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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 11, 2013Mike EavesTHE MODERATOR: One announcement before we get started. A limited number of tickets have been made available for tomorrow night's men's basketball game against No.8 Florida. Thought I'd get the word out on that. And then following on off weekend, the men's hockey team hits the road to face No.7 Miami of Ohio. Friday's game will start at 5:30 p.m. and be televised by CBS Sports Network. Saturday night's game starts at 6:00 p.m. Central. Coach Mike Eaves is here, and we'll take questions. Q. Coach, I know you're probably used to it, but is it hard for the kids to find a rhythm early in the season with so much time off? COACH EAVES: Yeah, it is. It truly is in terms of game readiness. And when you talk about offense in any sport, there's a rhythm, there's a flow that goes with it. So it's a challenge for a coaching staff to keep the kids engaged and interested and trying to change it up. Because they're looking around the country, everybody's playing right now. Very similar to what we had last year, so we dealt with it a little bit. But we're just controlling the things we can, doing things that are pushing our kids in practice, trying to get them game ready. This week will be interesting because I think at this point we have to do more scrimmages, more game‑like situations in order to help them prepare for what we're going to see in Miami. Q. [No microphone]? COACH EAVES: None of us have been in the new rink there. But watching games, it looks like a really interesting building. But as far as a hockey team, we're going to see a team that will play at a high tempo, has lots of skill. Has two good goaltenders, both freshmen last year and sophomores this year. I'm really looking forward to it because they play the game the way it should be played in terms of the tempo and skill level we had. Last year when they came in, it was the same type of thing, really looking forward to that weekend because we were pushed. You talk about we play up to a certain level, they play at a high level. Another good early season test for us to see how we match up against them. Q. It seems, too, they can play different styles almost. I mean, they can go, but they also have some solid goaltending, pretty good defense, don't they? COACH EAVES: Usually when you make a statement like that, play any style you want, it's like they can play tough and‑‑ they play an up‑tempo style with skill and they have good goaltending and their specialty teams are good. Again, it will be a real good marker of where we're at. The key for us this weekend is that first 20 minutes. Going into another small rink again, needed that when we went to BC, I think that we should react better because we've got some games under our belt. Surviving that first 20 and getting into the small space at that tempo will be a test for us right away. Q. Last time you had a bye week you were coming off a tough road trip. What's been the difference, the attitude, the mindset of the guys after having that weekend at home and what transpired in having the bye week? COACH EAVES: The first bye week we went five days in a row of practice. We went Monday through Friday. This past week we went Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off, and then went Thursday, Friday, Saturday, just trying to change it up, mix it up, trying to keep them sharp. Like I said earlier, they want to play. They want to get in games. We'll do days where they just compete against each other and keep competition, try to keep the energy level up. And as close to a game as you can. We also did a‑‑ the infamous no practice on Saturday. We call it a track skate. Put heart rate monitors on and we just skate in terms of when our bodies have recovered. It's not a fun one, but it's one of those mindset games. We know it's going to be a challenge this week, a challenge to get it done, and they did a fine job at it. So just trying to mix it up and keep ourselves ready to play. Q. Tyler Barnes finished very strong a year ago. Do you sense at all a different level of confidence in the way he goes about things this year? He's off to a pretty good start. COACH EAVES: No question. A, he's off to a good start point‑wise, but the confidence is the way he carries himself on the ice. He's strong on his skates and knows it. So he goes into a confrontation, like there's a level like I'm going to win this battle, I expect to win this battle, and then I'm going to make this happen. So I think, as he's matured physically, there's that internal strength that is coming through because of his strength factor and having experience now. Q. Are you trying to match your '70s playing photo right now, or are you part of the Movember Movement? COACH EAVES: I am part of the Movember Movement. It's a good movement. It's an awareness of prostate cancer. I think that's really important. My wife won't kiss me, and my dog keeps trying to lick it off. I think Moochie is from another source, I guess. Yes.  It's a great thing what our kids have done. They actually came to us and said, Coach, can you do this? They're full form. I know some guys are going to have to cheat a little bit and doctor it up in some artificial flavor. It's a good thing, and I jumped on that bandwagon. Did you see it this week? (Laughing). Q. How's Joel Rumpel coming along? COACH EAVES: I was wondering who was going to ask that question. He's coming along good. I think this is a big week for him in terms of his game readiness, can he do the things that we need to see in practice that dictate, hey, I'm ready to play. I need to get into a game here. If things would go accordingly, he would probably get a game this weekend. If he has the type of week that we hope he has on the ice. Q. You officially announced the agreement with North Dakota. Anything else in the works that you'd care to share with us with any other schools that might be on future schedules, specifically WCHA‑wide? COACH EAVES: They're on‑‑ Zach Remiker is on the phone almost every day working stuff out, trying to work with other schools and get them on the schedule. There's nothing pending right now. But scheduling is one of those things that you work at it every week. Q. How much has the schedule changed? COACH EAVES: It has changed. Our schedule looks a lot like basketball now. We don't start our Big Ten schedule until right now the beginning of December this year. And so we have a lot of nonconference games that we have in the beginning, much like basketball. It is a challenge in terms of‑‑ because the other leagues aren't doing that. They're seeing us starting like normal. So it is a wee bit of a challenge, and I think‑‑ being in the new league here, I think things are going to change and settle in as we go along. Right now it is a challenge, no question about that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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