	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 8, 2016

Mike Eaves

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Men's Hockey Head Coach Mike Eaves. We will take questions.

Q. Good week of practice prior to heading into this week, Mike?
COACH EAVES: Yeah, it was an interesting week for us, being this time of the season. We gave the kids a couple different looks this week. We had an optional day on Monday. We went Tuesday, Wednesday as a team. They had a school day on Thursday and then they came back Friday, Saturday and had Sunday off. So they were able to, you know, take care of some of those distractions in their life in terms of school so that they could perform at a higher level for us.

So I think it was a good week, and when they were on the ice, we tried to simulate game pace and such, and I think it was -- we look at it as a good week.

Q. Simulating game pace, is it possible to simulate the talent that Michigan is going to bring on that first line?
COACH EAVES: No.

Q. On video, can you emphasize it? Can you do anything more than that?
COACH EAVES: I think we have -- this group this year can certainly simulate better than last year's group in terms of the some of the talent, but length and the range of their guys, it would be tough to do, but in terms of the pace and how we practiced, we did some of those things this week and competed in a lot of one-puck drills, so I think in terms of making it as close as we can to game simulation, we did a good job of that.

Q. I'm going down memory lane here a bit, but can you refresh our memory about the line that you played on in 1977? I said I was going down memory lane a little bit, but the line you had and what made that line in particular special?
COACH EAVES: Well, I guess I want to specify, are you talking about the lines Steve Alley and Tom Alseth? That was the year we won it, and I think that anytime you look at a forward line, if you look at the great lines in the National Hockey League, the one line that comes to mind is Brian Trottier and Mike Bossy, and then their left winger, they would rotate guys in there. I think in a group of three there are two guys that have a great chemistry, and a third guy will bring a complementary aspect to that line, like Clark Gillies was a very physical player, and he had a physical presence in front of the net, and they would move him in there, and they would move other guys in and out, once they got a little bit stale.

In the line that we had, Tommy was a big, strong right wringer, Steve was -- had a little bit more flare but could play that physical game, and I felt like my game was all-around, so that I could jump in there and dish the puck or go get the puck a little bit, so there is definitely a chemistry that comes, but they're all not the same, and that's a big part of having a successful line; they bring different things to the game.

Q. Mike, when you go see a recruit and bring a recruit in here, can you tell, do you have a sense that they're going to be a leader for you, a guy who is going to wear a letter some day? If so, what was your evaluation of a guy like Cameron Hughes when you were going to watch him and before he came in here?
COACH EAVES: When you watch young people play you can actually get an x-ray vision of their character; I believe that. I believe by the way when you watch them all over the ice, when things go well on the ice, how do they react, when things don't go well, how do they react on and off the bench, do you see them going over and picking up a teammate when he's down or maybe hit the post when he didn't have a great shift.

So you can, by being tuned in to different aspects of the game, you can kind of get an x-ray vision of who they are. And one thing that is for sure, once you get to know families -- like you can tell the families that have talked about selflessness and leadership, and you can kinda pick that up when they come on their official visit, if the parents come.

As I've gotten to know Adam's mom and dad, and Adam was a pretty good leader for us, it was quite obvious that they talked about those kind of things at home, about being selfless, about looking out for your teammate, about making people around you better, so it starts at home. I've come to believe that firmly in the years that we have been doing this, and Cameron is of that same mold.

I remember when they moved down here, they all came in an RV, all four boys came with mom and dad, and we were able to greet them, and when we were hanging out with them, you could tell the way they carried themselves and the conversation and how they were please and thank you, and just all those little things add up that they've been taught how to do things right, like a leader does.

Q. Mike, a lot of goals scored last time you played Michigan. Do you expect something similar this weekend?
COACH EAVES: I would like the trend for us to continue to score against them and to held them back a little bit. We flirted with winning both those games there, and I remember when Red came off the bench on Saturday night he was like a little old time hockey, they were up and down, a lot of goals, and I think we continue to work on those areas that will affect that. Our line rush against us in into our defense's own coverage, if we can continue to improve on that then we can give ourselves a chance to win.

Funny, last night, everybody watched the Super Bowl and, you know, offense wins games but defense wins championships, and if we can tighten that up and continue to get better at that, that's going to serve us well as we go down the stretch.

Q. Do you go into a series like this expecting to win both games, or is that realistic? Do you focus more on effort? How do you approach something like this?
COACH EAVES: One of the things we talked about is we have flirted with beating a lot of good teams, and that flirtation has got to end, and we've got to get over that hump, and I'm going to borrow a quote from Bret Bielema, but I firmly believe that our focus is on Friday night; our goal is to be 1-0. And then when that's done, we put that aside and we've got to get into Saturday and be 1-0. It's that simplistic, and I believe and I think our young men believe, if we play the way we are capable of and we continue to improve as we have been, we give ourselves a chance to be successful.

Q. Would you say you're pretty healthy? Everybody was skating last week.
COACH EAVES: Yeah, no, I think health -- it's amazing what a bye week will do, and we have to be intelligent in the way we practice and holding guys out of certain drills because we don't want to expose them to being dinged up again, but this time of the year we're relatively healthy, yes.

Q. Mike, Corbin McGuire, is he going to stay on defense?
COACH EAVES: At least for Friday night's game, until we get Eddie back, yeah. He continues to take reps in practice and for him he just played hockey; whether he's forward or defenseman, he's doing the right things in the position that he's in.

I know on our big sheet of ice, the one thing that Coach Luke liked a lot was that the fact that he could skate and go back and get pucks and that was a big asset for us, so Friday night, for sure, he will be there.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thanks, Mike.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297