DU Hockey Hosts Media DayFrom: DU Athletics Website
Opening Statement - "We are excited about the season. I'm not going to bore with how many young players we have and how young we are going to be or how many freshmen or sophomores we are going to play, because everyone in our league is in that situation. We lost some terrific players, a Hobey Baker winner, three All- Americans and yet we gained some terrific young freshmen and we have an ex-captain Matt Laatsch, back as a volunteer assistant coach. The face of our team is different."
"We will try to surround our leading scorer, Ryan Dingle, with terrific players, many who played a supplemental roll last year. Players like J.D. Corbin and Geoff Paukovich, will have an increased role. I think we are very deep and talented. Adrian Veideman will lead our blue line core along with Chris Butler and Andrew Thomas."
"The most important position on our team and two guys I expect to play primary roles on our team are our goaltenders, Glenn Fisher and Peter Mannino. If Saturday's exhibition performance is any indication, I think Glenn and Peter will have excellent years. I certainly believe, and I've said this many times, I believe we have the best 1-2 goaltender combination in the country. Our platooning of Glenn and Peter is up in the air right now. We aren't sure if we are going to do that again, we might just go with who has the hot hand at the present time."
"I think our schedule is very challenging. We get a chance to play against our ex-assistant coaches who are now head coaches, Enrico Blasi at Miami and Seth Appert at RPI, in our first two series.' We look forward to taking on their teams and renewing old acquaintances. "We are going to continue improving on our nonconference record, which was a major stumbling block for us last year and probably a major reason why our season came to an abrupt end."
"No question, our team has worked very hard. Our captains Adrian Veideman, J.D. Corbin and Andrew Thomas have done an exceptional job the last few months of molding this team together. I certainly believe that this team will improve as time goes along with their leadership, and hopefully we can improve on our self-discipline. The thing that I was most pleased about is that we did come back against Calgary and played really well in the last half of the game. It gave us a bit of confidence going into the Ice Breaker tournament."
On Friday's Opener - "Enrico's team, the Redhawks, is talented. They play a very up-tempo system and are hard to play against. There is a reason why they were in the national tournament last year. They are well balanced and have strong goaltending. I know they have high expectations for their team this season. It is homecoming at Miami and it's the opening of the new arena. I think it will be the kind of tournament we want to play in to gauge where we are and where we want to go and to figure out how we match-up against some of the best teams in the country. We are looking forward to the challenge."
On having less pressure then last season - "I would describe our team by saying that there is a determination resonating throughout our locker room. Our seniors understand that what happened last year is unacceptable. It's funny, because we finished in second place in the toughest league in the country. When the challenge was the greatest, we overcame those challenges, like going into Wisconsin and knocking off the eventual national champions. Losses to teams in nonconference games, and even in our conference, were big factors in why our season ended when it did. The playoff loss to Duluth, if it had been any other year, we'd have gone on and played in the national tournament with an at-large bid, but our nonconference record was so poor that it didn't give us the strength of schedule to move on. There is no question we understand where we want to be and our determination has been passed on by our senior class. Our freshmen are playing with passion and energy and they know what lies in front of them."
Adrian Viedeman
Opening Statement: "I'd like to say it is a big honor to be captain of the team. I am really excited about this season. Our offseason was tremendous. There was a swagger in the weight room. Captains' practices went great. I felt our freshmen came in and had something to prove. They are buying into our philosophy and we are ready to go. We are excited about this weekend. It's going to be a big challenge. We know we have something to prove."
On this offseason and preparing for the upcoming season - "After last season we definitely had a bad taste in our mouths. We got together in the offseason and decided that last season wasn't going to happen again. We have to do what it takes to get back to where we were the last couple of years. We didn't know what it was like to lose and we don't like that, but we need to get back to the top of our game. We know what we have to do to compete in our league and at the national level. We are on the same wavelength as a team."
On new faces to watch - "The majority of our freshmen class impressed me, Rhett Rakhshani, Brock Trotter and others. They are great players and are going to be a big part of our team."
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