Thank you, Coach Lucia

bonin21

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
2,582
Reaction score
1,083
Points
113
-Two national championships
-Four WCHA regular season championships
-Three WCHA Final Five championships
-Four Big Ten regular season championships
-One Big Ten playoff championship

It was a good run.
 

Missing the tournament.

Unacceptable.
 


If we fire him, my only request is that we hire someone who will be more successful here than he was.
 



-Two national championships
-Four WCHA regular season championships
-Three WCHA Final Five championships
-Four Big Ten regular season championships
-One Big Ten playoff championship

It was a good run.

I agree, but you should of been let go 5 years ago if the U had a competent AD.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I agree, but you should of been let go 5 years ago if the U had a competent AD.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Your take is we should have fired him one year after having us in the frozen four, so that we could have gotten rid of him in time to miss the run to the national title game four years ago?

We are going to miss the tournament for the second time in three years, if we want to fire him based in that, fine. But some of the revisionist history about his time here is bizarre. Also, if we fire him for performance, we are saying Lucia level success is unacceptable, so that better be the bar we hold our next coach to. I don't want our athletics department to make another hire where we are excited based on recruiting rankings, social media presence, press conference performance, or any other metric besides on field success.
 

Watching bad things transpire with no way of correcting them is a fitting end to the final Lucia era.
 

Well said bonin21. Nice run. We would like to go a different direction now. Particularly, someone that brings renewed energy and will not accept watching hockey from afar in March.
 



It's a matter of taking the high end talent that they have, coaching it to work in a system, and motivating them to perform. This has not been done consistently for a number of years now.

The team has been woefully inconsistent, appearing unprepared, unmotivated, even against subpar teams. A consistently motivated and energized team on the ice would bring back the in state recruiting stranglehold that used to exist as well.

Lucia should take the matter into his own hands and resign gracefully. Clearly he should be in a good position to retire comfortably. If he cares about the program, he will step aside from his hubris and do it....

Following that, Mike Guentzel is not the answer, he has been a big part of the problem. A clean sweep is needed.
 

Yeah, I think it's time. As OP mentioned, it was a great run. There are a lot of banners hanging from the rafters thanks to the teams Lucia coached. Some awesome moments happened, even recently with the wins over North Dakota in the NCAA in 2012 and 2014.

But, missing the tournament in two of the last three seasons and not having a tournament win since 2014 is rough. The same can be said for finishing near the bottom during the last years of the North Star College Cup.

I'm for a change at this point.
 






Your take is we should have fired him one year after having us in the frozen four, so that we could have gotten rid of him in time to miss the run to the national title game four years ago?

We are going to miss the tournament for the second time in three years, if we want to fire him based in that, fine. But some of the revisionist history about his time here is bizarre. Also, if we fire him for performance, we are saying Lucia level success is unacceptable, so that better be the bar we hold our next coach to. I don't want our athletics department to make another hire where we are excited based on recruiting rankings, social media presence, press conference performance, or any other metric besides on field success.

If you want to be precise, he should have been let go after the '09/10 season or the '10/11 season. Minnesota should make more than 1 frozen four and 0 title games in 8 years. Just because Doug Woog was allowed to stay at the U too long doesn't mean Lucia should be allowed to stay too long. Pretty crazy how Guentzel left and they were brutal and then he came back and they weren't nearly as brutal anymore. The U also needs to get rid of the Olympic size rink. My view is that the U of M hockey has been soft for the better part of the last 25 years. Getting rid of the Olympic size rink and bringing in a more competitive head coach with more energy is the U of M needs to do. The U of M should be the pinnacle of college hockey in Minnesota and should represent the excellence of the hockey that is played in the state and the passion that is exuded by the state for hockey. Lucia and Gopher hockey has been lackluster since 2008. The passion has dwindled and it's nowhere near where it should be.
 

If you want to be precise, he should have been let go after the '09/10 season or the '10/11 season. Minnesota should make more than 1 frozen four and 0 title games in 8 years. Just because Doug Woog was allowed to stay at the U too long doesn't mean Lucia should be allowed to stay too long. Pretty crazy how Guentzel left and they were brutal and then he came back and they weren't nearly as brutal anymore. The U also needs to get rid of the Olympic size rink. My view is that the U of M hockey has been soft for the better part of the last 25 years. Getting rid of the Olympic size rink and bringing in a more competitive head coach with more energy is the U of M needs to do. The U of M should be the pinnacle of college hockey in Minnesota and should represent the excellence of the hockey that is played in the state and the passion that is exuded by the state for hockey. Lucia and Gopher hockey has been lackluster since 2008. The passion has dwindled and it's nowhere near where it should be.

So if we hire someone new, your standard is that it is a failed hire if, after 8 years, they have not been to the title game and have only been in one Frozen Four?
 

So if we hire someone new, your standard is that it is a failed hire if, after 8 years, they have not been to the title game and have only been in one Frozen Four?

I won't speak for "Some Day" but personally I would consider the potential new hire a failure if we only made one Frozen Four in his first 8 years. This is not a rebuild. Our recruiting pipeline is stacked for the foreseeable future and will continue to be. For whatever reason, Lucia's coaching style has become stale and outdated. The Don is responsible for the only two championships that I have cared about in my adult life...I don't have the pitchforks out, but I think we need to try a different voice.

I don't think this is like football or basketball where we have to be very careful about letting a competent coach go because we might strike out on replacement level hires and have to take a chance on a flawed candidate. When you consider all factors involved (history, $$$, fan support, recruiting advantages, city to live in) the University of Minnesota is likely the most coveted job in all of college hockey. There's a reason our rivals take so much glee in us being average...we are Goliath and we can find someone better (or if not - that is on Coyle).
 

So if we hire someone new, your standard is that it is a failed hire if, after 8 years, they have not been to the title game and have only been in one Frozen Four?

For me, it's less about actual wins and losses, though a frozen four every 8 years is absolutely not too much to expect from the Gophers. Tournament games are all too often decided by a fortuitous bounce, a hot goalie, etc., that doesn't necessarily reflect how good your team is.

In my opinion, it's much more troublesome that Lucia's teams underperform according to the talent he has, get out-worked, remain inconsistent, and individual players rarely improve by a wide margin through their time with the Gophers. Losses to Yale, Holy Cross, etc highlight being out-worked by lesser teams, but those are tournament games that are difficult to win. I'm still upset about it though. However, losing FOUR straight in Happy Valley with the season on the line is nearly unforgivable. Not about to look it up, but how long has it been since we lost four straight in Madison, or Ann Arbor, or Grand Forks?

It appears to me that Don is on cruise control and has been for some time. I'd like to see the program get a reboot. I think that'd really liven things up. I think if this program has some energy flowing through it, the results will take care of itself.
 


So much truth. Don should have some self respect and resign now. He settled on too many mediocre assistant coaches. Way too much talent has been wasted. Of course the bar for a new coach will be higher than Lucia’s record. We have built in recruiting advantages in the hockey program that does not exist in the FB or B.B. programs. Thanks for your years at the U, but it is time to go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I realize college Hockey is a different situation compared to Football or Basketball.

Still - you have people saying the Hockey Team is a failure unless they are contending for a National Championship on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Gopher Football has not won a Conference title since 1967, and Gopher Basketball has won 2 conference titles since 1937. ('72 and '82).

Look, I agree it appears the program has slipped in recent years - and the move to the B1G for Hockey hasn't helped (not Lucia's fault).

it's just interesting to compare the expectations for the different sports.
 

I realize college Hockey is a different situation compared to Football or Basketball.

Still - you have people saying the Hockey Team is a failure unless they are contending for a National Championship on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Gopher Football has not won a Conference title since 1967, and Gopher Basketball has won 2 conference titles since 1937. ('72 and '82).

Look, I agree it appears the program has slipped in recent years - and the move to the B1G for Hockey hasn't helped (not Lucia's fault).

it's just interesting to compare the expectations for the different sports.

It is much more than that. When we are consistently the 3 or 4th best team in the state of Minnesota, it is a failure!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

It is much more than that. When we are consistently the 3 or 4th best team in the state of Minnesota, it is a failure!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was just going to say that - the U cannot be the 4th best team in Minnesota. That's completely unacceptable. Thanks for your service, Don, but time for a change.
 

I would like to thank Coach Lucia for the job he did. Gophers had some great teams. It does seem like a change is needed. Gophers are slowly falling behind. Can't wait to see who they get for a new coach.
 

I realize college Hockey is a different situation compared to Football or Basketball.

Still - you have people saying the Hockey Team is a failure unless they are contending for a National Championship on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Gopher Football has not won a Conference title since 1967, and Gopher Basketball has won 2 conference titles since 1937. ('72 and '82).

Look, I agree it appears the program has slipped in recent years - and the move to the B1G for Hockey hasn't helped (not Lucia's fault).

it's just interesting to compare the expectations for the different sports.

Been that way for me since forever. Gophs Football...glass is almost always half-full. Gophs hockey...glass is almost always half-empty. It is about different expectations because of the historically high level of play and the fact that this state produces elite hockey talent more than any other state.

https://www.stateofhockey.com/news_article/show/868975?referrer_id=2196899
 

Thank you for retiring.
 




Top Bottom