Freshman Friday is a Q-and-A feature with new members of the men's hockey team. This is the sixth installment, featuring #6, defenseman Alex Green.
Q: So you've stepped into a pretty prominent role in the top four right off the bat here. How are things going for you?
A: I think so far, things have been going pretty well. My teammates and coaches have given me a lot of confidence, for sure. And, obviously, it helps to play with a great player like Yanni (Kaldis). We've had great chemistry and things have been working out on the ice.
Q: Did you expect to play this much and in such key situations right away?
A: No, definitely not. I thought that I eventually thought I could get to this point, but I didn't think it would be this soon. I didn't think I'd have this much of a role at this point, and I was kind of surprised, to be honest.
Q: So you were born and raised in Chicago — a great hockey city that's overdue for a college hockey team …
A: Agreed …
Q: When did you start playing hockey?
A: I started skating when I was 3, but I didn't start playing on a real team until I was 5 or 6. It was definitely different playing hockey growing up in the city. Not that many people play hockey in downtown Chicago, so that was a little bit of an adjustment. Not a lot of my friends from school played. It was different, but I think it was kind of cool, too, because I was one of the only kids at my whole school who played hockey.
Q: So if your friends didn't play, how did you get into the game?
A: To be completely honest, I think it was just from the Mighty Ducks movies. It was on TV one day when my dad was flipping through the channels and I just asked him to keep it on. My mom signed me up for skating lessons, and it just went from there.
Q: So which Mighty Duck are you?
A: I really like #44, one of the Bash Brothers — Fulton (Reed), I think. I can't really compare myself to him, because I'm not that physical of a player, but he was definitely my favorite Mighty Ducks player.
Q: But I bet you can hit the net better than once every five times. So if hockey, specifically, didn't come through your parents — but are they athletic? Did they embrace that part of your childhood, or was that you doing something on your own?
A: My dad swam at Yale, and my mom played club tennis at Northwestern. Athletics have always been a big part of their lives and my life. They didn't force me to compete in swimming or tennis, but they just wanted me to try different sports and hockey was the one that stuck.
Q: You mentioned starting at 5 or 6. Did you play pretty consistently from that point forward, or did you run hot and cold with that?
A: I stuck with hockey, but I also played a bunch of other sports like baseball. But once I got to high school, baseball kind of just had to go away so I could focus just on hockey. Hockey was always there, sprinkled with a couple other sports. But hockey was always my favorite.
Q: Cubs or White Sox?
A: Cubs. Definitely Cubs.
Q: You ended up playing with the Chicago Mission program, which churns out players left and right. At one point did you realize that this could be a next-level thing for you?
A: I think when I was a freshman in high school, I think that's when it really clicked that maybe I could play college hockey. That was when I switched teams and went to the Mission, and that's when it kind of hit me that I should take this a little bit more seriously and maybe something would come out of it.
Q: From there, it doesn't sound like it took that long at all. Committed in 2014, when you were 16. You could have waited around to see what would happen — so what about Cornell clicked for you at such an early age?
A: I just think the main thing for me was that Cornell was one of the first schools that talked to me. I just kind of felt like they were really excited about my game. Then I came to visit in October of my junior year and I saw an exhibition game — I wasn't expecting that many people to be there since it was an exhibition — but it was packed and it was crazy, and I had never seen an atmosphere like that at any other college hockey rink. And then, obviously, the academics kind of speaks for itself. So it has everything in one.
Q: You're in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. What do you hope to do with that degree some day?
A: I want to be a sports agent. Who knows if it will work out, but that's the reason I chose ILR.
Q: Did you know about that way back when you committed?
A: My mom and I did some research on what I would want to study at Cornell when I was still in high school. ILR is really intriguing to me, and obviously they have a good really big alumni — especially (NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman '74 and the commissioner of Major League Baseball (Rob Manfred '80). It kind of was just the perfect fit.
Q: So after you commit to Cornell, you start zooming through some levels of hockey and you're selected to play in some pretty cool events. There were a couple USA Hockey Player Development Camps and winning the gold medal with the U.S. team at the World Junior A Challenge. How was that tournament different than some of the others?
A: That tournament was different because it was actually a team that was together for more than one school. Those other events were almost like an all-star game, where you were on a team for only one weekend and everyone's just trying to showcase their abilities. That World Junior A Challenge team was a blast. It was so much fun to play with other kids from the USHL and see how they prepared for games. It was a great experience.
Q: Other than winning a gold, what's your lasting memory from that?
A: The one thing that sticks out is that we ended up beating Canada in the gold medal game in Canada. So everyone didn't want us to win, so beating them on their home soil was pretty cool.
Q: How would you sum up your couple of years in the USHL?
A: I loved it. I ended up in Lincoln, and things went smoothly from there. The coaches were great; I had great billets. They really helped me a lot and helped me prepare for college.
Q: And then you got an invite to the Minnesota Wild's NHL prospect development camp last summer. Pretty cool to get that invite as an undrafted free agent before going to college. What did you take away from that camp?
A: I think the experience in general was a good one. There were a lot of players there that were in my situation — undrafted — so it was a matter of realizing that you don't have to be drafted to play at the next level. So I think that was really eye-opening. The other thing was the standard that the staff and the organization holds themselves to, and how much they expect their players to perform and hold themselves to professional standards. I think that's the biggest thing; it's a business and how serious it is.
Q: Has that changed how you approach the game at all?
A: Definitely. Especially with training and nutrition, that camp really helped me a lot and helped me realize that I need to take it more seriously. And then if I do that, it will ultimately help me improve my game.
Q: Along those lines, how do you see yourself developing here?
A: I definitely want to work on my offensive game. I think that needs to grow. And then really just getting bigger and stronger. I'm not the strongest guy on the team, by any means, so I think just spending more time in the gym with Coach Howley is the main area I need to focus on.
2017-18 Freshman Friday Archives:
Oct. 20 — Morgan Barron
Oct. 27 — Cody Haiskanen
Nov. 3 — Matthew Galajda
Nov. 10 — Brenden Locke
Nov. 17 — Austin McGrath
