Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, good to see everybody. Again, yeah, looking forward to continuing conference play here with Minnesota Duluth coming up here. So looking forward to heading up there for two big games.
Emma Goldstein (Sports Information, Omaha Athletics):
Questions for Marc Lejoie.
Tyler Doremus, UNO Gateway:
You’ve been super successful in power play the past couple games, just getting goals, creating traffic around the net. What’s kind of just helped you be so successful?
Marc Lajoie (Sophomore Defenseman, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, mean, I think it started earlier in the year and I’m getting a lot of touches on that. And we have a good kill, too, and we get to go up against that every day in practice. And then you get a couple reps and a couple goals, and you start to build confidence that way. So hopefully we can keep that going this weekend.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
Were there any particular moments or sequences from the North Dakota series that you felt the team handled well despite the outcome of the series?
Marc Lajoie (Sophomore Defenseman, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, I mean, it’s tough. Obviously, we get swept, and you don’t want to do that at home. But I liked our second game, especially after. It didn’t go so well in the first game. We took a lot of penalties. It was a big thing for us to stay disciplined. I thought we did a better job of that in the second game. I think throughout the year, this year, we’ve done a good job of responding from bad situations. Getting swept this weekend was unacceptable, and we got a good opportunity next weekend against a good team.
Tyler Doremus, UNO Gateway:
With every series and conference being a grind and every team’s good, how do you mentally prepare and shift from... obviously the week that was to moving forward yeah
Marc Lajoie (Sophomore Defenseman, Omaha Hockey):
I mean it’s you’re not going to get any easy games in the NCHC and we’ve seen that so far so i think for us we just want to keep growing every weekend um you know kind of take some positives and some things you need to work on every weekend and then take that into the next weekend and it’s it’s nice that every single weekend you get another game and another good team and you just kind of got to keep growing and um like i said before it’s a good opportunity against a good team again this weekend
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
Looking ahead to this weekend, Duluth’s got one of the hottest offenses in the country, and the Plant brothers are lighting it up. From a defenseman’s perspective, how do you go about shutting that down?
Marc Lajoie (Sophomore Defenseman, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, a lot of points, and I’m not too sure what kind of players they are, but obviously they’re skilled. And for us, it’ll just be important to kill them early, kill plays early. And you give skilled players time and space, they’re going to make plays and capitalize. We’re going to have to kill and defend them in units of five and not give them too much time and space.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
Your dad, Serge Lejoie, talks a lot about adversity and battling that character, leaving home young, fighting through trades and cuts and that sort of stuff. What lessons from his journey have stuck with you as you’ve carved out your own path in hockey?
Marc Lajoie (Sophomore Defenseman, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, I mean, obviously he’s been a big part of my hockey career and he’s kind of really shaped me to who I am today. I don’t know what I’d necessarily take from his journey, but just for me growing up and him always being around and coaching me, there’s been a lot of things that he’s taught me along the way. Like I said before, he’s the reason that I am the player and person I am today.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
What’s been the biggest transition for you coming from the University of Alberta into the NCAA ranks?
Marc Lajoie (Sophomore Defenseman, Omaha Hockey):
I think it’s just every weekend, like I said before, you’re playing a really elite team. We’ve seen that this year. We haven’t played a bad team, and we’re not going to play a bad team at all this year. You really can’t take a shift off or a game off because these teams will come at you. I think that’s the biggest thing is that there’s really good teams.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
Talking about your playing style, you’ve called yourself a defense -first defenseman that’s hard to play against, but like we were talking about, you’ve also shown a strong offensive touch. How do you think your offensive game has grown since you’ve come to Omaha?
Marc Lajoie (Sophomore Defenseman, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, I mean, like you said, defensively, that’s what I value the most about my game, a lot more than offensively. But I still like to be able to contribute, and it’s been nice to be able to do that a little bit this year on the power play. But being a bigger guy, I’ll always value the defensive side of the puck first, and then the offense will come and I can start contributing there.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
From kind of a fun side of the thing, do you have a favorite restaurant in Omaha yet?
Marc Lajoie (Sophomore Defenseman, Omaha Hockey):
I haven’t had a bad one yet, but Memoir is probably the best in Old Market. I’ve been there a couple times, and I enjoy it.
Emma Goldstein (Sports Information, Omaha Athletics):
Questions for Mike?
Tyler Doremus, UNO Gateway:
Obviously, you had a tough series against North Dakota. In what ways are you looking to kind of respond?
Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, I think you got a taste of it from Marc. I think you can understand just how competitive these guys are and how much loss is hurt. So I think for everyone, Sunday is always a tough day, right? You’re kind of licking your wounds a little bit there. And then, like he said, you narrow your focus. You find a couple of things to keep growing at. And then you work on those things on Monday. And then, boom, your spirits are right back up. And you’re back to that process and helping these guys get better.
So I think that’s just where you’ve got to live in this world, right? We’re going to our whatever straight -ranked opponent, and you’re not going to be successful all the time when you play good quality teams like that. And like Marc said, they’re going to make you pay for certain mistakes at different times. So all you can do is keep learning, keep growing, keep giving responsibility to find ways to get better. And that’s what we did this week.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
So despite those results, were there any small positives or takeaways that you brought from that series that will help you against Duluth?
Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, I think so. Again, just even watching back, I liked our first period on Friday. Obviously, didn’t like as much our second and third period there. And then I liked our game on Saturday there. So, again, there’s no moral victories, like I said, after the game. It’s two losses.
And like Marc said, that’s just unacceptable. And you just can’t swallow it because of the competitor you are. In the same breath, you have to look at the growth. And I want to say we might have played better than we did against CC, to be honest, against North Dakota, and the results are flipped, right? So that’s why you just got to keep coming back to finding ways to get better and keep encouraging the guys and showing their growth, showing them the things they’re doing better at and showing them there is growth they got to keep working on. And when we do that together as a united unit, you get better.
Tyler Doremus, UNO Gateway:
How important is this series and just setting the tone for the rest of the conference?
Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah again, I don’t get too much into it because again I think when you start to you know over analyze the pressure of whatever series or what series like they’re all important they’re all good they’re all important you got to make sure you’re prepared and you’re doing everything you can and that’s what you got ultimately judge yourself on are you doing the work are you preparing are you holding guys accountable are you pushing the pace in practice are you doing all those things that ultimately lead to those results that we want to see happen And I think that’s what you’ve got to judge yourself on. And then just, yeah, free yourself up to go play, right? We know we’re playing the number three team in the country. We know they’re good. But, hey, we’re prepared. We’re doing the work. We’re going to be ready to go. And then ultimately free yourself up to go out and execute and play the game.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
So speaking of the upcoming weekend, UMD is 10 -2 and coming off a sweep of St. Cloud. What stands out to you about their team this year in particular?
Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
Well, the one thing you mentioned, that number one line, you can’t deny it. I think they’re leading the country with the three of them for total points there. They’re extremely good hockey players that make plays and capitalize on their opportunities there. And again, I think like every team, they’ve done a nice job adding some certain pieces to the puzzle, whether it’s through the portal or through recruiting and things like that. So Sandy’s got them playing a really good style of hockey right now and they look good. So again, I’m excited for it. I’m excited to get up there and compete. And it’s another chance to see where we’re stacking up right now against one of the very best in the country.
Tyler Doremus, UNO Gateway:
With their top line being so efficient in their points totals, what have you been stressing just in practice this week about how to kind of mitigate their impact on the game?
Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, without giving up too much, you know. technical aspect of what we want to do is a team -wise against a team like that like what Marc said you know time and space you have to eliminate guys you have to come off on the defensive side of the puck you got to recover in straight lines you got to do all those things to slow those guys down a little bit from making plays and making that next play and then you got to really protect that puck right you know we want the puck we want to be a possession team with the puck and so you really got to decide where you want to give them the puck back and I think a lot oftentimes that’s where you’ll see you know offense journey from.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
You’ve talked in previous press conferences about Marc and his dad, Serge, and his impact on you. What can you say about him and the impact he’s had on the team this year?
Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
Again, I think he’s done an unbelievable job. He’s one of our best defensive defensemen. Like he mentioned himself, taking a lot of pride in that. He has the ability to kill plays. He has the ability to make plays under pressure. Even on some of those six -on -five situations we’ve been in the year, he makes the right play under extreme pressure there. And then he also, I think, has a very good mind for the game. If you watch him offensively, I think he does some really strategic things offensively. Not only contribute offensively, but half the time you want your defenseman to be sometimes even an offensive decoy almost by coming into the right spots, attracting attention there. That frees up other people to make plays. So I just really like the way he thinks the game. not only defensively, but offensively as well.
Tyler Doremus, UNO Gateway:
Special teams, the power play has been really effective to start this year and had another good weekend against North Dakota. How do you just continue the success, but also continue growing?
Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
Yeah, again, I think you guys were seeing early on here, special teams are huge. If you look around the country at... The number of penalties being called right now, there’s a lot. And so you really have to make sure your professional teams continue to improve and get better. And it’s not just that. I think the power play has done a great job of either scoring a big goal or giving us momentum there. And again, we’re continuing to work on our PK, too. I think, unfortunately, he’s got a few of the numbers with five -on -threes and empty netters and things like that. He’s taken a few hits early on there. But again, we’ve just got to keep just like five -on -five. We’re trying to get our power play better. We’re trying to get our penalty kill better. We’re trying to get better five -on -five. Lots of things that we know we have to continue to improve at to be successful, especially in this conference there. But as you mentioned, special teams are very important.
Bridget Brooks, MavPuck.com:
It was nice getting, as you call him, “Big Sam” Huo, back in the lineup this weekend. Any chance that Brett Hyland or Jeremy Loranger are going to be back?
Mike Gabinet (Head Coach, Omaha Hockey):
I think both those guys are doubtful there, but it was nice to get Sam back in the lineup there. Just, you know, again, he hadn’t played a lot in a long time. Just nice to get him some limited minutes there. But, again, I think he’s guy just as he gets more experience there, more time playing, just going to keep growing. I’ve always really liked his game from day one here. It gives us some size, which is nice. So hopefully he just continues to improve here as he gets back to feeling 100%.
