UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

Just shoot me and bury me in the backyard!

Isn't that illegal in Maine? Nope, prob isn't Not to drag out the Lassonde thoughts, but, why did he leave in the first place? He went to Denver, right, then, Dartmouth? Was he expecting to be HC in Durham and that didn't pan out? As per the idea he can 'guide' Souza hasn't he (Souza) had enough "guidance" from a veteran coach??? Yes, we are ahead of ourselves here but what else can we discuss? (til tomorrow, of course)

Reading the Fosters story this morning, I say give Anthony W the 'C' next season...I mean, why not? At least the 'A' with Vela getting the C if you are going to go with a Senior.

http://www.fosters.com/sports/201801...-hits-10-games

[scoreboard]

Scott he is going to find the 4 wins, not sure where but the schedule has possibilities. For Umile to end at 599 not being able to get the playoff win to get to the NRN is just the way this will end. It will be the right cherry on top of Umile's career, even if it is in the semi's in Boston... The team either won't show up at all and drop a game 7-2 or play tough against a superior opponent for 2 periods and be blown off the ice 5-1 in the end...


Anybody out there catch the meaning of those scores...

7-2 Loss to Maine at 2002 FF semi. UNH led 2-1 after first period.
5-1 Loss to Minnesota at 2003 FF final. Game was tied at 1 with a little more than 10 minutes left in the third.

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

7-2 Loss to Maine at 2002 FF semi. UNH led 2-1 after first period.
5-1 Loss to Minnesota at 2003 FF final. Game was tied at 1 with a little more than 10 minutes left in the third.

Cannot even imagine how you fans must've felt...can't...and here I am freaking out over that game last night. Seriously. (hangs head)

[JB]

7-2 Loss to Maine at 2002 FF semi. UNH led 2-1 after first period.
5-1 Loss to Minnesota at 2003 FF final. Game was tied at 1 with a little more than 10 minutes left in the third.

Also the last 2 times UNH was in the final weekend of hockey... 15 years ago this spring.

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

Happy 16th anniversary of McCloskey no longer buying groceries for Umile to burn.

http://www.uscho.com/2002/05/28/unh-...ad-womens-job/

Do you think they're letting Lassonde pick the two goalies for next year, and that's why UNH has done nothing all year in that regard?

[JB]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

In hind sight a better chef probably gets things done with the quality of those ingredients

[Snively65]

7-2 Loss to Maine at 2002 FF semi. UNH led 2-1 after first period.
5-1 Loss to Minnesota at 2003 FF final. Game was tied at 1 with a little more than 10 minutes left in the third.

Scoreboard is a gentleman AND a scholar. :-)

[Felger]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

This really is 1986 all over again. A guy who was a successful coach for a heck of a lot of years ends his career seemingly indifferent to what is in front of him. Ones career, especially when there has been success, should not end this way. But it will for Umile just as it did for Charlie Holt.

Greg you are correct that there are striking parallels to 1986. But I would contend that the current situation is worse.

Though the record was worse back in '86 that team was only four years removed from the Frozen Four. And that trip in '82 was UNH's third trip there in six seasons. The school was at least relevant back then. Barring something totally unprecedented and unforseen this will be the fifteenth consecutive season that the 'Cats aren't playing in the FF. They were getting hammered on the ice by lack of talent butalso partially because of the interlocking schedule with the WCHA. Still I would take that over today's interlocking schedule with Atlantic Hockey and the ECAC. It was like the last couple years of the Holt era the program fell off a cliff.

But this has been different. Its been like the Chinese water Torture the last few years, and (not to mix metaphors) but now the roof and sills of the house have been rotted away and its almost like you have to start from scratch.

And as 'Watcher and Dan have pointed out there is nowhere near the talent in the pipeline today that there was thirty years ago to reboot the rebuild. Sure, the program was rebuilt back then (fairly quickly as it turns out) and probably can be retooled again. However the landscape is much different today. Last night I watched parts of three nationally telecast college hockey games, not to mention the two local ones available on NESN. You guys want to whine because Mike Gildon chose Ohio State? Well perhaps he wants to play on national television once in a while, not on a computer screen every night. Hopefully his older brother got home in time to catch the end of the game coached by the staff he was so suspicious of.

[JB]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

I actually don't think Lassonde is a bad idea.

Note not the same as a good idea...

He at least knows what a goalie looks like. Building from the net out isn't a bad way to go. It would then be a selling point to forwards, "we need scoring and your my guy".

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

I actually don't think Lassonde is a bad idea.

Note not the same as a good idea...

Hiring someone who has coached an above-.500 team before is a decent start.

Give him and Mike three year contracts to be co-head coaches. Let Dave focus on Goalie and Ds, and Let Mike lend his expertise on forwards, and let them (Ok, Dave) pick the lead recruiter, and then see what the next three years brings.

[JB]

Hiring someone who has coached an above-.500 team before is a decent start.

Give him and Mike three year contracts to be co-head coaches. Let Dave focus on Goalie and Ds, and Let Mike lend his expertise on forwards, and let them (Ok, Dave) pick the lead recruiter, and then see what the next three years brings.

Sort of my thinking. Somebody has to be lead dog. At this point I might pick Lassonde, however might get him back as lead assistant. Somebody has to make the final calls and at this point I think Lassonde has more/better experience, plus he has other experienced ears to ask questions to... Think Miami and Denver experience and Gwoz...

At this point UNH isn't much to sell and you could do worse. Plus I don't think Marty has the balls to do something bold.

Problem is the first advise is always going to be Mr Clutch old 599.

[HockeyRef]

That's why I asked the question about the contract. What control does Mike have guaranteed? And how even if not the contractual deal, would he be in a position to protest... it's not like he has a profile that he can insist on everything "promised" to him or he'll walk for a better gig. So you tell him he has to share and that's the only way he'll see three more years.

Under that rubric you have a clear three year track for the next reboot. And Dave get's to return triumphantly to the hometown and be the only adult running the place. Don't know how recruits would see this -- but can it be worse than how the recruiting world is viewing the solo gig?

Still like to know why he left? Not that it really matters just curious?

[JB]

Still like to know why he left? Not that it really matters just curious?

My understanding is Lassonde left to work with Gowz in Denver when Denver was a wagon. They had history from Miami a decade plus before and Gwoz wanted a goalie coach. Also Denver has/had more money. Seemed like a great move until Gowz got himself dumped from Denver doing something bold.

[Felger]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

Still like to know why he left? Not that it really matters just curious?

Some of the grassy knoll types were saying on here he left because of the Johnny Gaudreau situation. Perhaps that was true, although I always felt like that was too easy an explanation - it fit with the narrative those with the dominant self pity gene like to tell. But who knows, maybe that was the case.

As somebody who is Dave's age I always figured that money/security likely played into it. Its not like he was getting rich as an assistant coach at a state school. You get a bit older and you think about financial security. Probably more $$$ with other opportunities.

Perhaps he saw the writing on the wall...perhaps a combination of all three (and others)

I guess you would have to ask him.

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2017-2018 Season - The Quest Continues

Still like to know why he left? Not that it really matters just curious?

Here's the official story.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/colleges...eft-unh/20024/

2. By leaving UNH, where he spent 17 of his 23 years as a Division I coach, the 48-year-old Lassonde could be indirectly setting himself up to replace his mentor, Wildcats coach Dick Umile. The 62-year-old Umile is entering his 22nd season at his almamater and, according to Lassonde, could be nearing retirement in “four or five years.”

Would you want to be considered a candidate when Umile retires?

“I would seriously look at it and I think I would be a more attractive candidate having worked at Denver with George and Steve.”

If I recall the gossip, though, there was some issue about salary, and perhaps the future. If you pull together disparate threads, this is also around the time Borek feels he was promised the gig upon Umile retiring. So perhaps Lassonde saw the handwriting on the wall, ... even though Marty and Umile then smudged it over by ***ing all over the program.

edit: amazing to realize how even the prospect of being average and have some competence around feels like a lifeline.