Notebook: UConn wants to play quicker; Cav on the lineup

When Ryan Tverberg and Justin Pearson departed this offseason, UConn didn’t just lose a combined 28 goals and 29 assists. The two also provided speed up top. Tverberg frequently burned defenses down the ice while Pearson had more giddy-up than most other players of his size (6-2, 200 pounds).

Now, the Huskies are built around size with the likes of Samu Salminen (6-3), Matthew Wood (6-3), Ryan Mahshie (6-3), Nick Capone (6-2) and Jake Richard (6-1). They don’t have any burners like Tverberg — at least not among their top forwards.

That doesn’t mean UConn plans on slowing down.

“I was reading something — and I posted it for our players — that Mike Sullivan was talking about with the Pittsburgh Penguins…they're looking to play fast and it's not predicated on how fast your skaters are,” head coach Mike Cavanaugh said.

“We definitely lost some speed with Ryan Tverberg and Justin Pearson, there's no question about it. But that doesn't mean we can't play fast. The puck always moves faster than the individual and if we can have great puck movement and think and play the game a step ahead, we can play fast.”

So far, the early returns are promising.

“One of my old mentors, my high school coach, was here watching practice yesterday. He goes ‘Gee, I think you're quicker than you were last year,’ And I was like, ‘I don't know if that's the case, but we're certainly playing faster.’ And that's something that we're going to continue to preach here this season,” Cavanaugh said.

Personnel decisions

Saturday’s game will be the first look at UConn’s entire depth chart, though Cavanaugh did give some hints as to how the team will structure its lines and pairings.

“This year I went with a different approach…I kind of had some ideas of guys like Samu (Salminen)’s line I thought played really well at the end of last year — him, Jake Black, and (Jake) Percival. I thought they had some chemistry so I started them together this year and they haven't changed really,” he explained. “I've had some other ideas of some guys that may work well together and we haven't varied too much from that.”

So if Saturday’s lines will be at least partially based on the end of last season, there are a few groupings that would make sense. Nick Capone and Chase Bradley have typically played together over the last two years, while Tabor Heaslip and Tristan Fraser were essentially stapled together on the line sheet as freshmen. They could very well be on the same lines in the opener.

On defense, Tom Messineo spent almost his entire freshman season next to Jake Flynn. Together, they were UConn’s top defensive pairing in the postseason. It’d make sense to start them together again.

Still, whatever the lines look like on Saturday, they’ll almost certainly change as the year goes on.

“Is that set in stone for the season? No,” Cavanaugh said. “But this year in preseason, I kind of kept them together.”

In some instances, the Huskies were still trying to put the final pieces in place when the coach spoke with the media on Wednesday. UConn still didn’t have its power play units finalized since it planned on working in that area during the final practices before the opener.

“We're still trying to figure out our power play,” Cavanaugh said. “When I say figure out, I think we have four pieces in place on a couple of units, we're trying to figure out maybe who that fifth piece is on each unit right now.”

As for the goaltender battle, the coach didn’t tip his hand besides stating the obvious: Arsenii Sergeev and Ethan Haider are the two candidates to start.

“Arsenii and Ethan are probably two of the three who are going to play some games here early on in the season,” Cavanaugh said, “but we have not decided on who will start on Saturday night.”