AMHERST — At this point in the season, Greg Carvel isn’t looking to overturn the apple cart.
UMass might have slipped a spot in the rankings, down to No. 3 after losing 2-0 at UMass-Lowell on Saturday, but the setback isn’t changing Carvel’s approach to the final weeks of the season. While the panic sets in among fans of what one loss might signify as the race atop Hockey East tightens, the third-year coach is trying to find solutions to whatever ailed the Minutemen.
It’s less replacing parts as much as tightening them and fine-tuning the systems that led the Minutemen to the top of the conference standings with just seven games to go.
“When you’re 21-6 (and) you lose, you’re just trying to find right answers, how do we get better, how do we prevent (those mistakes),” Carvel said. “We don’t think we should lose any games, so when we do lose a game, as everyone is like ‘What the hell is wrong? My God.’ We lost a game, we lost 2-0 on the road to a team that hasn’t lost in 10 games. We’re looking for marginal gains, it’s not like we need to overturn the bus and figure out everything. It’s just small percentages, how can we get small percentage-wise better.”
Those changes start with a coaching staff committed to not just pointing out problems, but working even harder to find solutions. Every loss is a learning experience for the staff that they want to pass along to the players, who are eager to learn and improve. It’s one of the big reasons Carvel said his team is able to reset after losses.
“Our players recognize and respect that they have a staff that is coming to them and saying, ‘OK, here’s the answers,’” Carvel said. “That’s the coaches, one of their top responsibilities is to provide their players with answers. The players, especially this team, they want to be coached. If I showed up and was just like ‘Well, we gave it a good shot, Lowell won,’ it’s (more) like ‘No, this why we didn’t win and this is what we need to do to make sure next time it doesn’t happen.’”
The big problem Carvel found with the loss to UMass-Lowell was his team’s slow start. It was far different than the tentative starts the Minutemen have had in the past, where they are more testing the waters of the game, and able to play their way into control by the end of the first period. There have also been plenty of games when UMass has been ready from the opening faceoff and dominated for 60 minutes, and those games were when it seemed the Minutemen had something to prove.
UMass (21-6-0, 13-4-0 Hockey East) welcomes Boston College to a sold-out Mullins Center at 7 p.m. Friday for the start of a weekend home-and-home series. The Eagles (10-14-3, 9-5-3) sit third in Hockey East and the pair of games this weekend is a good chance for the Minutemen to further distance themselves from the pack. Carvel said he is hopeful UMass will have learned the next lesson in its transition from underdog to favorite, and use the energy of home ice to play with the same drive that led it to its rise up the standings.
“We’ve talked about being a team that in the first half, we had a chip on our shoulder trying to prove we were a good team,” Carvel said. “We proved it and now that chip isn’t always on our shoulder anymore. We’ve got to get back to having that attitude and playing more consistently at a higher level of compete. … It’s not a huge issue, but it’s definitely an issue we’re discussing with our players and making sure it doesn’t happen again.”
RETURN OF THE CAPTAIN — The Minutemen are expected to receive a jolt to their lineup tonight with the return of captain Niko Hildenbrand against the Eagles. The junior has missed the past four games with an injury, leaving a hole in the UMass lineup with Carvel trying to piece together depth at the bottom half of his lineup.
Hildenbrand is the type of hard-nosed scrappy player that UMass was missing at times during his absence, especially on the penalty kill where the winger played a critical role.
“We have a combination of size and skill on this team and he’s one of the guys that gives us size,” Carvel said. “We were missing that at Lowell, they’re obviously a bigger, heavier team, so when we lose one of our size guys, it’s a factor. … He always does the dirty things for us and as the captain, he does a good job leading us. He’s definitely been missed in our lineup and it will be good to have him back in there.”