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D1 Coaching Changes

commissioner change:
Jen Flowers leaving the WCHA to be an AD at a DII school in Minnesota. she oversaw the WCHA return to 8 teams, no harm to travel budgets. She also finally, finally got the WCHA on an affordable streaming package. Two impactful accomplishments for women’s hockey.

I’d like to see CHA improve their streaming package. I suppose the Cuse home games are free and for a small add on a person can get Penn State with the WCHA package. But for CHA only last year it was 110 for the season plus extra for CHA playoffs. Completely askew from the rest of the market.
 
Note: I did not add the above. Joel Johnson is the women's head hockey coach at St. Thomas, and Marty Sertich is one of two assistants.
 
I have two issues with Muzerall, both related to on-ice gamesmanship:

1) While I am irritated by the face-off shenanigans everyone engages in, Ohio State is by far the worst about it. It is far past time for the refs to start calling delay of game penalties for this.

2) Muzerall somehow manages to be even more dilatory about sending out a line for a face-off than Mark Johnson is. Again, it's time to start calling delay of game.

The stuff mentioned in this thread? Not an issue.
 
I have two issues with Muzerall, both related to on-ice gamesmanship...
Haven't we all gotten rather spoiled in the absence of Shannon, so we need to invent gamesmanship when there really isn't any? Muzzy probably says, "17, 22, 11 -- you're up!" Then it takes awhile for the players to figure out what number they are wearing, because black on black is hard to read even from up close. Or whatever this year's edition of undetectable numerals was.

Just to remind you of the classic UMD hijinks... After they iced the puck, all of the players would skate unto their bench, like they had never heard of no-change icing, or maybe even icing at all, and it would take 2 minutes to sort it all out while the coach "helped." There was always a five-minute delay before the Zamboni could start to resurface while the officials were scolded for their improper administering of the rules. Although I guess I preferred those to all of the in-game requirements for bench-side conferences, either proceeded or followed by high-pitched shrieking, and on special occasions, other histrionics. At least Muzzy can get through the post-game handshakes without doing anything that results in the need for a league investigation.
 
Haven't we all gotten rather spoiled in the absence of Shannon, so we need to invent gamesmanship when there really isn't any? Muzzy probably says, "17, 22, 11 -- you're up!" Then it takes awhile for the players to figure out what number they are wearing, because black on black is hard to read even from up close. Or whatever this year's edition of undetectable numerals was.

Just to remind you of the classic UMD hijinks... After they iced the puck, all of the players would skate unto their bench, like they had never heard of no-change icing, or maybe even icing at all, and it would take 2 minutes to sort it all out while the coach "helped." There was always a five-minute delay before the Zamboni could start to resurface while the officials were scolded for their improper administering of the rules. Although I guess I preferred those to all of the in-game requirements for bench-side conferences, either proceeded or followed by high-pitched shrieking, and on special occasions, other histrionics. At least Muzzy can get through the post-game handshakes without doing anything that results in the need for a league investigation.
I nominate this for the post of the off-season!
 
I have two issues with Muzerall, both related to on-ice gamesmanship:

1) While I am irritated by the face-off shenanigans everyone engages in, Ohio State is by far the worst about it. It is far past time for the refs to start calling delay of game penalties for this.

2) Muzerall somehow manages to be even more dilatory about sending out a line for a face-off than Mark Johnson is. Again, it's time to start calling delay of game.

The stuff mentioned in this thread? Not an issue.

and people wonder how people in Athletics become to think theyre untouchable and get themselves into trouble.....
 
and people wonder how people in Athletics become to think theyre untouchable and get themselves into trouble.....

We get it, you have some kind of issue with Muzerall.

And in the end it was UMD that got themselves in trouble for retaliation, not Miller.
 
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And in the end it was UMD that got themselves in trouble for retaliation, not Miller.
Was it retaliation, or just running an intolerant workplace environment that seemed stuck in the '50s?

Looked at in insight, I think that UMD was somewhat right in wanting to make a change, in that the program is healthier now than it was in Miller's final years. It was also wrong in its primary motivation for wanting to make that change and how it went about it. She rapidly rose to prominence in large part by getting her pick of the European players. Once she had to share those players with others while also facing competition from UND in the western provinces, she was slow to react to the fact that there was greater potential in Minnesota and other areas of Canada than she was recruiting.

UMD was likely the first program to go through it, but all of the women's hockey NCAA "dynasties" have gone through a phase where they looked to think that because they'd had so much success, they didn't need to work as hard at recruiting. The talent level doesn't have to drop much to take a team from dominant power to good enough to make the tournament but not good enough to win it.
 
Was it retaliation, or just running an intolerant workplace environment that seemed stuck in the '50s?

Looked at in insight, I think that UMD was somewhat right in wanting to make a change, in that the program is healthier now than it was in Miller's final years.

I use the word retaliation because that is what the jury used but your description is likely accurate as well. My point was that UMd moved on from Miller but not because she had done something wrong.

The program does seem quite healthy now. I also think something they really needed and fought for and got, was an expanded tournament.

Miller is fascinating to me - I can absolutely see how exhausting she may have been (like a lot of coaches) and appreciate the posts that state things that happened rather than vagaries. I can see a program may have wanted to move on, and yet I do have respect for what she accomplished, and for how she is literally still trying to grow hockey. I also am fully open about how looking back I think it’s sad that my generation of hockey players did not have female coaches that we saw celebrated despite the fact that they existed, flawed humans as they were just like the rest of us. I know that colors my perspective.

There is also currently no blue print for how to move on from an NCAA championship winning coach in women’s hockey. Not sure that will be relevant any time soon but the whole thing is interesting.
 
There is also currently no blue print for how to move on from an NCAA championship winning coach in women’s hockey. Not sure that will be relevant any time soon but the whole thing is interesting.
So far, two programs have tried, and we've already talked about UMD's method not to emulate unless your pockets are very deep. Minnesota's situation was different in the the coach decided to move on to other things. Even then, it wasn't a the smoothest transition.

One would think we'll get get to see Wisconsin's approach fairly soon, unless Johnson plans to work into his 70s, but again it will be the coach's decision.

Clarkson and Minnesota's next transition will be more interesting. Not entirely sure why, but it looks like Colgate, Cornell, Yale, Princeton, and maybe Harvard are ahead of the Golden Knights in the ECAC, with both Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence at least at about the same level. Is recruiting going to give the program a boost soon, or is this where the program is going to be for a while. I would guess that Desrosiers has done enough to last another decade at this level, but I imagine Clarkson will rally before that.

Frost? A so-so start, a great 5 years, and now back to a longer run of nothing great. We've seen on the men's hockey side that winning league titles aren't enough to keep a Gophers coach around indefinitely. The four titles buy some patience, but there has been a feeling that many of these seasons didn't maximize potential. Some of that is fan perspective, but a 3-4 tournament mark since the last championship is only one game better than the 2-4 that his teams were in his first four years. If the record isn't back over .500 in the next five years ...
 
So far, two programs have tried, and we've already talked about UMD's method not to emulate unless your pockets are very deep. Minnesota's situation was different in the the coach decided to move on to other things. Even then, it wasn't a the smoothest transition.

shame on me forgetting Laura Halldorson. /facepalm
 
commissioner change:
Jen Flowers leaving the WCHA to be an AD at a DII school in Minnesota. she oversaw the WCHA return to 8 teams, no harm to travel budgets. She also finally, finally got the WCHA on an affordable streaming package. Two impactful accomplishments for women’s hockey.

I think she did an ok job, I was not a fan of how they handled the pandemic scheduling, though it was a tough spot. I find it hard to believe that job is a full time job.
 
I think she did an ok job, I was not a fan of how they handled the pandemic scheduling, though it was a tough spot. I find it hard to believe that job is a full time job.

Yes, regarding the scheduling. It was weird, but so were the times.

June 30th marks the completion of first fiscal year of the WCHA without the men. I’m interested to see what the 990 looks like when it’s available because of the transparent view it will provide of running a women’s only league.
 
Yes, regarding the scheduling. It was weird, but so were the times.

June 30th marks the completion of first fiscal year of the WCHA without the men. I’m interested to see what the 990 looks like when it’s available because of the transparent view it will provide of running a women’s only league.

That would be interesting to see.
 
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