Todd Knott Media Conference || Wisconsin Men’s Hockey || Jan. 23, 2024

Wisconsin men’s #hockey associate head coach Todd Knott spoke with the media on Tuesday, Jan. 23 at the Kohl Center. He discussed the Badgers preparation for a road series at Michigan this weekend and the remainder of the season as the team comes off a bye week.

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How did the week off help on one side and what are you hoping to kind of try to avoid maybe some of the, the rust from a week off going. Into it? It’s always a balance. It’s a tough balance. It’s the first time that I can remember being with Coach Hastings in the

14 years I think it is now, or not only an off week, but there’s no school. And so we actually sent our guys back home if they wanted to for three, four days. And I think the balance of getting that break and getting away for what you

Might lose going into a Friday night, that rust you’re talking about, I think you gain that on the backside. Our guys are excited to be at the rink again. And that’s the, the main thing in this final push right now is that guys are excited to be here.

Was there anything during the break besides giving the guys some time off, maybe a point of emphasis that an area of the game where, you know, you and Coach Hastings felt Hey, this is an area we can take this time to, to really sharpen, hone, hone.

In? You know, not so much. As a staff, we got selfish and we utilize the time for recruiting. That’s actually our coaches right now. So got a lot done as a staff. Not just Coach Hastings, but myself, the other two assistants.

We were out on the road and for guys it was truly a mental break. When you get to this time of year they know what we expect in terms of how we want to come out, what makes us successful. So there’s not a lot of new this time of year.

And that’s why right now it’s really getting back into shape now over the course of this week. So we’re ready to go Friday night against Michigan. What do you expect to see from the Wolverines on, on Friday, Saturday? There’s talent of a team teams that we played this year personnel wise,

Not just their front end, which I think they have many guys that can hurt you with Rutger McGroarty, the back end with (Seamus) Casey, those guys are special in terms of their talent. So not a lot different than the first time we played them at home. For us,

We’ve gotta stay above the puck. We’ve gotta make sure we’re finishing them and sticking to our identity, making it hard on those guys and come 200 feet. When you played that first time going into that week, Casey, you were saying, you know, you were kind of pulling your hair all

But then you kept them over for four, but especially that first night, what penalty to give them. That change? That was the key. We’ve talked a lot about that and just our discipline, and it won’t just be for Michigan, they’re number one in the country right now.

You got Minnesota coming the next week. I know Michigan State’s a a top six power play in the country right now. So it’s really from here on out. And that starts with making sure that we’re staying disciplined because again, not just Michigan. If you looked at Minnesota, I wanna say the Fri …

Thursday game there, ’cause it’s a Thursday, Friday, we took one penalty. And so if we can keep that to one to three and play the game the right way, not take stick penalties, understanding that we have to take a couple hard ones.

Those are gonna happen with the game and we’re gonna have to kill those off. But don’t put yourself in six or seven because I think even the momentum of the game when you’re not using a lot of your personnel because of it we know we’re not playing to our identity.

This is the first time we’ve seen this group play the same team in a second series so far this season. How do you guys as a staff approach that differently? Or what is your approach. To that? You know what, not a lot different,

But you can go back to some of the successes and failures when we played them at home. And so we watch a little bit more and we’ll do that. And you bring up a good point. It’s everyone that we play the second half now,

It’s gonna be that way. And so we’ll use a little bit more video. And again, the, the lean learning teaching moments I guess against a team instead of just watching them play somebody else. How much different is this team compared to the last time you played Michigan?

You know what, I don’t think they’re a lot different. They were dangerous then, and they’re dangerous right now. I think they got healthy. Rutger was in the lineup when we played him, but then they lost him for a stint. And he’s a very important piece to their team,

Not just what he does on a scoreboard, but I think leadership wise. And so everything I know right now, I know they lost (Gavin) Brindley in the Saturday game where he’ll be at. We’re kind of focusing in on what we can do. So yeah, I think it’s a very similar group.

What about your team? You know what, I would like to think that we’re a little bit hardened from the first half. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, including the last game we played. I would like to think that we learned from that moment again,

That you can’t take a night off and give Lindenwood credit on that. They came out and played a very hard game. But I, I think those moments, and we had one against Anchorage earlier in the year that you can’t take a night off. Kind of talked about being, being on the recruiting trail.

I guess I’m wondering would, given the success the team been having this season is, I assume Wisconsin gets a pretty good reception regardless, but has, has team success kind of changed things or maybe, you know, you know, added a little more energy to when you guys make calls to to prospective players?

Great question and definitely does, especially with the young guys. Wisconsin’s always gonna be a prominent name. And like you say, there’s a lot of appeal to it anyway. But when they can look at the standings and a lot of ’em have no idea what it means, say U-S-C-H-O or pairwise,

But when you can be in the top five in the country, that helps with those families and kids. Or injury wise. And last week before. We’re getting close. Yeah, we’re getting close. You know on (Brady) Cleveland day to day right now.

But I think he’s getting very close and we should be good to go throughtout our lineup. You guys have gone from a fun story to be begin the year, like quite the story for Wisconsin Hockey is Wisconsin Hockey back to now being

Really a title contender. How does that take its toll on the team, the coaching staff, the overall entitled operation? You know, we’ll see the second half and it’s one of those where it was brought up earlier. We’re gonna see all these teams that we played in the first half and had a

Little bit of success. So the one thing we have to understand is the Friday nights when we go into these buildings, we’re gonna get through a game. We’re not surprising anybody. And we’re gonna have to embrace that. And that doesn’t change us though. Our mentality, Coach Hastings philosophy,

And I know it’s dry at times with the day … dailies he talks about and day by day, that’s not gonna change for us. We’re gonna worry about today getting a little bit better on a Tuesday practice and get ready to go to Michigan on Thursday. There’s playoffs.

How do you, how do you guys handle that? Want your place ? It can become a grind, but when you see that there’s something out there for you, I would imagine that makes it a little easier. Yeah, you know what, I had this question earlier.

The one thing that makes that easier is probably the wrong word, but one, we’ve got a great atmosphere in our building. It’s exciting hockey and this is what these guys come here for, in a chase the second half of the year. So I,

I don’t look at it near as much of a grind. We get an opportunity to go play Michigan, probably in a packed barn this weekend, come home to Minnesota the next weekend. And I’ve heard really good things about our attendance probably for Friday and

Saturday night. So we’ve got an unbelievable opportunity in front of us. I guess this is more about your, your transition here, but I guess, you know, there’s a lot of continuity, a lot familiarity with, you know, within the coaching staff. I guess I’m wondering is this year basically kind of,

Is what you’re doing here basically kind of what you were doing at, at at Mankato? Is it, or what’s the transition been like for you? Is kind. Of what I’m getting. At? It’s very similar than it was to Minnesota State just because me and coach were

Together for that 12, 13 years. In terms of what we do on the ice. What’s a little different is there’s so many new faces and I think that was good for us actually. It was fresh, both sides of it. We had three guys that we took over from Minnesota State.

(Tyson) Dyck came from UMass, but everybody else was new. And so I think that was fresh and I think that was good for everybody.