During BGSU hockey’s weekly press conference held on March 3, head coach Dennis Williams discussed the importance of playing to a standard, peaking at the right time, playing on borrowed time, and the atmosphere of entering an opposing barn to start the CCHA Mason Cup playoffs.
Here are the Falcon Four takeaways from the press conference:
A standard
Throughout the season, Williams discussed how the Falcons (18-9-7, 15-7-4) play to a standard instead of a scoreline.
“We play to a standard all year, an expectation. So, when you look at games, we’ve lost some games that we played really well and should’ve won, we won games where we didn’t play very well, but we don’t look at it as a byproduct. We wanna look at it as a standard, and we wanna play to a certain identity each and every night,” said Williams. “If you looked at our guys during the year and talked to them after games, there are games we won, but they know we could’ve been better. It’s great we found a way, but we don’t play to the score, we play to an expectation.”
The idea of living up to a standard does not only apply during games, either.
“If you look in our room, we have the word standard above the National Hockey League logo and all our NHL alumni because that’s the standard. You play like a pro, you take care of yourself like a pro, if you want to play in the National Hockey League, that’s the standard day in and day out, the habits, the details, and our group has done a really good job of just staying in the now.”
Building off the idea of playing to a standard and certain mindset, Williams poses a question to his players.
“A good question to ask ‘em is, do they love winning or hate losing. What do they like more, do they love winning or hate losing, and I think our group, I think they hate to lose, and that’s a competitive environment out of them. We all love winning ‘cause that’s the fun part at the end of the game, but … I’m a hate-to-lose guy. I hate that feeling after.”
Peaking at the right time
Another topic that has been discussed during press conferences by coach Williams throughout the season is the importance of peaking at the right moment, specifically as the playoffs start.
This weekend, BGSU will kick off CCHA Mason Cup playoff play by traveling to Houghton, Michigan, to face the No. 20 Michigan Tech Huskies (21-12-3, 16-7-3).
“Playoffs are a whole different beast in themselves than the regular season, but you do wanna make sure you’re trying to peak at the right time,” said Williams. “I’ve said that since day one here back in October. We lost our first two games to Niagara, we lost to Robert Morris in the exhibition, we went through some highs and lows. I was never concerned. The season is about making sure you’re playing at your optimal level as the playoffs start to come.”
Borrowed time
As BG enters the postseason, coach Williams explains that expectation and difficulty rise as the team enters borrowed time, where everything is earned, and nothing is guaranteed.
“We would’ve loved not have to travel back-to-back weekends, but then again, I’m ok if we have to travel back-to-back weekends if we add more games to the schedule,” said Williams. “It’s hockey time, we’re on borrowed time, as I said to our group. We’re in the playoffs and borrowed time, now we have to earn it even more. We have a set schedule for the year, we play our 36 games, that’s in there, but once we get to playoffs, now we’re borrowing time so now if want to borrow more we have to perform, we have to execute, we have to go up there and replicate what we just did and come home with two wins and that’s a lot easier said then done.”
Entering an opposing team’s arena
During the final weekend of the regular season, a major talking point was whether or not BG would be able to claim home ice advantage. Unfortunately, Bowling Green narrowly missed out and will have to return to Houghton for the second weekend in a row.
Despite disappointment for missing home ice, coach Williams still sees positives in walking into Michigan Tech for the first weekend of playoff hockey.
“What a neat rink, being my first time up there. Steep, loud, reminds us a lot of the Slater when it’s full. It’s a great venue, whether you’re playing at home or away up there,” said Williams. “That’s really what you want, we wanna be at home, but if not, you wanna go to a venue where you’re kinda known as the evil empire coming in, everyone’s out to get ya, so it’s fun. When they’re on ya and chanting, and there’s life to the building, it excites our guys, and it’s unfortunate, we were hoping we could make it back here (Slater) for the playoffs, and it is what it is.”
