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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEMay 11, 2015Mike EavesBlake GeoffrionTHE MODERATOR: We are pleased to announce that the second annual Blake Geoffrion Hockey Classic featuring alumni from the UW Men's Hockey program will take place June 26th at LaBahn Arena with the proceeds going to the UW Burn Center. Joining us today are Blake Geoffrion and Men's Hockey Coach, Mike Eaves. And Blake will have an opening comment before we take questions. BLAKE GEOFFRION: First off, we're excited to have this event again. Unbelievable turn out last year from the fans, as well as the players, a lot of positive feedback, gave the money to a great cause here in the city of Madison, got some unbelievable sponsors backing us as well so excited to have this for the second year in a row, and hopefully continue to grow this thing bigger and better and hopefully one day we enter the Kohl Center. Q. Blake, what was the feedback, not only from maybe the fans that you spoke to but even the players that participated last year? BLAKE GEOFFRION: Yeah, you know, the players for‑‑ they loved the event. They thought it was a great time. I was personally worried about how it would all go, and the feedback from guys was unbelievable, and guys were calling me, saying, hey, are we having this event again, I would love to be a part of it. I had a great time, and everyone brought their families back and the reason why‑‑ me and Coach Eaves talked about this a lot, and one of the reasons we wanted to do it was it was a great way to kind of reengage the community with these guys. They go on and they play hockey and they could be from Canada or other regions where they don't have a reason to come back to Madison, and that what we wanted to do this is to bring the alumni back, get them reengaged with the fans, and give the fans an opportunity to see the Ryan Suters, the Ryan McDonoughs, the Derek Stepans of the world that are playing in the NHL, and they come back and people are able to see them. A lot of great feedback ‑‑ the one area that the fans additions, we had an area for them to blog about recommendations was they wanted ‑‑ there were no female women hockey players, and we actually asked all of them last year but due to the fact that they're all extremely busy ‑‑ but I'm happy to report this year we have some playing that we will announce here in a minute, so great things both ways. Was that a long enough answer for you? COACH EAVES: Surprise, surprise, surprise! Q. Blake, obviously last year the goal was to get it established and get the kinks worked out and make the event go. How would you define success this year? BLAKE GEOFFRION: My biggest thing last year was like you said, just to make the event run smoothly, and this year what I tried to focus on was going outside and raising additional money‑‑ the goal every year is to raise more money and do bigger and better things. This year we've beat our goal from what I raise ND outside sponsorships last year so that's really, really good. From the event itself we have a surprise that's going to be pretty unbelievable that I haven't told you about, yet. COACH EAVES: No, you haven't. BLAKE GEOFFRION: It's going to be unbelievable, and I think it will shock the sports world, and I'm looking forward to releasing that on the day of the event, of course. No, I will be not tell you. (Laughter.) Q. You obviously accomplished a lot of things as a player at your time as Wisconsin. Can you compare the feeling of satisfaction, what you got out of it what you were able to accomplish, the money you were able to raise last year to give to the worthy cause like the Burn Center? COACH EAVES: Yeah, last year I was nervous, literally feeling like I was back in the Kohl Center, that feeling of excitement, I had butterflies in my stomach. I hadn't skated in a while previous to the game, which is why it took me 25 shots to score my first goal! Look, this University, this campus, Coach Eaves has given me so much, and I wanted to find a way to reengage, bring everything back and give something back to the community, and when I was trying to find a cause to give this to, Dr.Faucher said, this is what we are all about, this is what we do, and I was like, this is perfect for who I am, who our program is, how this University and this city supports us in giving it back, so I'm just lucky to be able to do this for everyone. Q. Coach, your pride, satisfaction level in seeing‑‑ you have had a lot of different reunions over the years, golf outings and the like. To see the guys but to see them come together, one of your former leaders come together and put an event like this together? COACH EAVES: There are a lot of ripple affects from this event, and is it started with Dr.Faucher, and an accident that had happened in the Madison area, Coach Shuchuk knowing the family in a single conversation, and next thing you know, Dr.Faucher calls you, would you put your name on this and help us, and Blake was going through what he had gone through, and, you know, the one thing when you're going through stuff yourself, when you reach out and help other people it makes your problems seem a little bit smaller and being able to put Blake's name on this, and the things that he was able to do here, I think the fact that guys are looking for an opportunity to get together, the fact that Blake said they could bring their families, their kids, the fact that our fans can see these guys 20 feet away at the LaBahn is a different perspective, and I think that's what we discovered last year, so the ripple affects are very positive I think the biggest problem Blake is going to have along with the other guys is what some kind of antics, they are going to have after they score a goal. The things you guys did last year was phenomenal. You gotta come up with some new ones, and I'm curious about this thing that you're going to shock the sports world. That's a bold statement right there! BLAKE GEOFFRION: I promise you, it will be. As you can tell, I'm talking fast because I'm excited! The other thing that's really cool, one small detail I left out ‑‑ actually it's a big detail is John Buccigross, from ESPN, who is a good friend of mine, will actually be the emcee this year. So with his personality, his charisma he brings to the table, I think it will be pretty cool to have him hosting the event. His tie to college hockey and within Sports Center in ESPN, he's made that his niche, and when I was talking to him about this event he said, absolutely, sounds incredible, so he will be here for the event as well, which will really drive our program, what we are all about as well as helping the UW Burn Center and the cause we support, and just the state of Wisconsin how we all are, and helping us kind of grow the brand, that kind of thing, so that's another detail that will be neat. Q. Is the lineup set? Do you know who is going to be here? BLAKE GEOFFRION: Yeah, I haven't separated the teams yet, haven't stacked my team, but I do have the roster here. So I don't know if I should go ahead and read‑‑ I will read some of them off. I can get you the list. Mike Davies ‑‑ so two captains, Derek Stepan and Joe Pavelski will be the two captains this year. Changes up a little bit from Ryan Suter and Adam Burish last year. So it's Mike Davies, Derek Stepan, Adam Burish, Brendan Woods, myself, {List names from roster} Brian Elliott, Jessie Vetter will be the two goal tenders. We have a cool thing we will do with them. {List names} Two people that are question marks, Suts ‑‑ Ryan Suter has a family event; he doesn't know if he will be able to attend, Jake Dowell will be having a baby. If he has it before the event he said he would be there, which is great, and Davis Turisee is recovering from a wrist injury, and Jack Skille recovering from shoulder surgery. That's the roster, as you can see, a lot of guys‑‑ couple guys we lost, Ryan McDonagh will be in Europe for a charity event and vacationing, and the other big name is obviously Suts, don't know what he's going to do yet. Every person that's here that was not here last year, last year it was, "I'm having a wedding," or "I'm having a baby" or whatever but the feedback was great, like we alluded to earlier, so great roster and looking forward to it. Q. Did you get feedback from the former women players that wanted to get involved, whether it was last year or coming into this year? BLAKE GEOFFRION: I have to be honest, it was actually Hilary Knight that responded to me, when I was talking to her and she said, "Man, I didn't realize how big of an event this was or else I would have tried to make more room in my schedule last year." She had heard about it throughout the hockey world and she goes, "I'm definitely in this year. I'm moving a couple things around but definitely count me in," and once Hilary Knight came on board, I got a call from Jessie Vetter. She was like, "Hey, do you have a spot?" And I'm like, "Yes, I've left you twelve messages, 17 text messages, and 42 e‑mails, but, sure, of course." Q. Mike, you watched Blake grow up as a young man‑‑ BLAKE GEOFFRION: I'm still growing up. Q. We know. COACH EAVES: Emotionally. (Laughter) Q.To see what he's done with his career and where his life is going, and for him to do something like that says a lot about him, doesn't it? COACH EAVES: It does. I thinkbeing the captain of a team, you're front and center in terms of looking around and seeing what you can do for your teammates, and now Blake is in the real world, so to speak, and one of the prongs that we have within our hockey group is we want them to become fully integrated young men and part of that is giving back to the community. Blake is still doing that even though he doesn't wear the "W" on the front of his jersey anymore. It's neat to see young people learn that learn at an early age what's important and get it. For him to step back back in this role, and he's leading in another vein right now, and we get the benefit because we get to see these guys come back and the Burn Unit gets the benefit. A lot of positives because of this. Q. Blake, a year ago, we talked about you were able to make the transition into the business world, and going from hockey to that, and you mentioned John Buccigross, he's made the transition into the broadcast booth. How has that transition gone? You obviously like to talk and you love hockey. BLAKE GEOFFRION: Yeah, in regards those two things it's been great. It's very different I would say. John Buccigross, the way that guy thinks on his feet‑‑ I thought I was good. He is on a whole other level, he's talking on the phone, to his wife, he's texting people, and all of the sudden they're like, "Hey, John we're on in 3," and he's like, "Okay, no problem." I'm just like "Hey, wait, are we live on television?" "Guys are we live?" I'm sweating profusely. I think I changed my shirt three times the first time I did this, but it's incredible, cool to see another industry perspective, how it works, but I've had a lot of fun with it. I don't know if you saw it on Twitter, but I got into the game really bad, and I said a word that I shouldn't have, not that bad of a word but the Twitter world thought differently, so that's another thing that I need to get used to. I got into the game too much and also, the other feedback, my first game I did was at Wisconsin, and everyone was like, you're too one‑sided, and I was like, come on give me a break, what do you expect? It's been cool, a unique experience, and we will see what the future holds with that. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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