LetsGoDU

WCHA Playoffs

UW Coach Eaves Addresses Media

Highlights of the Wisconsin Press Conference today.
.
QUESTION: Coach, in January, you had one of your better road series of the season in Denver. Will that help you guys going into the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
.
EAVES: Well, it’s something that we’ll talk about, and we’ll ask ourselves why did we play well there, and there will be certain things that we’ll bring up and see if we can repeat those things. For whatever reason, in our tenure here, we have played pretty well there. And as I said, I hope we can continue that.

QUESTION: Do you put any satisfaction or comfort in knowing that nobody wanted to play Wisconsin in the WCHA playoffs. The Badgers are a team that's defending a national championship & the only way it would appear that you’re going to get in is to win the WCHA Playoffs. Do you take any stock in that there is a little bit fear out there with regards to how you’re playing?

EAVES: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that you can count on that because that’s something that the other coaches are going to deal with. The games are not going to be wide open. It’s going to be holding your cards close to the chest. If we’ve had to play that way, we play that way. So that’s a benefit for us.

QUESTION: You talked about your past successes playing at Denver. The way the seeding shook out, is it satisfying to get a match-up with Denver the way they've played in the last month? Is it almost like a blessing in disguise that you got that match-up as opposed to maybe one with North Dakota?

EAVES: I don’t think you can look at it and put any special speculation into that. I mean, we went up to North Dakota and played well there. We went to Denver and played well there. I think the fact that the most important thing is that how we play gives us the best chance of being successful right now, at this particular time of year.

QUESTION: Have you had a chance to appreciate how everything shook out in this league with regards to, within 36 seconds (CC's Epic Choke Job), you could have gone to three different places with three different outcomes? It’s so tight in the WCHA that on any given night anybody is capable of winning in the Final Five.

EAVES: I look at the standings of the WCHA and we’re two games apart from Denver. They’re in fourth, and we’re in seventh. I think that makes us take a look at our schedule and not getting any points in Michigan Tech when Andrew was sick, and then losing that game in overtime at CC. We could be up in that upper half of the WCHA so easily. But, unfortunately, it didn’t shake it out that way, and we can’t change that.

But because of what happened to this league this past summer in terms of how many underclassmen left to go turn pro. We talked about pairity being something that existed in the WCHA, and now it’s in bold font underlined, bull eye’s on it, and that’s why the league is the way it is. We’re missing a lot of special players that went pro early and they were game makers and breakers. They’re gone now. So everybody is lumped to this one clump, and we’re dealing with it.

QUESTION: When Denver came to town earlier this year, a topic of conversation was that they were the defending two-time national champions, didn’t get a chance to go after a third. Do you have a greater sense of appreciation of how difficult it is to win two in a row, to get there?

EAVES: I had an appreciation even before this year started. To repeat is the most difficult thing to do, especially at this level because of kids graduating and moving on early. And I don’t exactly what George [Gwozdecky] lost that year second season, but I remember talking to him at one point where they didn’t know what to expect. It just kind of unfolded for DU in 2005 and then they got on a roll at the end of the year and won it again.