UNO Hockey Press Conference Notes - Oct. 30, 2018

Coach Mike Gabinet, senior forward Mason Morelli, and senior forward Riley Alferd answered media questions as part of “Omaha Athletics Weekly Media Availability” on Oct. 30, 2018. 

Gabinet fielded questions regarding UNO Hockey’s Oct. 26 & 27 series at Arizona State and the upcoming series on Nov. 2 & 3 against Miami (OH) at Baxter Arena. 

ON THE UPCOMING MIAMI SERIES...

GABINET: “…New season this week here coming up with Miami at home starting our conference play...” 

ON THE SERIES AT ARIZONA STATE...

GABINET: “I thought the guys played a little bit better than they got rewarded for on the weekend. But obviously a lot of things we still need to work on.”

GABINET: “Saturday, just had a great start to the game, and then boom — penalties, penalties, and I think we had 10 penalties that game. You’re not going to win very many games when you’re killing 1/3 of the game short-handed.”

GABINET: “I don’t think the effort or the compete level dropped. It’s just think it’s gotta get smarter.” 

ON THE TEAM’S PENALTY KILL AND STAYING OUT OF THE BOX

GABINET: “You have to understand that if maybe the officiating isn’t up to the level that you’re used to, that you have to be aware of that, and not give them a reason to call you...”

GABINET: “Five-on-five we’re okay against (Arizona State)”

ON CONFERENCE PLAY VS. NON-CONFERENCE PLAY “SPARKING” THE TEAM MOVING FORWARD...

GABINET: “Now you play for points. Now it matters. Now three points are up for grabs every single week. It’s a bit of a fresh season. We’re at 0-0 in conference play...” 

ON THE MOOD OF THE TEAM...

GABINET: “Realistic, but optimistic. I think we have to be realistic on where we’re at right now as a team, but we have to be optimistic of where we can get to.”

GABINET: “We had a lot of 1-on-1 meetings yesterday with players. Again, I don’t fault our players’ effort level or compete level. I don’t think I’ve ever seen guys give up so far this season on the play. They’re working hard.”

GABINET: “Some of our guys need to be the best version of themselves, and not try to be somebody else.”

GABINET: “Let’s make sure our strengths — whatever you’ve done extremely well in the past — let’s make sure you’re doing that extremely well. And then let’s look at building some opportunities when they present themselves — not trying to force opportunities...”

GABINET: “We need to do a better job of preparing these guys and helping them understand what we need from them.” 

HAVE EXPECTATIONS CHANGED SINCE THE START OF THE SEASON?

GABINET: “Realistically, we knew it was going to be a tough season.”

ON THE IDEA OF DEFENSIVE CHANGES...

GABINET: “A good activity we do as a staff is that you reflect on all your ‘goals against,’ and look for patterns.”

GABINET: “We only have three (3) ‘goals against’ off of D-zone coverage all season.”

ON UNO HOCKEY’S 0-6 START AND HOW IT FITS HISTORICALLY WITHIN THE PROGRAM...

GABINET: “I don’t really reflect on that. I think the past is the past, both positively and negatively.”

GABINET: “We need all our energy on what’s going on today, and what went on yesterday in practice. How are we getting better today, and what are we doing as a coaching staff to help our guys get better...”

GABINET: “At the end of the day, you gotta get to work.” 

ON THE “LIMITS” OF CHANGING THINGS UP DURING THE SEASON...

GABINET: “If you’re saying, ‘Hey, your top guys are struggling right now, who do you replace them with?’... Well, you’ve gotta have other guys that you feel can fit into that role... and as I said earlier in the year, I think one of our strengths — and one of our weaknesses — is we have a lot of similar players. You can't just sub one guy out for the other guy and expect a drastic change. So, again, that’s why we have to do it collectively...”

WHICH FRESHMEN HAVE IMPRESSED?

GABINET: “I wouldn’t say anybody is playing exceptionally well right now... you gotta start giving some other guys an opportunity. I think with Chayse Primeau or Taylor Ward it’s an opportunity for those guys to try to do what we’re looking for out there...”

PLAYER FEELINGS ON MIAMI SERIES...

MORELLI: “It’s conference play and every game is huge now. You need to get points every weekend...”

MORELLI: “Now I think is the time to really try to take that leap forward and gain some ground on teams.”

ALFERD: “We’re seniors now, we’ve seen how the NCHC works. It comes down to a game or two, which is the difference between third and sixth place in our conference. We don’t want to be fighting an uphill battle anymore. We want to take it to the conference, and win games.”

HOW DO THE PLAYERS FEEL ENTERING NCHC PLAY AFTER AN UNCHARACTERISTICALLY TOUGH START TO THE SEASON?

ALFERD: “It’s adversity. It’s never easy when you’re dealing with it to begin with. But it’s one of those things later you look back on and are like, ‘Wow, well we got through it. We found a way, and you just gotta fight it head on...’”

MORELLI: “We’ve just gotta learn from it. The biggest thing is to get better each week.”

PLAYERS ON SELF CONFIDENCE...

MORELLI: “We need to take the start of the season with a grain of salt. It hasn’t been as bad as it looks.”

MORELLI: “It’s just these little minor details that we forget to do. Just the little things we let slip that make the biggest difference. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing every weekend, it’s Division 1 hockey — it’s tough everywhere you go.”

MORELLI: “If you can build from your D-Zone out, I think the O-Zone is going to work itself out.”

PLAYER FEELINGS ON SPECIAL TEAMS AND SPENDING CONSIDERABLE TIME EACH GAME THIS SEASON ON THE PENALTY KILL...

MORELLI: “I think special teams is playing a bigger role every year. We just need to get better each week.”

MORELLI: “When you have 10 penalties, that’s a third of the game. Could be more if it’s a major. So if our PK is not dialed in, you’re not giving yourself a chance to win.”

MORELLI: “We have to be disciplined. We can’t be taking 10 penalties a night. That’s ridiculous. We’ve gotta limit that to four max...” 

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT UPCOMING OPPONENT MIAMI? 

ALFERD: “Honestly, we haven’t really looked at them too much yet. We’re focused on ourselves right now and how we can get better each day. Come Thursday/Friday we’ll look at what they do to counter some of that...” 

MORELLI: “Historically, we’ve had good matchups with Miami. That being said, they’re a good team this year. They have some good players that came back. I think they brought in some good freshmen. It’ll be a dogfight till the end, but like Riley said, we have to worry about getting better today, not worry about what’s going to happen on Friday...”