Losing is never easy to talk about.
But in talking to his team – which is winless in its last six outings – Wisconsin men’s hockey head coach Mike Eaves used a real-life example to communicate a message to his group.
“This may make no sense to our young players at all, but we we’re making an analogy and we said, ‘The value of your marriage in real life goes up when you go through hard times,'” Eaves said at his weekly press conference Monday. “And the value of the team concept becomes more real when you go through hard times.”
These are certainly hard times for Eaves’ young team.
The Badgers were outplayed in every facet over the weekend in St. Cloud, and the Huskies came away with the sweep.
As a result, UW finished winless in the month of February. That horrid month followed a tremendously successful stretch where the Badgers won 12 out of 13 games.
To no one’s surprise, the downward spiral has been difficult to handle.
“The confidence level isn’t what it has been at other times during the year,” Eaves said bluntly.
But Eaves is confident his team has the talent and wherewithal to resurrect its season before it’s too late. He believes the adversity will ultimately make his team stronger.
“This young group has played very well at times and they know that they can beat anybody,” Eaves said. “It’s just been a tough stretch here. … We have to gather ourselves and see if we can get ourselves going on a roll.”
For UW, the attention now turns to the final regular season series, where the Badgers and Colorado College Tigers will square off at the Kohl Center. The Tigers sit one point ahead of the Badgers for sixth place in the WCHA after taking three points from Minnesota Duluth last weekend.
Eaves was not ready to state who will start in the net for the Badgers Friday, but he did reveal both Scott Gudmandson and Brett Bennett will see action over the weekend.
Bennett allowed four goals in the loss last Friday, but it was Gudmandson who allowed seven goals to the Huskies in game two. After a phenomenal start to the season, Gudmandson’s play has dipped.
“Goody – like the rest of the team – his issue is just confidence,” Eaves said. “It’s mechanics, it’s about getting back to basics.”
Eaves is hopeful his entire team will get back to basics and show some life after such a demoralizing weekend in St. Cloud. Following Saturday night’s 7-3 loss to the Huskies, the players held a team meeting before reconvening with the coaching staff.
The team openly discussed potential issues with the staff and made a list of things that need to be corrected.
“We hope to see benefits of that as quickly as this weekend,” Eaves said.
Eaves was asked Monday if one of the items on the checklist was simply overall effort.
“Part of it was that,” Eaves said. “In everything that we do, that is our baseline. That is where we start. The guys aren’t fooling themselves. They recognize that, and that is a good thing.”
