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north45

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With Don in the last year of his contract the word is this will be his last season. Several years too late in my opinion given the underperformance his teams in recent years. The quality of his recruits seems to have fallen off based on what I've seen so far this year. The exception being goaltending which has looked pretty good so far. There certainly doesn't seem to be any immediate impact freshman that there has been in years past I am thinking of players like Rau and Bugstad in their freshman years. Guys like that came in and made their presence felt immediately. Not seeing that in this years crop.
The Gophers were not overly impressive against the unranked Northeastern University team. In Saturday nights game they scored early on then were outplayed through most of the game. It's a game I don't think they would have won on an 85 x 200 rink. I fear this coming weekend in South Bend could be a long one for the Gophers.
I'm wondering who is out there that can come in next year and restore Gopher hockey to the preeminence the State of Hockey should have?
 

north45 said:
With Don in the last year of his contract the word is this will be his last season. Several years too late in my opinion given the underperformance his teams in recent years. The quality of his recruits seems to have fallen off based on what I've seen so far this year. The exception being goaltending which has looked pretty good so far. There certainly doesn't seem to be any immediate impact freshman that there has been in years past I am thinking of players like Rau and Bugstad in their freshman years. Guys like that came in and made their presents felt immediately. Not seeing that in this years crop.
The Gophers were not overly impressive against the unranked Northeastern University team. In Saturday nights game they scored early on then were outplayed through most of the game. It's a game I don't think they would have won on an 85 x 200 rink. I fear this coming weekend in South Bend could be a long one for the Gophers.
I'm wondering who is out there that can come in next year and restore Gopher hockey to the preeminence the State of Hockey should have?
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Lack of success in recent years? The four most recent years have seen a national runner up, two trips to the Frozen Four, four conference championships, and a conference tournament title. If I can get that out of the next four years, I'll be pretty happy.

I have no knowledge as to the extent that this year's freshmen can make their "presents" felt.
 


I consider the lack of any National Championships with the talent Don has had in recent years unacceptable. The guy has been in coast mode for several years now. It seems to be a Minnesota characteristic to let coaches hang around long around the fire has gone out.
If Don got an extension they sure kept it quiet because I sure didn't hear about it. I have been told by 2 people who should know what they're talking about that this is Don's last year.
 

north45 said:
If Don got an extension they sure kept it quiet because I sure didn't hear about it. I have been told by 2 people who should know what they're talking about that this is Don's last year.
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http://www.startribune.com/gophers-hockey-coach-lucia-under-fire-from-disgruntled-fans/291011861/

Here's what I remembered from last year.

Lucia, whose contract was quietly extended through April 2017, has the support of the university and his program. The outside dissatisfaction, however, escalates with each failed weekend. Will Lucia hear the boo birds again Friday night against Ohio State? If the comments fans are leaving online are a clue, he should plan on that
 


Quite a few people have read this thread. Why don't some of you pipe in and let us know what you think? Need some broader participation here.
 

north45 said:
Quite a few people have read this thread. Why don't some of you pipe in and let us know what you think? Need some broader participation here.
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Don won 2 titles. Woog 0. So I'm fine keeping Don a little longer.
 

north45 said:
Quite a few people have read this thread. Why don't some of you pipe in and let us know what you think? Need some broader participation here.
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I think bleedsmaroonandgold has pretty much cornered the sensible and rational viewpoint, and pretty successfully shut down the core tenets of your post. I'm not really sure what else there is to add.

I just don't know how you can go from: "The quality of his recruits seems to have fallen off" to "I consider the lack of any National Championships with the talent Don has had in recent years unacceptable" so quickly. Which is it? Has his recruiting been bad? Or has he had the talent to win a National Championship?
 

north45 said:
I consider the lack of any National Championships with the talent Don has had in recent years unacceptable. The guy has been in coast mode for several years now. It seems to be a Minnesota characteristic to let coaches hang around long around the fire has gone out.
If Don got an extension they sure kept it quiet because I sure didn't hear about it. I have been told by 2 people who should know what they're talking about that this is Don's last year.
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Do you consider every coach other than Herb Brooks to have been a failure? If your only metric is national championships, Don is the second best coach we have ever had (regardless of whether you measure it by total championships, or average number of seasons per championship). If your standards are so high that only one Gopher coach has ever met them, I guess that's a matter of opinion and you are certainly entitled to yours.
 



I don't share all of north45's concerns; but I do get concerned when the Gophers start trending slow and less physical (I sat through the end of the Woog era-ick!). Don had one of those periods a few years back. However he changed coaches, hit the recruiting trail and recovered. It's still early, but this year's club is trending the wrong way in a league that's trending the wrong way.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
I don't share all of north45's concerns; but I do get concerned when the Gophers start trending slow and less physical (I sat through the end of the Woog era-ick!). Don had one of those periods a few years back. However he changed coaches, hit the recruiting trail and recovered. It's still early, but this year's club is trending the wrong way in a league that's trending the wrong way.
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I'm still not too concerned yet, its a very short trend. Two seasons ago, we were in the NCAA title game. Last season, we had a very disappointing year with most of the NCAA runner-up roster back, the team look unmotivated, and certainly the coach deserves some blame for that. This year, we are 5 games in with a very young team that had a bad start. I think we will feel a lot better about this team by the end of the year than we do right now and next year has a strong recruiting class. Even if we don't, Pitino had a miserably underperforming year last year, and people seem ready to forgive whatever happens this year to see what happens when the young team gets older and next years strong class hits the court. Doesn't a coach that has won us 2 national titles and 5 trips to the Frozen Four deserve at least as much slack as the unproven Pitino?

I'm not going to give Don too much slack. I was ready to see him get fired after three consecutive missed tournaments, and if he starts missing consecutive tournaments again, I wouldn't oppose firing him. We've just seen a lot of good out of him and I don't want to throw that away unless we have a good reason to.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Do you consider every coach other than Herb Brooks to have been a failure? If your only metric is national championships, Don is the second best coach we have ever had (regardless of whether you measure it by total championships, or average number of seasons per championship). If your standards are so high that only one Gopher coach has ever met them, I guess that's a matter of opinion and you are certainly entitled to yours.
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Actually I think you could make a case for saying that everyone since Herb has been a failure. The players loved Woog but he never produced A national championship. It's my understanding that Lucia is not loved by his players. His national championships were a long time ago now. Since then he has repeatedly failed in post season play. He seems unable to motivate and inspire the team when it counts.
 

MinneStoa said:
I think bleedsmaroonandgold has pretty much cornered the sensible and rational viewpoint, and pretty successfully shut down the core tenets of your post. I'm not really sure what else there is to add.

I just don't know how you can go from: "The quality of his recruits seems to have fallen off" to "I consider the lack of any National Championships with the talent Don has had in recent years unacceptable" so quickly. Which is it? Has his recruiting been bad? Or has he had the talent to win a National Championship?
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You most certainly can go from one to the other! In the last few years Don's teams have been talented and experienced but they failed to produce. The blame for that has to fall on the coach. Have we forgotten that the 2014/15 Gophers, a team with a ton of NHL draft picks and loaded with seniors failed to win a game in the North Star Cup? Barely won a very weak Big 10 conference then proceeded to flop against UMD in the playoffs!
Move ahead to this season. Unlike previous years the incoming freshman do not look very impressive. A trend I find disturbing. It's time for Don to move on.
 



north45 said:
You most certainly can go from one to the other! In the last few years Don's teams have been talented and experienced but they failed to produce. The blame for that has to fall on the coach. Have we forgotten that the 2014/15 Gophers, a team with a ton of NHL draft picks and loaded with seniors failed to win a game in the North Star Cup? Barely won a very weak Big 10 conference then proceeded to flop against UMD in the playoffs!
Move ahead to this season. Unlike previous years the incoming freshman do not look very impressive. A trend I find disturbing. It's time for Don to move on.
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So, you've made up your mind about a large group of freshmen based off of 5 games?

That tells me pretty much all I need to know. What a damn joke.
 

MinneStoa said:
So, you've made up your mind about a large group of freshmen based off of 5 games?

That tells me pretty much all I need to know. What a damn joke.
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I didn't say they would never be any good! They certainly haven't been very impressive yet. As I said in a previous post in this thread. There are no Raus or Bugstads in this group i.e. players who will obviously be extremely good. With time some may develop into very good players. But, overall this incoming class isn't having the impact of previous incoming classes. That gives me cause for concern!
 

north45 said:
There are no Raus or Bugstads in this group i.e. players who will obviously be extremely good. With time some may develop into very good players. But, overall this incoming class isn't having the impact of previous incoming classes. That gives me cause for concern!
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You're joking, right? Bjugstad had 4 points through his first 13 games.

I have no trouble believing that you would have been just as down on Bjuggy in 2010 as you are on the current group of freshmen. Nothing but knee-jerk reactions and false histories.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I'm still not too concerned yet, its a very short trend. Two seasons ago, we were in the NCAA title game. Last season, we had a very disappointing year with most of the NCAA runner-up roster back, the team look unmotivated, and certainly the coach deserves some blame for that. This year, we are 5 games in with a very young team that had a bad start. I think we will feel a lot better about this team by the end of the year than we do right now and next year has a strong recruiting class. Even if we don't, Pitino had a miserably underperforming year last year, and people seem ready to forgive whatever happens this year to see what happens when the young team gets older and next years strong class hits the court. Doesn't a coach that has won us 2 national titles and 5 trips to the Frozen Four deserve at least as much slack as the unproven Pitino?

I'm not going to give Don too much slack. I was ready to see him get fired after three consecutive missed tournaments, and if he starts missing consecutive tournaments again, I wouldn't oppose firing him. We've just seen a lot of good out of him and I don't want to throw that away unless we have a good reason to.
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For one Gopher basketball isn't on a level with the blue bloods. Minnesota is the Kentucky of college hockey. We are allowed to have ridiculous expectations for this program. With the amount of talent in their backyard. This team should always be in the NCAA Tourney, Favorites in the Big Ten and every recruiting class should play for at least one national title. They don't have to win every year by any means. But being consistently in the hunt shouldn't be an issue Minnesota should be reloading not rebuilding
 

bemidjigopher said:
For one Gopher basketball isn't on a level with the blue bloods. Minnesota is the Kentucky of college hockey. We are allowed to have ridiculous expectations for this program. With the amount of talent in their backyard. This team should always be in the NCAA Tourney, Favorites in the Big Ten and every recruiting class should play for at least one national title. They don't have to win every year by any means. But being consistently in the hunt shouldn't be an issue Minnesota should be reloading not rebuilding
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Agree
 


People who are calling for Don's head please take note of Nebraska football. That is what happens when fans put unrealistic expectations on a program. Let's support the Gophers because it is a special program and this is an extremely young team.
 

Derhey said:
People who are calling for Don's head please take note of Nebraska football. That is what happens when fans put unrealistic expectations on a program. Let's support the Gophers because it is a special program and this is an extremely young team.
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Point taken, but I would say despite the fandom and money Fusker nation puts into there program, they don't have the recruiting ground that gopher hockey does. Gopher hockey is like the combination of Kentucky hoops fandom with a recruiting territory in their backyard similar to Miami football. I think Don had a good run, but like Woog it's the type of job after 10-15 years can burn you out. As for Nebraska there problem is the ghetto boys from Cali don't want to go to Lincoln anymore now that Osborne is gone and people won't look the other way from there shenanigans.
 

bemidjigopher said:
Point taken, but I would say despite the fandom and money Fusker nation puts into there program, they don't have the recruiting ground that gopher hockey does. Gopher hockey is like the combination of Kentucky hoops fandom with a recruiting territory in their backyard similar to Miami football. I think Don had a good run, but like Woog it's the type of job after 10-15 years can burn you out. As for Nebraska there problem is the ghetto boys from Cali don't want to go to Lincoln anymore now that Osborne is gone and people won't look the other way from there shenanigans.
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Point taken here as well; you bring up valid points. I am wondering if the U should try different assistant coaches!?! I love the Fusker comment btw! I may borrow that one ;-)
 

north45 said:
Quite a few people have read this thread. Why don't some of you pipe in and let us know what you think? Need some broader participation here.
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The current coaching staff is doing well. Its where they end up in March that counts. The Gophers can skate with any of the top teams and are getting better every week. There are plenty of good coaches that would do a great job as well. Curt Giles the Edina coach has done an outstanding job and would be a great coach for the Gophers. There are several coaches at the high school level that would be very good choices.
 


Derhey said:
Point taken here as well; you bring up valid points. I am wondering if the U should try different assistant coaches!?! I love the Fusker comment btw! I may borrow that one ;-)
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I would hope that Mike Guentzel gets the job whenever Lucia leaves. He is a really good coach.
 

GopherGod said:
I would hope that Mike Guentzel gets the job whenever Lucia leaves. He is a really good coach.
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And he sent all his kids through a beautiful high school here in the cities. So I'll always appreciate him for that.

I think Guentzel would be a very good choice...
 

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