LSSU Laker Hockey

[AnchorsAway]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Have you seen the recruits that Tech has coming in?

They are really going to be good next year and possibly be the surprise team. That team is going to win a lot of games that is for sure. That victory against the Lakers last season was actually a lot closer than the score indicated. If and if you don't know that, you don't know what your are talking about.

I wouldn't change a thing up at Houghton or at Lake Superior State. The Western situation is an exception to the rule.

Almost no one on here is advocating for Roque to return, I realize that it takes time for you to bounce back and forth between Truth Squad and Truth Serum (try to space your posts out by more than 6 minutes, you're starting to make it obvious...oh, and while you're at it, try using better grammar in your posts too) but most of us are actually agreeing with you.

[jnacc]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Truth be told, I was pleasantly surprised by the Lakers playoff run. How often have we won a home playoff series as of late and then take a very good program like Notre Dame to the brink?

We may not be impressed by their 8th place finish but you have to give the program credit for finishing on a strong note.

I would be shocked to see Roque lose his position....not that it would be unwarranted but all we fans can ask for is a competitive team and the Lakers provided that this year. They were one win away from making to the JLA tournament and few of the pundits thought that would be possible at the beginning of the year.

If Roque's contract is up this year and he is granted an extension, I can only hope that the school is wise enough to grant him a one or at the most two year term in order to protect itself. It is to early to determine if the ship is being steered correctly or if this year was nothing more than an anomaly.

[backbencher]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Players disappear or get booted for no reason? Who are you referring to? Certainly you are not referring to Dan Barczuk who I can say with absolute certainty got booted due to a combination of poor academics and an attitude problem...that is a piece of information that many followers of the team have known for weeks now, I'm surprised a hockey expert like yourself wasn't clued in to this piece of information...then again I suppose it's hard to hear anything when you have your head up your as$
Crawford doesn't mention that over the airwaves because it's in poor taste to embarass Barczuk like that

Not true ! Don't get blind just because you can't stand Truth3.
I admit I do not hold the 30+ fan card which seems to be a required, and it I see that questioning JR's human skills seems to imply being frustrated (and necessarily player or parent) so my taste for posting has dropped. But I can't just let a coach fan tarnish the reputation of a kid, simply to back the boss.
If it was only for academics and/or attitude, several key players would have lefts over the years, including this year.
If Crawford knows all the stories, he probably also is aware that the decision was taken on an impulse (are you surprised ?).
To be fair, he would have to also address the stories of players who would have been cut if the same rules had applied to them, and it could be that Barczuk would is the least embarrassed.

[Truth Squad]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

49 wins in the last 153 games and 12 wins out of 39 games this season.

If it is broke, just keep making excuses for it. You people are smarter up there than I give you credit for.

Way to survive another year. I know it must be very hard. I look forward to the same old arguments on here next year and am looking forward to the teams and great coaches that are still alive in the playoffs.


Bill or Jim, who has honors? Four....

The Truth Is Out There....
TBA

[AnchorsAway]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Not true ! Don't get blind just because you can't stand Truth3.
I admit I do not hold the 30+ fan card which seems to be a required, and it I see that questioning JR's human skills seems to imply being frustrated (and necessarily player or parent) so my taste for posting has dropped. But I can't just let a coach fan tarnish the reputation of a kid, simply to back the boss.
If it was only for academics and/or attitude, several key players would have lefts over the years, including this year.
If Crawford knows all the stories, he probably also is aware that the decision was taken on an impulse (are you surprised ?).
To be fair, he would have to also address the stories of players who would have been cut if the same rules had applied to them, and it could be that Barczuk would is the least embarrassed.

Yes it is true, I know the story of how it happend and the action that led to Roque swiping the nameplate ( a stupid penalty) was merely the straw that broke the camel's back...many of the other straws were, in fact, related to academics and attitude issues.

[Laker54]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

While things did get exciting at the end of the season with the possible playoff scenarios I still believe LSSU A.D. must make a coaching change now for several reasons.

1. The escapade with the official after the MSU game. In my profession we always spoke of the force continuum. Roques, like many coaches, argue or yell at the officials; next step in the continuum; he decided to leave the bench, after the MSU game to confront an official and makes several acquisitions afterward. What is next throwing something at an official or attacking one? The University cannot take a chance with his actions. He needs to be held accountable for his actions. Quite frankly this is enough to not renew his contract.
2. Roque's record is 82 wins, 105 losses and 39 ties for a .363 winning percentage after 6 years. Any coach with a losing record should not expect to keep his job. He has been here long enough to have his players in his system and he has not produced a winning team yet.
3. Lack of player development. I have attended quite a few games over the past six years and have yet to see very few players improve their skills from year to year. What is sad is there are some very good freshmen on this team; if Roque and his staff stay I doubt very much will ever see Kapelka, Jean, Campbell, Radke, Lain and Rave improve over the next 3 years. What about Trotman? At what point is he going to ask himself ‘can I improve here under Roque’s coaching or should I get into the Boston system to make it to the NHL’. Look at what 4 years under Roque’s coaching team did for BMW, who is/was property of the Sharks. While BMW did have a season ending injury it was very obvious he was going to be beat out of his starting job by a very good freshman! Boy what a waste! After watching several games this year I have to wonder about the players; they are busting their tails and get the same results. A losing record. It is time for a fresh start for them and the university.
4. The Lakers have become the basement dwellers for the past several years. We are all excited about the fantastic improvements coming the next couple of years to the facilities. Which hopefully kick start the program back to where it should be; this will not be accomplished with Coach Roque and his staff.
5. I find it hard to believe they are making money they could. If their attendance is 2200+- for each game; just think what they could do with a winning team. We might have crowds like the Michigan State Weekend this past January.

Several of the things I believe Lake State should look for in a new coach:
1. The new coach must bring respect back to the LSSU Hockey program. It has been my observations the Lakers have no respect from the CCHA or teams in the CCHA. After recent his recent run in with the CCHA fine and suspension, no matter our opinions of the CCHA or Roque, with these antics we will never get the respect from others.
2. He must have a proven record of selecting a proven coaching staff, recruiting quality hockey players, and most important develop those players.
3. The coach and his staff need to prepare the team both physically and mentally for each and every game. We have all talked about the ‘A’ team or ‘B’ team. Win or lose we all want to see the ‘A’ show up 100% of the time. The Lakers are not far from showing some great things now if the new coach can get the ‘A’ to show up for every period and game. Heck if they showed up 90% of the time it would improve their record greatly.
4. He needs to be a communicator with the young players, the University, community and the fan base. He must be able to communicate with past players to have them come back to help with the preparation of players. My son meet Roque at a Alumni event during the series in Bowling Green this past January and was brushed off by him after he made several negative comments to him.

I intend to send an e-mail to the A.D. expressing my view point about making a coaching change now. I would encourage others to do the same.

[Buck LeVasseur]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Truth be told, I was pleasantly surprised by the Lakers playoff run. How often have we won a home playoff series as of late and then take a very good program like Notre Dame to the brink?

We may not be impressed by their 8th place finish but you have to give the program credit for finishing on a strong note.

I would be shocked to see Roque lose his position....not that it would be unwarranted but all we fans can ask for is a competitive team and the Lakers provided that this year. They were one win away from making to the JLA tournament and few of the pundits thought that would be possible at the beginning of the year.

If Roque's contract is up this year and he is granted an extension, I can only hope that the school is wise enough to grant him a one or at the most two year term in order to protect itself. It is to early to determine if the ship is being steered correctly or if this year was nothing more than an anomaly.

I think you're sugar coating it by only looking at finishing one game away from the Joe and calling the season "competitive." This team was wildly inconsistent and, in a lot of games, weren't competitive. They put a nice little run together at the end of the year just in time for the playoffs, but that isn't a representation of the entire season. Only Bowling Green and Northern had a worse scoring differential than the Lakers. In the end, I hope this playoff run proves to be too little too late to the administration. Based on everything I've seen and heard from people both on and off campus, I have my doubts that anything will come to fruition. Roque will be back and LSSU will continue to limit how good the team will be despite the talent that is brought in.

I know I'm being negative, but I have no faith in this administration to do the right thing. Next year I think the team is going to be talented, especially defensively. I don't think Cowie and Stonehouse are going to be too difficult to replace, their combined plus/minus on the year is minus 34. They were good for 1st and 3rd worst total, BMW was nestled in-between them. Granted +/- isn't a tell all stat, but they were on the ice when a lot of goals were given up. At least Cowie brought a little offense, Stonehouse had 4 points on the season. Plus we won't have to watch Hobbins minutes go wasted anymore. With Trotman, Haines, and Kapalka leading the way the defense should be really solid last year. Add in Brunteau, Perrault, and Sternberg and I think we will have 5 solid defenders and a top-notch goalie. I don't see why they couldn't be similar to the Ferris team this year if they can find a couple of forwards to step up. Ferris only had one player score double digit goals, Oulette had 10. With all of the freshman starting to come on at the end of the year along with Freddy finding his groove I think the offense can build on that and find a few 7-8 goal scorers out of them. There is potential to be a solid team even with Rick, Will, and Chad moving on. I think the biggest thing they are going to have trouble replacing is the leadership.

[Buck LeVasseur]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

For the Lakers to improve their record (and place in the standings) next season, they are going to have to get a lot more production from most of the returning players. Monardo will be the only returning forward with over 15 points this season and the only double digit goal scorer. It will be hard to replace the point production we got from Schofield and Acton. We can always hope that one or more freshmen coming in will put up some decent numbers, but it's not something we can count on. Regardless of the numbers they put up in Juniors, the incoming freshmen always seem to find it a lot harder to score at this level.

We only had two double digit goal scorers so I think that sounds worse than it really is. With that said, I agree with you that it will be hard to replace Schofield, Acton, and Nehring for that matter. I do think the roster has the potential to be a very balanced scoring roster though. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I think with Jean, Campbell, Cassiani, Trotman, Power, McParlan, Lain, and Haines we can get between 6-9 goals out of each along with 12-15 from Monardo. Even if those guys were to average 6 goals and Domenic puts in his 12 again, that would match our output from this year not counting a goal here and there from the rest of the roster and whatever the freshman class gives.

[Truth Squad]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

While things did get exciting at the end of the season with the possible playoff scenarios I still believe LSSU A.D. must make a coaching change now for several reasons.

1. The escapade with the official after the MSU game. In my profession we always spoke of the force continuum. Roques, like many coaches, argue or yell at the officials; next step in the continuum; he decided to leave the bench, after the MSU game to confront an official and makes several acquisitions afterward. What is next throwing something at an official or attacking one? The University cannot take a chance with his actions. He needs to be held accountable for his actions. Quite frankly this is enough to not renew his contract.
2. Roque's record is 82 wins, 105 losses and 39 ties for a .363 winning percentage after 6 years. Any coach with a losing record should not expect to keep his job. He has been here long enough to have his players in his system and he has not produced a winning team yet.
3. Lack of player development. I have attended quite a few games over the past six years and have yet to see very few players improve their skills from year to year. What is sad is there are some very good freshmen on this team; if Roque and his staff stay I doubt very much will ever see Kapelka, Jean, Campbell, Radke, Lain and Rave improve over the next 3 years. What about Trotman? At what point is he going to ask himself ‘can I improve here under Roque’s coaching or should I get into the Boston system to make it to the NHL’. Look at what 4 years under Roque’s coaching team did for BMW, who is/was property of the Sharks. While BMW did have a season ending injury it was very obvious he was going to be beat out of his starting job by a very good freshman! Boy what a waste! After watching several games this year I have to wonder about the players; they are busting their tails and get the same results. A losing record. It is time for a fresh start for them and the university.
4. The Lakers have become the basement dwellers for the past several years. We are all excited about the fantastic improvements coming the next couple of years to the facilities. Which hopefully kick start the program back to where it should be; this will not be accomplished with Coach Roque and his staff.
5. I find it hard to believe they are making money they could. If their attendance is 2200+- for each game; just think what they could do with a winning team. We might have crowds like the Michigan State Weekend this past January.

Several of the things I believe Lake State should look for in a new coach:
1. The new coach must bring respect back to the LSSU Hockey program. It has been my observations the Lakers have no respect from the CCHA or teams in the CCHA. After recent his recent run in with the CCHA fine and suspension, no matter our opinions of the CCHA or Roque, with these antics we will never get the respect from others.
2. He must have a proven record of selecting a proven coaching staff, recruiting quality hockey players, and most important develop those players.
3. The coach and his staff need to prepare the team both physically and mentally for each and every game. We have all talked about the ‘A’ team or ‘B’ team. Win or lose we all want to see the ‘A’ show up 100% of the time. The Lakers are not far from showing some great things now if the new coach can get the ‘A’ to show up for every period and game. Heck if they showed up 90% of the time it would improve their record greatly.
4. He needs to be a communicator with the young players, the University, community and the fan base. He must be able to communicate with past players to have them come back to help with the preparation of players. My son meet Roque at a Alumni event during the series in Bowling Green this past January and was brushed off by him after he made several negative comments to him.

I intend to send an e-mail to the A.D. expressing my view point about making a coaching change now. I would encourage others to do the same.

I know this will probably get you in trouble with me commenting but the truth has been told.

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

A monkey could figure out where the Lakers will finish next season if Roque and coaching staff are back.

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

We only had two double digit goal scorers so I think that sounds worse than it really is. With that said, I agree with you that it will be hard to replace Schofield, Acton, and Nehring for that matter. I do think the roster has the potential to be a very balanced scoring roster though. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I think with Jean, Campbell, Cassiani, Trotman, Power, McParlan, Lain, and Haines we can get between 6-9 goals out of each along with 12-15 from Monardo. Even if those guys were to average 6 goals and Domenic puts in his 12 again, that would match our output from this year not counting a goal here and there from the rest of the roster and whatever the freshman class gives.

Balanced scoring is good and you can have a pretty decent team without having big goal scorers as long as you also have a very good defensive team and good goaltending. Although the Lakers and Ferris were pretty comparable as far as total goals scored, and both had good goalies, Ferris was clearly a better defensive team than the Lakers this season. For the Lakers to be as good next season as Ferris was this season, they certainly would need to improve defensively. But even for Ferris, it was the lack of more scoring that kept them from going to the Joe and perhaps even to the NCAA tournament this year. They were good enough defensively and in net.

[IrishHockeyFan]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Roque's record is 82 wins, 105 losses and 39 ties for a .363 winning percentage after 6 years.

Never seen anyone figure a winning % by counting all the ties as losses. His winning % is actually .449. Ties count as a half win (and a half loss) in figuring winning %.

There are so many things that are factoring into the struggle of schools like MTU or LSSU or NMU. It isn't as simple as finding a new coach. The landscape of this sport has changed too much in the last couple of decades. I for one think it is a MUCH better sport when there are schools like Lake State or Michigan Tech or Bemidji that can not only be competitive, but that can win it all. Your school taught my coach what it takes to make a team of players champions. I hope the day returns when our sport can be unlike the others again and small schools or division 2 schools take home the trophy. I'd like my team to do it first, but you get the idea.

FWIW, I was impressed by LSSUs drive and competitiveness this weekend. You had a pretty good showing of fans Saturday as well. We controlled the game Sunday for the most part and only a gaff from Johnson made it closer, but Friday we were flat out lucky to win. There were 3 or 4 occasions where the Lakers were on the doorstep and for some reason the puck stayed out of the net. If that game was played 10 times I believe Lake State would have won 5 of them just by having the bounces even out. Coming back from 2 down on Saturday to win was a heck of an effort. We've lost just twice when scoring first all season, if I am correct. I posted on our thread I thought Roque coached a great game on Friday, and didn't seem to miss a beat Saturday. Jackson made a couple of lineup changes that worked for us Sunday, and we came out and played with more passion than I've seen out of Notre Dame over the last few. Small consolation, but nothing for the Lakers to hang their heads about. Good luck to you in the future, and whatever happens, I hope it makes the team stronger.

[DopeyBaker]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Thanks for the kind words, IrishHockeyFan. Good luck at the Joe!!

[Truth Serum]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

While things did get exciting at the end of the season with the possible playoff scenarios I still believe LSSU A.D. must make a coaching change now for several reasons.

1. The escapade with the official after the MSU game. In my profession we always spoke of the force continuum. Roques, like many coaches, argue or yell at the officials; next step in the continuum; he decided to leave the bench, after the MSU game to confront an official and makes several acquisitions afterward. What is next throwing something at an official or attacking one? The University cannot take a chance with his actions. He needs to be held accountable for his actions. Quite frankly this is enough to not renew his contract.
2. Roque's record is 82 wins, 105 losses and 39 ties for a .363 winning percentage after 6 years. Any coach with a losing record should not expect to keep his job. He has been here long enough to have his players in his system and he has not produced a winning team yet.
3. Lack of player development. I have attended quite a few games over the past six years and have yet to see very few players improve their skills from year to year. What is sad is there are some very good freshmen on this team; if Roque and his staff stay I doubt very much will ever see Kapelka, Jean, Campbell, Radke, Lain and Rave improve over the next 3 years. What about Trotman? At what point is he going to ask himself ‘can I improve here under Roque’s coaching or should I get into the Boston system to make it to the NHL’. Look at what 4 years under Roque’s coaching team did for BMW, who is/was property of the Sharks. While BMW did have a season ending injury it was very obvious he was going to be beat out of his starting job by a very good freshman! Boy what a waste! After watching several games this year I have to wonder about the players; they are busting their tails and get the same results. A losing record. It is time for a fresh start for them and the university.
4. The Lakers have become the basement dwellers for the past several years. We are all excited about the fantastic improvements coming the next couple of years to the facilities. Which hopefully kick start the program back to where it should be; this will not be accomplished with Coach Roque and his staff.
5. I find it hard to believe they are making money they could. If their attendance is 2200+- for each game; just think what they could do with a winning team. We might have crowds like the Michigan State Weekend this past January.

Several of the things I believe Lake State should look for in a new coach:
1. The new coach must bring respect back to the LSSU Hockey program. It has been my observations the Lakers have no respect from the CCHA or teams in the CCHA. After recent his recent run in with the CCHA fine and suspension, no matter our opinions of the CCHA or Roque, with these antics we will never get the respect from others.
2. He must have a proven record of selecting a proven coaching staff, recruiting quality hockey players, and most important develop those players.
3. The coach and his staff need to prepare the team both physically and mentally for each and every game. We have all talked about the ‘A’ team or ‘B’ team. Win or lose we all want to see the ‘A’ show up 100% of the time. The Lakers are not far from showing some great things now if the new coach can get the ‘A’ to show up for every period and game. Heck if they showed up 90% of the time it would improve their record greatly.
4. He needs to be a communicator with the young players, the University, community and the fan base. He must be able to communicate with past players to have them come back to help with the preparation of players. My son meet Roque at a Alumni event during the series in Bowling Green this past January and was brushed off by him after he made several negative comments to him.

I intend to send an e-mail to the A.D. expressing my view point about making a coaching change now. I would encourage others to do the same.

"It's hard being on the road and look at the unfair advantages bigger school have like. A couple of bounces and it is a totally different game and series. Look at that game Sunday throw out the first three goals that took a lucky bounce and we win that game 2-1 and the series. And you knew the calls would be against us as they always are. Notre Dame was lucky on Friday to win. We just have to keep doing what we are doing and the wins will come. People don't understand that we could have had 21 wins if all those ties are wins. We're doing the right things and we are right there. We need some things to go our way and get some breaks. Being in a hotel for three days is hard on these guys and a lot of people don't understand how much of a disadvantage we have here being a smaller school. We won a playoff series in front of over 1000 fans on a national television audience and if that doesn't show the passion for this team and this coach I don't know what does. I like these guys, they are a good group of kids and Jackson was outcoached this weekend as someone on here said. We need some luck, we need to get some breaks, we need these refs to quit being against us and our coach to be safe when one of them threatens him. We got some good recruits coming in and they have lit it up this year on their teams. A lot of people don't understand but you can bet that this team will be the best conditioned, best coached and a team that is going to win a lot of games next season and be the surprise team of the league. I run into people all the time that want to get down on the Lakers and they don't know what they are talking about. We are doing all the right things and we will be back next year for year seven of the Jim Roque administration."

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

A monkey could figure out where the Lakers will finish next season if Roque and coaching staff are back.

I am going to e-mail that to the administration if Roque stays on.