 Welcome to the Tracy Johnson show presented by Buffalo Wildlings, I'm Sam Murray joined now with Stevenson women's ice hockey head coach Tracy Johnson and coach third of the way through the season already. Maybe not the record you had hoped for at the beginning of the year just take us through the first eight games of the season. Well we were certainly hoping to come out to a better start than we did you know in the previous season so you know not quite the start that we were hoping for aiming for but we're really just working on trying to get better. We did get a win in the first eight games which is a little different story than than last season but you know we're just we have a young squad this year and we're trying to get everyone caught up to speed. We have ten new players on the team you know our sophomore class a couple of them got actual playing time last year so you know they're jumping into roles that they didn't they weren't in last year and you know we're just trying to keep keep up the keep up the hard work and keep up the improvement and looking forward to turning things around and really head on a stronger path for the second second two-thirds of the season. Yeah two players who kind of stood out early this year senior Kellan Whitman who is kind of unique unique situation that she played soccer first four years and didn't play at the start of each of the hockey seasons she had six goals three assists and then rookie Nikki Kendrick has come out strong six goals for them on the power play talk about their performance. Yeah they've been a fun a fun pair to watch I think we knew Nikki Kendrick coming in knew that she had a knack for for scoring and she's just one of those players that goes out has a great attitude works hard is a great teammate she's been a real joy to to have as an addition to the team and Kellan you know first super senior we have here or fifth year and she's you know she's really taking it to the other teams when she's out on the ice and really taking a lot of pride and in the fact that the team turns to her to look for that energy and that goal scoring when we need it and she's certainly producing and stepping up so far and we want to keep her on that path. Yeah you mentioned it earlier coming in from last season to this season you know you graduated a group of seniors from last year who had quite a role on the team so now you have players who who played like a role role players now leading you have senior Maddie Ricci who leads a team of 16 block shots sophomore Casey Stork leads a team with five assists talk about that transition for for some of your players. I think it's a pretty neat thing to watch these players step into kind of those bigger roles on the ice and off the ice as well and it's always gonna be an adjustment anytime you lose a class in general but certainly the one that we did last year and we're trying to keep our focus on on the future and don't want to be spending too much time lamenting or feeling bad for ourselves for what we lost that happens every single year and you know really trying to focus on the ones that are stepping up now and are on the ice with us now and making the most out of out of this season the 18-19 season and lots of hockey left to play and I'm excited for kind of the path that I foresee our team taking moving forward. For regular season games left in 2018 what do you want to see your team improve on? We've got quite a few goals that we want to focus on and I think it's just it's a lot of process and a lot of task things that we just need to hammer away in terms of building good habits being more solid defensively being more creative and creating more scoring chances offensively we certainly want to start getting more shots on net that's something that we've struggled with up to this point is getting out shot by our opponents and you know we're really just trying to focus in on those little things that are going to add up into the big things. You also have an exciting opportunity to travel abroad this December traveling to Germany Italy and Austria just talk about that that opportunity your team gets to take. We are pumped for this it's something we've been that's been in the work since last year and you know all this build up to it I can't believe it's it's already here but it's going to be a special opportunity a special experience for this team and I'm just looking forward to soaking in their excitement and their enjoyment of the trip and that they get to experience that together as a group and and play some hockey while we're over there so it's it's gonna be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity for them and I'm really excited just to just to take it all in and watch them and enjoy each other and enjoy the experience of being overseas. Well coach Brestel Locke and the remainder of 2018 safe travels and we'll see you back here next year. Thanks so much Sam. For head coach Tracy Johnson I'm Sam Murray and this has been the Tracy Johnson Show.