Welcome back. Greyhound time today, we’re here with Clayton boys, varsity players, myself, Charlie Thompson, Reece Fuller, Ian Barnes and Stone Marbarger, all right. Boys, pretty good season, 12-5-3 with a pretty good seed for playoffs.
Tell us how you guys feel about our seedings? I think our seeding is pretty good. I was not expecting to get the third seed, but I think if we can keep continuing to play like we have been, can make a good path.
Are you expecting higher? I’m not expecting way lower gonna be like the other four or five seed as well. Yeah, I think that we got blessed with having a third seed instead of having, like, a fourth or fish, which really caught us off guard, which is gonna set us up to hopefully win. Yeah, I think the best part about having a third seed instead of our Fit see that we thought we were going to get was the top four teams. I guess we figured out have a first round bye and we don’t have to play in the group stages, which would be great. So, yeah, yeah, super nice. We don’t really know who we’re going to play yet, but I think that whoever there’s, like, a game that plays to see that yes, so there’s so there’s 10 teams, so we won’t even know who we played till after the, yeah, after the bye. So, and then there’s quarterfinals, semi finals. But yeah, kind of we have some experience with making it to state last year.
What do you guys think that we need to do extra importantly, to, like, keep going to state and do again, we’ll repeat. I think, I think the best thing that we did last year was getting, like, as many pucks as we could on that and get as many shots as possible and take the opportunities that are given to us, and, like, really using those. So I think if we can do that again this year and get some dirty goals, maybe some pretty ones, that’d be great for the playoffs. Um, I think the most important thing going back to back is probably short shifts, because in playoffs, most teams play their top lines, so it’s just more important to, like, stay, like, fresh and like, be able to go in the third period when you need your best players out there. I think something that’s gonna be really important as is making sure that we’re on the same page, like our younger guys, who, I guess, came in last year and then with their first year of winning state like, I feel like they’ve had sort of like an easier year than us. Who says it’s our some of our fourth year, and we’ve gone from winning two games to now having the chance to go back to back. I just think it’s important to be on the same page talking about the younger guys who are like some freshmen or underclassmen that really stood out this year in your eyes. We got one Silas, Billhorn, he’s a freshman. I think he’s a huge part in our team. He’s came on to Ian and I’s line when, like, he’s been in town, and I think he’s a huge part taken over, kind of a similar role to a kid on our line last year. Braden Mitchell, so I think that’s a huge key factor to our team this year, and then kind of, we’ve battled some pretty big injuries this year, with Reese fuller being out our key defenseman, and then one of our top players from last year, Ethan Feinstein’s been in and out the lineup.
Do you think that if we have him back for playoffs really healthy, you think that’ll be a huge help? Yeah, I think having Ethan back and a little bit more healthy than he has been all year would be probably the best thing for us. He’s super he’s a really good shot, really good hockey, IQ, and that’s what we kind of need as from our forwards right now. So yeah, yeah. I think it’d also help our other lines, like kind of succeed, because most of the season, it’s just been goals and assists having come from one line. So if we could open up our scoring win some big games. Stone, you’ve actually had probably your best year.
What do you think flipped for you? I guess realizing, I guess having more mental confidence going in, starting to hit people a little bit, which is been a game changer, just making the game a little bit more fun, just putting the body on the line a little bit, and then also just playing with some new guys that are really helping me out, like Charlie and Ian, The Who would you guys say is the toughest team in your way? Rockwood Summit. I think for sure, Rockwood Summit. We we faced Rockwood summit and Parkway West, both teams above us in the preseason tournament like earlier this year, which that doesn’t really mean anything, because we both teams didn’t have their full players, but we got kind of run out of the building by Rockwood Summit. But I think that they’re more of a composed team than we are, and I think that we just need to, like, say, calm match lines and kind of like, like stone was saying, like, he knows his role. And I think that’s huge part in high school hockey is kids knowing their role. Like when you have two kids that are more skilled than another on the line, like they know what they’re supposed to do, they get dirty, they bang bodies, get pucks on that and I think that’s been a huge part with stone on our line this year.
Do you guys think? Yeah, I think Rockwood Summit is going to be one of the hardest teams we play. But yeah, as Charlie said in preseason, we played then kind of get ran out of the building. But I think that has a little bit of a part to do with Nick shame on coming back for almost a year and a half of not playing any games, and his first game back, I don’t know, maybe a little bit overwhelmed, yeah, yeah. I think Park Parkway West is also a good team. Because, I mean, they have the one seed. They aren’t missing their top player, but I still think they have a solid three lines that’ll be playing? Yeah, well, summit has a lot of younger guys that have a lot of those I feel like, if we just have, I mean, in our team, is a lot of, like, top heavy depth, like, there’s a lot of seniors and older guys. So I feel like if we just shut them down, and, like I said, just keep putting the body on them, and they’re not able to do much, that’s what we stop a lot of the other teams that have a lot of younger skill.
What’s like the goalie situation right now? Is Turpin like starting? Or is it like, what is it right now? Um, I think in playoffs, it’s probably going to be both of them playing, because Turpin doesn’t always have the best attitude in the team, but I think Nick could. Nick’s been playing good recently, so I think he’ll still get minutes of the playoffs. Yeah, I agree with that, too. I think Nick is a really, like, hard working kid, and when, like, he wants something, like, when Nick wants to try and, like, show up, like, I think he’s that’s a huge improvement, because I don’t know, like for him, hockey, said his main sport, and most of us on the team, it is, and especially with battling an injury and not like, playing as much this season as Turpin did, he just got to, like, keep his head up and keep working. And I think that’s a huge part. And he showed it, especially against Alaska. Means prior, he played really well. Yeah, I think that Nick, even though, like, he hasn’t played at like, high level as like, like some of these other goalies have, I think his attitude and I think he’s been working pretty hard, he’s gotten back up to the point where he can play with anybody and can save a puck from anybody, which is great.
So it’s a new year. It was obviously he won last year. How’s like, has the coaching changed at all? Is like, the way he’s coached, you guys changed? Still. Same attitude, everything. Yeah, I think Corey is a great coach. He knows what he’s doing. I just think that to go back to, I think, I don’t think any schools ever gone back to back in the wake, and I think that’d be really cool, especially I don’t know what the team’s gonna look like next year. Majority of our team seniors this year. So I think, especially for, like, some of the younger kids too, like, this is might be one of the only years that they’re going to be able to have another good season. So I think that they’re going to need to give everything out on the line. Yeah, I think the coaching situation has been pretty good this year, because last year we would have, we had one practice on Sunday nights, but a lot of help from the parents and other things like that. What helped us get, like, two more ice times a week, and we were doing film before practices. And that’s just something we haven’t been doing for the past couple of years, and I think it’s helping a couple people out. So yeah, I think after last year, Corey has, like, a higher standard, and he always, he’s like, since day one of the seasons, he thinks that we’re going to be going back to back. So I think Corey just really wants us to win. Yeah, yeah. I agree. I don’t think the coaching has really changed all that much. I think that, like we’ve saw the position we were in last year, and we see though, I guess we’re in a better position this year, since we know what we’re doing. And I feel like he’s just basing it off that. So I mean, I feel like we definitely can go out and win again. Um, I’m like, I’m not gonna lie myself. I didn’t really know what it took to make it to state last year. And I think that experience at once kind of really helps it again. Really knew what it took, like, I didn’t ever think that we were good enough last year to, kind of like, bent to my Lafayette or sophomore year. And I think that after that game, those two games, when we played, we beat him pretty hard, that like that showed that going into Ladue, like we were definitely the underdogs, that everyone thought that Ledoux was gonna win. And I think that just like gives us a lot of confidence this year to show that, like, we can do it again. And it’s s like we’ve all been there once before we all know what it takes, and we have to do the same thing but even harder this year. Yeah. So y’all would y’all are planning some house money I hope that just lets you play with nothing to lose. Good luck on the season, boys. Thanks for joining. the pod.
