Welcome back everybody to Playmakers here on 105 WIRI time for the fourth period.
It is hockey season people and my heart has never been happier.
Oh, I'm loving it's regular season going in the NHL.
The Premier League, of course, an action we are here to talk, cocky with our great friend
GM head coach of your Wisconsin Rapids River Kings coach Paul Peckman with us right
now coach how you doing doing great man thanks for being here and a couple of
things I wanted to get into with you and certainly go over with the weekends
games and everything but let's actually let's start there because I think it'll
lead perfectly into where I wanted to go with stuff so Friday night first off
the first home games of the season feels got to be feel good to be on your
home ice yeah it was not always nice to play home but home opener you know a lot of
new guys never experiencing anything like that so a lot of juice is following guys
are excited and I think we took the energy to the ice and you can see it so
that's that's it is that what you kind of sense Mike I thought so too but I
thought there's maybe a little bit of nerves as well I mean of course there
will be first home game but I was nervous but I mean Hudson jumped on you
guys I think they went but too too old to start it and then you scored six
unanswered but I'm sure that was a very fun conversation between the first
second periods but you guys looked like a different team between those first and
two and finished strong Deacon played great in the pipes and everybody played
well I thought after you got those first 20 minutes out of the way yeah I think
going to first goal was an unfortunate bounce off of our skate right and the
second one was was was a hell of a shot so now you just you know basically we
just talked about coming down and just play our game and do what we do best
and relax and and once you got that first yeah you know I think just started
still yeah I mean once once you guys got that first goal and then tied it up I
mean I granted six six unanswered in that game you had been pretty happy
both the both the response and that's what you always talk about is how you
responded responded well yeah yeah Saturday night a little bit of a
different story but still it really ends in a River King victory four in a row
for our Kings three two victory over Hudson now that game a little bit
little tighter especially going into that third period what is the energy
like coming out of the second going into the third there for you what is the
conversations like with the team for us it was just keep doing what we're doing
and it was putting pucks on that right average in 20 shots a period something's
got a break you know and the goal you could see was tired sometimes he couldn't
get up right it was exhausted the kid played a hell of a game
and and I told the coach after the game I said listen you got two very good
gold tenders right now to go a long way for the future for us it was just about
chipping away at the at the goalie and once we got that one and then diamond
gets the second one right and then obviously the third one
which turned out to be big in and we hope you know with them scoring what about
seven seconds that second game was kind of neat to see two guys answer
one for Hudson one for for for for Rapids after getting their bells wrong a
little bit I think that was Constantine he went down with you guys had to kill
off power pull off penalty and I think that he scored that goal right after
he went down by like two seconds left on the power play
but then diamond James's buddy there knowing diamond he he took a
hellacious hit and busted him open that's the second time I've ever had to see
them break the Zamboni out in my time of with the river kings this is before
your time here in town coach of them break the Zamboni out cleaning off that
patch of ice to get the blood off of it and then come back but you know you
say in it on the air you know you see the blood you see him grabbing his head
and he's a little woozy I know he's a hockey player I know he's tough but the
there's got to be some protocol here we got to make sure everything's okay
he was obviously able to come back okay and score the last two goals so I mean
two guys who get hurt come back in yeah and they both made the opposition pay
it was pretty neat to see that it's well yeah I mean credit to him he's a tough
kid right yeah there's also the fine line between stupidity and
and yeah right and take care of it so obviously talking about trainer and making
sure that he he was good to go at point and just me having a conversation with him
at some point I was gonna sit him down if I didn't like what I saw yeah right by his body language
right yeah yeah he seemed to be okay we as fans we get we get just a
riled up by that singer hurt player go back out on the court and everything we are some
of our oldest sport stories are like that and everything but I don't know how many
of us because I and I have not seen this on a pro level by any means but I do remember seeing
this happen with my dad and and the way his bench was because the arena was one way his bench they
that the looks on their faces I can still imagine I can still see it I can still see how they were
there was this locked-in look that they had that wasn't there before what it means to the players
when they see a Noah Bell go back out there any injured player come back out after being hurt
I imagine that there's that's got to be I don't know that's something you can coach I don't
know that's something that you could really there's any speech as you can give the really
rile a team like that does no no it's you hope that everybody is you know we talk about family right
and you talk about pulling the rope in the same direction right and you hope that they get it
when they see their captain their leader go down and then get up and then respond and everybody
follows suit right and all right well we got to pick it up for him and that kind of thing and
and hopefully that you know that pushed us over the edge so yeah it's good to see who's
good response by our players Kings are at number two sitting in a two slot in the north league
right now right behind Minnesota both with both teams with eight wins when you look at this team in
the four game winning streak getting to know you a bit over the years coach I know that we could
easily spend the next five ten minutes talking about the positives and everything I'm more
curious of where your brain goes right away of okay these things are going good but I don't like
what this is doing all right I want to improve on this or we got lucky here whatever it might be
where do you see where you you and your coaching staff are really going to be putting in some work
this week I really want to improve on well I think it's in our diesel and I think we still have to
get better we still have guys that are drifting and and not being where they need to be or being
responsible with the puck in our zone and when I say our zone on our half of the red line right not
just in the diesel but making certain plays that are still the not not the smartest plays that can
cost and and put us in a bad situation but I think that I like to see our power play be more
productive I know we had we had a good start early but now as you start playing some of the
better teams we're not being as productive so I don't think we shoot the puck enough to be
hostage and and I've had many conversations with the three guys up top which is Baldur Jack
Shoye in all strand all of them can shoot the puck none of them do right so that's my conversation
you know we got a few more and you might have 60 shots some of them more qualified or quality
than others most little shots are not getting through or they're not they're not high-percented
shots we're not getting the rebounds we're not getting the guys in front of the killing plays
and they kill the power play when a goalie just grabs it and they get fresh players out right
you don't want to do that so we're not being smart with the puck and creating more opportunities
I think one of the and this is one of the things I love about hockey that has brought me to it my
whole life and everything but it's also got to be one of the more difficult things I would think in
I don't know about coaching but even in just trying to plan for in a game hockey's one of the
few sports where you'll take a shot knowing that it's not going to they don't have a chance
you just want to get the puck down there in a ricochet and hope somebody can knock it in
something like that you don't do that in basketball you don't do that in baseball you don't do that
in other sports maybe you want to advance the runners a little bit in baseball so little like that
but not like this where you you don't get an out you don't have a a ding against you you just
got that puck in the right where you want it in that zone trying to get that more aggressive trying
to get your players to shoot the puck more any of these things how do you instill that we talk
about we draw it out now this is where when when a play comes from one side and it goes out we
talk about from going low to high back down the low because you want to stretch them on the defensive
side to create openings right so when you go low to high and we're digging a puck in the corner
we go back to the D walk get off the wall get into the center or as close as you can but when you
shoot the puck and you're all coming from the left side you don't shoot it to the right there's
nobody there right so you got to shoot it back where you came from because that's where the guys
are coming to crash the net right so now it's about get guys getting sticks out getting in front of
the goalie and if it hits you it hits you it goes in it goes in nobody cares how right just get
in it's all it's just about forcing the defense and just get it there it doesn't have to be hard
it's got to be quick right just get it there so goalie doesn't get set and when we talk about
you know and we'll we have drills we'll do we have guys cutting in front of them and they got
to shoot a buy them or whatever just so that they practice because we get a lot of shots blocked
oh yeah we could have 60 70 shots you know it almost did this weekend I was good to ask coach I
don't want to kind of piggyback on what James was saying I think you got to be very thrilled with
how the penalty kill played this weekend but I think there's that's the other side of his
where one thing you're gonna work on is taking the penalties because unfortunately it fortunately
it didn't impact you guys too much negatively but it's a situation where you had to kill off how
many five on threes even though it was you know maybe 20 seconds each time but but you were
sometimes down five on four for four minutes because bang bang bang yeah yeah it's it's I mean
we've got to talk about being disciplined right I mean it's just there's a time of place and that
comes with the maturity because you look at some of the guys that were getting it the younger guys
right they're getting scruffles they think they're rocky about blah blah they don't understand
why they got a penalty right so it's being smart and not putting us in bad positions and and we
got to continue to work on our PK we're still not up the part right in our alignment and reading
and anticipating and that second guy you know he can have a guy stand there by the gold tender
right he's not really doing anything but he should be forcing to one side which means the second
guy's got to anticipate and jump yeah if he's not there okay then it's an easy out and that guy's
flying down the ice and I got two guys stuck down there yep right now it's a four on two
right when it comes to all those things that are going to be worked on I'm sure this week but when
it comes to things that you're feeling good about things that are are positive for this team that
maybe you didn't see coming or maybe are just a you know reinforcing what you were hoping for a
couple of months ago before the season started and everything what what is impressed you so far
this season about your team I think the the veterans the guys that have stepped up like the
diamonds in the Austrians and the Ilians and and Baldurks and Shaw's and it's the second year
guys that really didn't have a top roll last year that have stepped into that top roll and have
accelerated right so guys all those guys that I just mentioned are horses for us and and I mean look
we don't even have four lines yeah that's tough so now you ask these guys to do a lot yep right
so now you can look at listen you're getting opportunity uh to to play more that's what you want
right but you got to be productive and now you got to understand all situations you know
sometimes guys it's just power play guys okay guys but now you got these guys playing in all
different roles and guys like Ilian uh and Jack Shoy they're a very good penalty killing unit
with their big their range right yeah yeah they can get in ways and they know how skating score
right so that becomes a threat that that's something that I've paired those two guys together and
and then you got diamond and ruffle who are very fasting great so you you start getting your
pairs together and I want to see combinations and see who's smart who's not and that kind of thing
and then capitalizing those kind of turnovers hockey's such an endurance marathon and then when you
were working with three over lines instead of four it's really asking a lot but it's it is it
I think the word that you use their opportunity is such a perfect word for these kids and especially
what this whole league what all this is about that's a really it's you know that's an advantage I
I think in some ways in that regard when it comes to this weekend we got the Northwitz Express
coming to town Friday Saturday seven o'clock puck drop right here at 105 WIRI join Michael
Comer for these games if you can't get to the rec center of course if you can get to the rec center
get there fill the arena everybody want to make sure that Hudson and Northwest and all these teams
in our our division know what home ice advantages and what we have over the other teams in this
division with the Northwitz Express lost their last game four and three in their last 10
fifth in the division not playing bad and from what I was seeing last week and look like they
were starting to figure some things out let me tell you something this is a team this is a good test
this will be a test they're very good I don't know how they're four and three
pretty honest with you um the ox are playing very well squash are still undefeated right so
it's going to be a dogfight and right down to the end and uh you're going to have to win big games
like this and it's good that we see it early uh you know what I mean listen we're at the quarter
of the seasons already done yeah just like that right so uh and now you start playing in
Northwest and in the oxes and and still county we haven't even played yet and they're doing well so
yeah this is going to be a good test they're big heavy they get they've got a lot of vets back
apart for a pressed with lung bone lung bomb yep and then you got on to hill on defense
cockpit on defense fresh water and in that right I mean they got some guys that can that can
really hurt you um and again they got a little more depth than we do right now so uh that's
something that I'm constantly trying to find I like the versatility our team has uh especially
when it comes to adapting to the game and other teams and everything I like our chances this
week and I always like our chances uh I'm a homer what am I talking about uh looking forward to
this weekend's games and looking forward to hanging out and talking again real soon coach uh
thanks much for joining us thanks for having me find out more about your river kings follow them
as they build hockey up and down the river at river kings hockey dot com be sure to follow them
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truly is if you can't make it to the rink we got you covered right here every home game with
your worst cast for ever kings right here at 105-5-WYRI all season long
