, the season hasn't gone the way the seniors would have liked, but this class has won a lot of hockey games. COACH EAVES: If you look at their career they have one two championships in their career here, they have won a lot of games and had success, and this year has been balancing out the success they have had the last couple of years, but I think as we have talked about, I think a great part of their legacy will be more than just winning the WCHA Playoff Championship and the Big Ten Playoff Championship last year. A big part of the legacy will be the fact that they have held this group together through some really tough stuff, stuff that would have torn other groups apart and has in the past in different sports but the fact that they have come to the rink every day, willing to give it their all to get better and moving toward something will be a big part of the their legacy. Q. Mike, is it a different brand of mental toughness that this team has shown, its ability to embrace the adversity that it has and not let it pull 'em down? COACH EAVES: Agreed. It is a different type of mental toughness, because the easy thing would be to just kind of‑‑ it's just not our year, let's start planning for the spring and the summer and they have not done that. They come in and they practice hard, they push each other. I think one of the great things about this group is they have learned to hold each other accountable which is a sign of a team coming together. It's hard to hold teammates or family members accountable, A, to do it but, B, that it's accepted in the right way knowing that it's meant for the betterment of everybody. This group has done a nice job in that. Q. You're not used to seasons like this either. What have you learned over the course of this season about yourself as a coach? COACH EAVES: It's interesting, and one of the things is that you focus more on the short‑term goals that we have put up in our locker room and you don't look at the‑‑ I don't look at the standings board as often in terms of where everybody s don't look at the national polls as much. I look at what we can do now, what we can control to make this group better. What's been one of the up sides through all this is the creativity that had to come out because we're dealing with a unique situation, whether it's creating a drill that's specific for our needs or how to keep a young man's spirits up in a time that is tough. There has been some creativity there, and I think that's helped us become even better coaches. Q. I know it's a group of six, but Joe Rumpel has done some great things for this program in his time here, and he seems to be a fan favorite in that building that he will be stepping into one last time. COACH EAVES: He is. He's a unique personality, and I think he has a great personality to be a goaltender because he's able to let it go, it's water off his back if a goal goes in, and he's able to focus on what needs to be done. I've never seen a young man connect with young people‑‑ I don't think we have had anybody quite like him, coming off the ice and going to the Children's Hospital and connecting with kids. He has a unique ability to relate. Maybe he's just a kid at heart. He's done a lot of neat things here, on and off the ice. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Mike. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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