Blue White Illustrated

Your team was pretty young last year yet still had some success. Is age important in hockey? For example, in football, for the most part, your upperclassmen are the key players, but in basketball, underclassmen come in and play all the time. Is it mixed in hockey? Do teams tend to be better with upperclassmen? I think it's a little bit of both. Certainly, the more you develop as a team and as a program, that tends to help, but there have been some extremely successful freshmen in college hockey. But certainly, the bigger, stronger and faster you become and the more you become comfortable with the speed of college hockey, that's very important as well. The average roster size in hockey is 28 guys, yet you dress 20. Hockey is a pretty physical game. There tend to be a lot of injuries, yet you have to dress 20 every night, so when you recruit freshmen, you really do need them to come in and produce. It's not a big enough roster for them to develop slowly. All it takes is a couple injuries, especially at a position like goaltender, and a freshman could be thrown into a position where he's relied upon. So, is it better to have an older, more experienced team? Of course. But at the same time, hockey is different, as every program has to make sure that their freshmen are ready to go. For casual fans, who are some players to watch out for this year? I know both David Glen and Casey Bailey had big seasons statistically last year. Yeah, those are two guys who had a lot of success for us last season offensively, but why I love them both so much is that they do so many things well that aren't on the offensive side of the ice. David Glen is phenomenal in the faceoff circle; he hits very hard, always finishes his checks and he blocks shots and plays extremely disciplined defensively. Casey Bailey is a very instinctual player, not just offensively but on defense, too. So, of course, we're going to be looking for those guys to put the puck in the back of the net, but it's what they do when they don't have the puck that makes them two of the most exciting players on our team. There are other guys, too. If you look at a guy like Taylor Holstrom, in the [Michigan State, Wisconsin and Ohio State] games, he had the winning goal in each of them. He's a guy who is able to produce for us when it matters the most, so that's something that will be very important for us this year. Defensively, there are some excellent players on our team, guys who really grew last year and began to contribute both offensively and defensively for us. Another guy to mention is Tommy Olczyk, our team captain. He's just an incredible leader. He does everything we want away from the puck. Nate Jensen plays defense for us and is able to move the puck offensively, but at the same time, we rely on him to be very solid defensively. I also have to give a guy like Matt Skoff a mention. He had a great year for us, was in the net for all of those big wins for us, so I couldn't be more excited about seeing these guys grow after last year. We then have a very exciting group of freshmen coming into the team. Eamon McAdam and Mike Williamson were both drafted in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, so all of those guys are exciting, but we have a real solid young group of players who will be looking to make an impact on the team this season. You mentioned Skoff and McAdam. Skoff had an excellent season last year, while P.J. Musico played a key role. Then you add a player like Eamon McAdam to the mix, so what's your goalie situation going to look like this season? I'm really pumped about that position, very excited about what they all bring. I think initially, people were a bit worried about having such a young goaltending situation, but the three of them are athletic and also great people. Where Matt Skoff came from the start of the year to the end was phenomenal. I think the team has a lot of confidence in him after last year. He's such workhorse, one of the hardest workers on our team. His confidence just continues to grow and grow. P.J. had some great games, he's another tremendous athlete, a tremendous teammate, and then we add McAdam, who obviously has a lot of potential. He had a lot of success at the junior level and deserved to be drafted, so when you look at this spot, we're going to have a very competitive goaltending core. All three of them will compete hard for starts and support each other along the way. I feel very good about where we stand at that spot. Is there anything you'd like to tell the fans about your team or the upcoming season? When you talk about the people who we recruited, with the situation we're in, you need a certain kind of student-athlete, someone who really wants to come in here. I think Tommy Olczyk is a great example of where we stood right from the start. When he came in on his recruiting trip, right away, he understood the role he can play in building something great, and how 50 years from now he could be extremely proud looking back on what was built. So the team that people are going to see [is made up of] guys who aren't scared of working hard, guys who are here because they want to compete against the very best. It's those kind of guys who aren't scared to step up to the challenge that we've been able to build this team around. Because of that attitude, these guys are so much fun to be around. They're a very high-quality group of individuals who really welcome extreme challenges. The game against Army will be here before you know it. What would be the perfect way to open up the arena? Well, we know it's going to be sold out, so that's exciting. I know it's going to be high-quality hockey. It's going to be an extremely exciting night, a very proud night for so many people who have worked very hard to make this dream happen. And, really, what will make it so special to me is to see the atmosphere in the Pegula center, to see the place rocking, to see the students having such a great time. That is going to make that night a very special night for me and everyone who has been working toward it since we announced the program. I

• Cover