For the second straight season, we had the privilege to sit down with Fernie Flaman Head Men’s Ice Hockey Coach Jerry Keefe to look ahead to the upcoming season and get his viewpoint on how his team is coming together. This interview took place in early September, and below is the transcript of our conversation. Thank you to Coach Keefe for taking time out of his day, and to men’s hockey SID Sidney Binger for helping set up this interview.
Northeastern Hockey Blog: Thank you again for sitting and speaking with us, Coach. What is your overall view of the team as we start the season in terms of strengths and where you can build off of from last season?
Jerry Keefe: I really like the depth of this team. We love our depth this year. We’re bigger, we skate well as a group. We’re excited about that. I really like the pace that we’re playing with in practice. This is a competitive team for sure. Looking at the group, we have high expectations. You can tell this team is ready to get rolling for sure.
NUHB: Excellent! Last year, you described “Husky hockey” as being the best backchecking team in the nation, being relentless with the puck and being a puck possession team. How do you see the freshmen and the transfers coming in and contributing to that vision and meshing with the returning talent for that vision?
JK: I think that’s a great question because some of the staples that this team plays with, they’re going to have to be drilled home a little bit with the first year guys. For instance, how hard we come back through the middle, and getting guys to just naturally play that way. So it’s going to be a lot of constantly reminding guys. Every program, every team, whether someone comes in from another college team or junior hockey, has different staples and might play a different type of system. So it’ll be important that we are drilling home what our identity is as this group. And that’s going to change a little bit as the season goes on too, to get to that identity. Just need to make sure we understand the importance of the staples that we have as a team and what we want to bring every night.
NUHB: We obviously can’t go through every one of the 15 newcomers to the team but are there any that you would highlight for someone learning about this team for the first time?
JK: I think on the back end, I really like the transfers we brought in. I think Jo Lemay has got the ability to be one of the top defensemen in the country. Jake Boltmann brings in tremendous leadership. He’s a hard kid to play against, there’s a reason he was a third round pick. I’ve been really impressed with Jake Higgins coming from Holy Cross, he played a lot of minutes and was an assistant captain there, he’s a big body. When you look at those three guys there, they’re older guys that we are expecting to contribute and have an impact on our team right away.
NUHB: And how about freshmen whether on the blue line or up front, anyone that you would say is a key to the success that you want to see out of the gate?
JK: Yeah I think Joe Connor right off the bat as a freshman is going to be a huge piece. I think we expect him to be an impact player right off the bat as a freshman. Looking at a few of the transfers, Tellier, McGuire, Rhéaume, you can tell they were pretty good players for their schools and we expect them to come in here and have a big impact for us.
NUHB: Watching Connor at practice today, you could see the hands and the brain are already at that level. To see it early in practice, you can tell there’s something special there.
NUHB: Last year, the team was led in scoring by Alex Campbell and Justin Hryckowian, both with the first forty-point seasons in half a decade, and they were leaders on and off the ice. What players have you keyed in on that you think can step up and fill those vacated roles? Any players that you look at to take that next step as a breakout player?
JK: Returning guys, for sure you look at Jack Williams, Cam Lund, Dylan Hryckowian. Those are three guys right off the bat that we feel are going to have big years for us, that they’re going to be leaders not only on the score sheet but obviously they’ll play a big role on our entire team. I do think Cam Lund specifically had a good year but his ability and upside are tremendous, and we expect him to take an even bigger jump this year. And we’re looking for Eli Sebastian as a guy we hope can take a big step. Andy Moore is another guy we expect to make a big step, he’s a great example of a guy who we love the way he plays because whether or not he scores goals and is on the score sheet, he has an impact and makes plays. Those are two other guys we are expecting to be big for us this year.
NUHB: In the community Q & A this summer, you were asked about the bottom six in terms of being an area that kind of struggles last year. What do you think can change this year that can enable the team to roll three to four lines that can score? Is it a matter of personnel, strategy, from your position when constructing your team, how do you see those lines?
JK: Well I think we’re built differently up front because we have some bigger bodies that we can play down our lineup a little bit. They can skate and create an identity of a bottom six group, a checking line that’s hard to play against. We have some ability down there that can score goals as well. I think our forward group is deep, we’ve got some size, and we’ve got some guys that can get up and down the line sheet.
NUHB: On the back end, Vinny Borgesi and Jackson Dorrington are classmates, they’ve been position mates and paired up together, how do those two as leaders on the blue line establish that identity that you want as upperclassmen and how do you see their roles advancing from their sophomore seasons?
JK: I’ll start with Jackson Dorrington. The strides he made from freshman year to end of sophomore year were tremendous for me. And now even seeing him early in practice, he just looks like a really confident player, he looks like a man out there. After losing Hunter McDonald, Jackson Dorrington is going to step into that type of role and he’s ready for it, no question. He has a quiet confidence to him, but he’s a guy who has made tremendous strides and I am excited for him this year.
And with Vinny Borgesi, he was one of the top scoring defensemen in Hockey East last year. Vinny plays like he’s 6-foot-2, it doesn’t matter what his size is, he defends, he makes plays, joins the rush, he’s hard to play against. For my money, both of those defensemen should be two of the top defensemen in the league.
NUHB: One other player I wanted to ask specifically about was Dylan Hryckowian. You mentioned that you’re expecting him to be atop the scoresheet, atop the line chart. Sometimes last year maybe overshadowed by his brother last year, I thought Dylan showed a very unique skill set with the team last year because of his speed while also being responsible forechecking and defensively. Where do you think he can grow this year to hit that next level?
JK: Well he has a ton of confidence now. You come in as a freshman, you try to find your way a little bit. This year he’s coming back expecting to go out and be the best player on the ice. To be a good team, you need a lot of guys to go out and expect to be the best player on the ice and that’s what he’s expecting to do this year. And he’s capable of doing that. If you get Jack Williams thinking that way and Cam Lund thinking that way and Borgesi and Lemay and Dorrington, everyone expecting to be the best players on the ice, now you got a pretty good hockey team. And Dylan Hryckowian is capable of doing that, he does bring a different element with his speed and he does things with such pace but such an honest game, ljust ike his brother, he plays on both sides of the puck but he can be a real weapon offensively.
NUHB: In goal, Whitehead is coming back and will have the bulk of the minutes. When you look at the bedrock of your team and you look at him in net, how much confidence does that instill in you when you see the success that he had at the highest levels, like the Beanpot last year, but also the growth he had from his first month or so to eventually become the goaltender he was in the second half?
JK: He’s a good example as coming in as a freshman and being put in a tough situation right away, with all the injuries (in front of him). At the end of the day I thought that really helped his development. If you look at Whitey from the start of the year to the end of the year, it’s two different goaltenders. He was pretty dominant, no question one of the better goalies in the country. Our team has so much confidence in him and you can just see he’s a mature kid and he’s got a great relationship with Beamer(goalie coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson). They work so close together, his preparation is outstanding. His development is really important to him and he wants to help this team win a championship. We’re lucky to have him.
NUHB: How do you see the team stacking up against the rest of the conference ahead of the season?
JK: Well for us, we feel if we are playing our best hockey we are capable of beating anybody. That’s the goal. This year we are going to stick to that mindset of getting better every day. We’re not going to be too concerned with polls and standings, it’s going to be about going out and playing our best hockey game the next game. We like this group, and for us all that matters is what we can control in our own locker room. We all have high expectations this year.
NUHB: Last question- the injury spell last year and the 1-goal losses and the winless stretch to start conference play- when you do an autopsy of that and try to diagnose what happened, what do you see that that can then help you avoid repeating that this year?
JK: Excellent question. What I just touched on- it’s more about staying in the moment. I think last year when you look at expectations, you’re always looking at the end of the year, the goal at the end of the year. When you hit some adversity, you need to put the focus on the now, and I thought we got a little bit too down last year when things weren’t going well. For us this year we want to be a more consistent group and learn from what we went through last year. If you don’t have your best game you gotta learn from it and move on, not wear it the next game. You learn from it. For us it’s all about being consistent and the way to focus on that is the next day, getting better in practice the next day, next game. There was also other things we took from that was we hit some adversity and were able to fight out of it. But if you want to be an NCAA tournament team you can’t have those ups and downs, you have to be more consistent.
Thank you once again for Coach Keefe for spending time with me looking ahead to the season. Northeastern will open the season with an exhibition at Quinnipiac on October 6th before starting their regular season on October 12th against Stonehill.
As always, go Huskies!