Larson Leads Gophers Into New Season
Minneapolis, Minn. — The churn of men’s college hockey head coaches has been turbulent the last five seasons as 34 new coaches have taken over programs. Brett Larson is one of the latest to take on the challenge this year as he replaces Bob Motzko behind the bench at the University of Minnesota with a chance to lead one of the blue blood programs in the game.
Larson has been quick to make his mark on the program adding five transfers onto the roster, eight new young players including the Gophers first true CHL recruit and parted ways with six players who transferred out of Minnesota.
“I think we’ve got a really unique situation where we can adapt quickly and fast. Obviously things change quick with the transfer portal, NIL, CHL players being eligible, I think this puts us in a place to be really aggressive to get out after the recruits that we want,” said Larson during his introductory press conference. “Obviously, for the most part, we’ve got such great homegrown talent, you’re going to base your recruiting out of here, but boy there are some opportunities now to supplement with difference makers. I think you need to be nimble, you need to be ready for it and I think it puts us in a really good spot.”
The first big task after taking the job was retaining the players before they decided to depart. When Bob Motzko took over the Minnesota job in 2018, Casey Mittelstadt had already decided to sign before the hire was made. Larson getting Brodie Ziemer and LJ Mooney to stay in maroon and gold took some re-recruiting by the staff and Larson acknowledged last week that was a big step.
“The transfer portal was open right when I got the job, and there was a little bit of stress in that, making sure that we retained the players that we had hoped to retain,” said Larson. “In the gap there [before I was hired,] there were obviously other teams trying to lure some guys away. So we were really happy to keep our guys that we wanted to keep.”
Newly hired assistant coach Cory Laylin shared that returning players were mostly concerned about what the new structure would look like for the program, what their daily schedule would be, and how they’d coach players.
“It’s such a small hockey world — everyone talks, everybody knows everybody. So if you call and ask about Brett, he’s well respected in the business and hopefully I have the same thing,” said Laylin. “I know Paul has such a great personality, everybody that’s been here before knows the way he coaches and Gordo’s got so much energy. So kids reach out and they do their homework, and so do we. We found the right fits, and we’re happy with the guys we have.”
The biggest changes to the program were adding some players that could contribute from the blue line. Transfers Evan Murr from Minnesota State, Tanner Henricks from St. Cloud State and Finn Loftus from St. Cloud State instantly provides an infusion of mobile skaters who can help get the Gophers breakout of their own zone and join the rush. Freshmen Axel Löfgren and Tarin Smith, after he finishes rehabbing off-season shoulder surgery, are being counted on contributing to that transition as well.
Paul Martin’s role with the program is being elevated from director of player development to assistant coach this year and said Larson is bring a couple system changes with him from his experiences at St. Cloud State, from coaching at the World Junior and philosophies from the pro level as far as how they break pucks out of the zone, create secondary support and trouble opposing teams.
“It’s great when you have D that can skate through the neutral zone and create a little more offensive opportunity for the D on the blue line,” said Martin. “When you have top end D that can make plays and skate, it really creates trouble for the opposing defense to try to find those matchups and who they’ve got. I think we’ll see a little bit more support from the D, whether it’s on the breakouts, coming up the ice in the offensive zone, getting pucks, creating plays and getting pucks to the net.”
The other big impact Larson wants to have on the program is getting more gritty skill out of his players. Throughout Larson’s extensive media tour of podcasts, television appearances, interviews and connections with donors, alumni and fans, his message was that you have to build your team the right way, every player can’t be the same, but that when everybody is skilled but gritty, everybody is together on the mission and everybody knows the why of what they’re trying to accomplish — that’s when winning comes.
The path to getting everybody on board with that mission has been practicing the right way, holding players accountable and having leaders that hold guys accountable too. The coaching staff has implemented 8 AM video sessions to start every morning and they’ve been consistently pointing out if players miss the mark on something they were asked to do the day before.
“Nobody likes to get called out in video in front of their teammates. Nobody. So that’s a big tool, and obviously, with a team that we believe is this deep, if you’re not doing those things, you’re not going to play. There’s a competition for power plays. There’s competition to be on penalty kills. There’s competition to be in the lineup,” said Larson. “At the end of the day, we’re going to play the guys that are playing the game the right way and are going to help us win.”
Larson said there are four things to focus on for a quick start this season with special teams, goaltending, playing at a fast pace and conditioning. He knows that his systems will keep getting better as the season keeps going and he’ll have a skilled fast team from the start, but winning puck battles is the top priority right now.
“The number one thing I can tell you going into Tech, one of our biggest goals right now is our puck battle percentage,” said Larson. “Last year the guys will admit it wasn’t where it needs to be. I believe if we can win the puck battle percentage… we will have the opportunity to have the puck more, create more offense and win those games. So it’s going to start with how hard we compete on the puck, but we have to model that every day, and we have to practice that way.”
The season starts off fast with series against Michigan Tech, Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota. All teams that are experienced, favorites to be atop their league standings and earn berths to the NCAA tournament. Larson said he knows coming from the outside that the Gophers always get the other team’s best punch so they’re going to have to go through some adversity to grow.
Players speaking with the media all said that the off-season was too long and they’re excited after a long summer and fall camp to finally play some games. They all echo the messages the coaching staff is putting out there and know they’ll be judged on wins.
“[Winning] is going to be achieved by our work ethic, winning puck battles and being a hard-nosed team,” said John Whipple. “The past few years, there’s been people saying that the Gophers are soft, but we’re a new team now, with a new focus and it’s going to be exciting.”