Head coach Mike Eaves addressed the media Monday, as the Wisconsin men's hockey team prepares for St. Cloud State in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Tournament.
The Badgers are coming off a bye week in the final week of regular season play. While some might see the week off as an inconvenience, Eaves is sure that his team put the extra practice time to good use.
I'm one to believe the week off benefits us,"" Eaves said. ""After playing 10 weeks, I think it was good for us to have that rest.""
The last team Wisconsin skated against was St. Cloud State, as UW split the final series of its season, winning 2-1 and losing 3-2. Whether playing a team twice within such a short time period is helpful or not is up for debate, but Eaves believes that it will benefit the Badgers.
""The big thing about having just played them is that we have seen it live,"" Eaves said.
""And unless they make some drastic changes ... hopefully we will be able to better handle it and even give them less.""
The Badgers will focus on the Huskies power play, as St. Cloud State has one of the most potent special teams in the conference, scoring 21.9 percent of the time, tops in the WCHA. Wisconsin will try to hone its skills in order to slow down St. Cloud State's attack, as the playoffs will undoubtedly raise the intensity at both ends of the ice. Eaves said that when it comes to playoffs, especially in single-elimination games, that it all comes down to goaltending and special teams.
With the playoffs comes very intense play, but Eaves said the WCHA is physical enough to be considered a ""playoff hockey"" type atmosphere year round.
""There are a lot of teams in the WCHA, that have been playing - in their minds - playoff hockey for a long time, and we are one of those teams,"" Eaves said.
With such a young team, the question was raised as to whether or not the team is still learning and continuing to get better.
""When you are working with a group of young people like we do, you are always going to have that ability to improve as the season goes on because they are young, the things they are doing aren't set in stone yet, and you hope as they continue to play that they become better players,"" Eaves said. ""We believe that until we play our very last game this year that we are going to be a better team.""
The playoffs also mean that the participants in the NCAA Tournament will soon be decided. The PairWise rankings, which mirror the formula used by the NCAA Selection Committee, are the best guess at which teams will make the tournament. Eaves, however, stated that he doesn't pay attention to the PairWise, leaving that up to his coaches.
The players, however, are talking about the rankings. Wisconsin is currently No. 13 in the rankings, and the top 14 teams usually make the tournament. The players are well aware of the need to win in order to keep their hopes alive for an NCAA Tournament berth.
Eaves also discussed the health of freshman defenseman Brendan Smith, who has been out with an injury since mid-January.
Although Smith was supposed to be ready for the first round of the WCHA Playoffs, Eaves said he wouldn't call upon Smith unless illness or injury warranted it, as Smith is still getting used to being on the ice and the tempo of the game.
