He's a senior with a lot of experience, he gives us a physical presence and he's a real good skater. And all of that was missing in his first four or five games before he came to me and told me, 'I can't play, I don't know what's going on with me, I can't play.' He was playing so poorly I would have benched him pretty soon anyway. |
He's been playing very well since then -- he wasn't getting numbers but he was playing well. I thought he wasn't moving his feet, I thought he was being too cute, too clever. And he is pretty clever, but his game is skate first because that's what you have to do in this league, and I think there's no question that he's been playing much better. |
He's not overtired 'cause he's had three weeks off. He's just got to be truthful to us and to the trainer about how his shoulder's feeling. It's 100 percent as far as he's not going to get reinjured, but he could stretch out for a puck and it give him some pain. |
He's our No. 1 goaltender, |
I always tell our players I know I can't make you creative, but I also know I can take your creativity away by making you feel like you have to play like a robot. I don't want to do that. So I'm glad MacArthur made that move at the blue line. |
I am not really sure what to expect from our kids. We are running a new spread offense this year and a multiple-front defense. It will be a learning experience for us all. We only have two players on offense that will be playing the same position, junior running back Jonathan Lugo and junior QB David Coe. |
I give Rooney a lot of credit. He's been struggling with the puck the last couple of months, then he makes All-Tournament team, so good for him. |
I really believe that Ricky DiPietro was one of the few, if not the only, goalie in college hockey that people wanted to go to the game and watch him. In that one year he played, he was absolutely fabulous. |
I remember him telling me he was a linebacker at the Kent School [in high school]. And he'd be fending guys off and making tackles during the course of a football game and come Monday, his forearms would be so swelled up, he couldn't hold a pen. He just thought he wasn't tough enough. |
I think everybody thought that this might be a down year for them because they were playing so many younger kids, but they're getting fabulous goaltending and their upperclassmen are playing very well. They've had a terrific run. |
I think he's one of the premier defensemen in this league. It's not just the numbers he's putting up. It's how much ice time he gets, the confidence he gives the team. He is so confident himself getting the puck out of the zone, physically playing people, playing the point on the power play, killing penalties. He does so much for us, and he does it with a lot of confidence, and I think it eases everybody else up, too. |
I think it's indicative of what type of year we had, and the reason why our staff got recognized is because our team did a real good job, ... They think we overachieved a little I guess, and that's nice. |
I think that was the goal that took the wind out of our sails. I was really hoping they'd call that one back. |
I think they had had enough with what we did to them. There was a lot of talk that we had to beat BC five times. No, we didn't. We had to beat them once to get to the final four. |
I think this team's a little bit more balanced and a little bit more poised than we had the last couple times, ... We're not relying on any one guy or any one line, and I think we're a little bit more solid defensively than we've been, and that's what usually wins. |