Image via WikipediaThis was posted at Inside Hockey.
Today I attended my first Fighting hockey Sioux press conference of the season at the Ralph Englestad Arena; here is what I took away from today’s press conference.
The Fighting Sioux are focused on Air Force Academy and they’re not looking past the Falcons. Fighting Sioux captain Mario Lamoureux reminded us that his brother Jacques played at the Air Force Academy and that the Falcons are a very good hockey team and that they made the NCAA tourney three seasons in a row.
Junior forward Danny Kristo was in town most of the summer focusing on getting stronger. Kristo also said that he gained 5-10 pounds. Kristo spent a good deal of time working on his release and getting the puck off faster. In looking at Kristo it’s very apparent that he had a great summer in the weight room and appears that Kristo is in great shape going into the season.
Junior goalie Aaron Dell was asked, how much different is this year coming in kind of as the number one guy instead of last year when you had to try to beat out Brad [Eidsness]. Dell said, “I got treated the same way because if I don’t then he [Eidsness] can take my spot at any point. I just got to continue to a work as hard as I can and do the best I can.”
Dell on if he gained some weight? “A little bit I think I was 191 when I came in last year and I am about 199 now.”
Dave Hakstol on Zach Parise being name Captain of the New Jersey Devils today, “absolutely fitting, I think he exemplifies what a leader and a team captain is all about. So, he is a great players and I think you can argue that he [Zach] is the best American born players in the National Hockey League and certainly one of the top players in the world. It’s only a natural progression for him to be name caption in this stage of his career.”
Dave Hakstol was asked, are we going to see a different style of play, we lost half of the offense points from last season are we going to go more defensive like a 2-2-1 or are we still going to push the puck up the ice? Hakstol said, we are going to play the way that we play, bottom line, you know you have to obviously to tweak and change the little things with in the personality of every team, but we are going to build our team, we are going to build our mentality, we are going to grow as a team and were not going to change our mentality or philosophy as a program or as a hockey team.”
On the injury front freshman forward Roco Grimaldi is doubtful for this weekend’s games. Word has it that Grimaldi is suffering from a lower body injury.
