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Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

Is there an actual limit to how many players can be on the team? I know you can dress 20ish players for a game, but is there a limit to how many you can have and just be a healthy scratch?
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

goUMLgoBC said:
- Who are we looking at to replace him?
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I wonder how well former assistants would do. You got Shawn McEachern and Ken Rausch or Chris MacKenzie. All three are currently employed (prep school, USA Hockey, and Niagra women's team).
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

D-I ice hockey are allowed eighteen (18) scholarships. There is no limit that I know of for total numbers of players but the scholarship number can't exceed eighteen.
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

bottomdweller said:
Is there an actual limit to how many players can be on the team? I know you can dress 20ish players for a game, but is there a limit to how many you can have and just be a healthy scratch?
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as far as I know there is no high limit.... on the other hand, there is a limit on the number in a travelling party for road games.
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

bottomdweller said:
I wonder how well former assistants would do. You got Shawn McEachern and Ken Rausch or Chris MacKenzie. All three are currently employed (prep school, USA Hockey, and Niagra women's team).
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I think Whitehead was a former assistant under Crowder. :D And, he has head coaching experience. :D:D
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

My thoughts:

Blaise isn't going anywhere this season, I don't care if the team loses the rest of their games by a touchdown each. He has another year on his contract, and we can expect that to play out.

The University basically made a two year commitment to Blaise when they kept him on after last year's horrifically disappointing season. He had a large class coming in, things were changing for the better regarding the new arena and so forth...so here we are.

In my opinion, Blaise's future at Lowell hinges on next season. Do we see improvement? Considering how bad the team is this season, improvement is surely going to be a relative thing. I do think it's going to take a good, solid season to get Blaise a contract extension. I just don't think that is very likely.

The "who replaces Blaise" is, frankly, irrelevant, and that's real talk. Changing for the sake of change isn't necessarily the best strategy, but what is the University going to do? The fact is that it looks like Blaise isn't going to be the coach that gets Lowell where they want to go. Through two large classes, both of which ended with severe disappointment, Coach has been the one constant. It's naive to expect the status quo to change when you keep doing everything the same way. So the change is made because it has to be...because there are no other options.

I like Blaise. I don't know any fans who've met coach that don't like him. He's very likable. But this isn't a popularity contest. There are some problems with this team that have been mentioned, i.e. the balancing out of the classes, that just haven't been taken care of.

Unless Lowell is a competitive 5/6 place team next season, I think we'll see the University go in a different direction.
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

goUMLgoBC said:
TIIL Saturday recap has some good perspective and a good comparison between this team and the team from four years ago, even if it is a little accusatory towards USCHO posters :).

http://theiceislife.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/saturday-thoughts-this-isnt-what-i-signed-up-for/
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Some good points but I think assumptions are being made about how folks feel. I don't see everyone in here screaming for a change. We have a few Blaise haters who would be at it as we walked away with the big trophy but most here are wondering FTW. Perhaps the mind numbs to pain and I do not recall correctly but the season used to compare to this team there were a bunch of almost won games. I didn't feel like I was ready to give up the hope for a win until the final buzzer. This team I am ready to give up before I hit the seat. It is not a good feeling. The Frosh and sophs are looking very good to me. It is some of the glaring errors made by the older guys I find disheartening, esp since they are causing game changing/ending plays.
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

leswp1 said:
Some good points but I think assumptions are being made about how folks feel. I don't see everyone in here screaming for a change. We have a few Blaise haters who would be at it as we walked away with the big trophy but most here are wondering FTW. Perhaps the mind numbs to pain and I do not recall correctly but the season used to compare to this team there were a bunch of almost won games. I didn't feel like I was ready to give up the hope for a win until the final buzzer. This team I am ready to give up before I hit the seat. It is not a good feeling. The Frosh and sophs are looking very good to me. It is some of the glaring errors made by the older guys I find disheartening, esp since they are causing game changing/ending plays.
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Just a couple of points of clarification that I would like to make.

My only goal of the post was to suggest that I've have doubts about the long term future of this team because we've been here before. To me, I see the same cycle that has been happening for the past 15 years, long before Blaise was coach. I'm not a "Blaise-lover" or "Blaise-hater", I'm a Blaise and Lowell supporter. I simply wanted to express my opinion that I don't think that long term this is going to work and I hope to hell I'm wrong. I have partially succeeded in this quest as this has been one of the more interesting and entertaining UML posts in a long time on this board and more importanly, it has remained civil.

Les, I think there are many assumptions being made here. That's why I posted what I did, it was a poll of what people and I was interested in their take. How people interpret it is up to them.

People on here know I'm not a fan of systems, but as a famous coach said, "It is what it is". I hate stats because you can spin them into anything. However, records are final and there isn't much difference between 3-8-3 and 2-10-2 at the end of the day. By definition, it is an oversimplistic view and a stat. No matter what the strength of schedule or goal differential may be, this is what coaches of all sports are judged upon, fair or unfair.
 
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Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

Even if they bring in a new coach doesn't mean lowell's problems will be answered!!! I want Lowell to win!!! I just hope if they make a change that the players respond in a positive way to the change!!! If they do make a change it needs to be done now!!!!! Give this team another year!!!!!
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

bigeasy29 said:
Even if they bring in a new coach doesn't mean lowell's problems will be answered!!! I want Lowell to win!!! I just hope if they make a change that the players respond in a positive way to the change!!! If they do make a change it needs to be done now!!!!! Give this team another year!!!!!
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Ok, so now I'm confused. You said if they make a change it needs to be done now, but then give this team another year. Which is it?

Also, there is no need to shout. Let's use our indoor voices.
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

We all knew it was going to be a rough season but I don't think any of us thought it was going to be this bad.

Boulanger is horrible and I feel bad for the kid, but Carr has been OK. The D on the other hand has been awful, just awful.

What happened to Maury Edwards? He was suspect last year and is even worse this year (-10).

No need for a Coaching change right now. Call me crazy but I think the boys pick up 3 points against UNH and Amherst. I will be at both games.
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

bottomdweller said:
Ok, so now I'm confused. You said if they make a change it needs to be done now, but then give this team another year. Which is it?

Also, there is no need to shout. Let's use our indoor voices.
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You'll note he used five exclamation points on the last two sentences... indicating an even LOUDER VOICE!
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

I don't follow UMLowell enough to say whether or not Blaise needs to go, but I will say I thought they were a program on the rise, especially after appearing in the Hockey East Championship Game. I would have hoped that more than just the die-hards (more than just people who take the time to post on here) would start showing up to games; I always want to see UNH do well, but I also am always rooting for growth of the sport, and the best means to that end is more teams doing well.

All I know is, there doesn't appear to be much fan support for UML right now. There's a radio ad up here, offering a two-ticket package including hot dogs and a drink for like $30. "Help make this a home game on the road for UNH, and turn Tsongas into the Whitttemore South." Sounds like the program didn't sell as many season tickets as they'd hoped . . .
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

unhpuckfan2001 said:
I don't follow UMLowell enough to say whether or not Blaise needs to go, but I will say I thought they were a program on the rise, especially after appearing in the Hockey East Championship Game. I would have hoped that more than just the die-hards (more than just people who take the time to post on here) would start showing up to games; I always want to see UNH do well, but I also am always rooting for growth of the sport, and the best means to that end is more teams doing well.

All I know is, there doesn't appear to be much fan support for UML right now. There's a radio ad up here, offering a two-ticket package including hot dogs and a drink for like $30. "Help make this a home game on the road for UNH, and turn Tsongas into the Whitttemore South." Sounds like the program didn't sell as many season tickets as they'd hoped . . .
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I believe season tickets are selling well enough, and I was actually shocked that the attendance wasn't abysmal this past weekend considering it was Mankato, and obviously students weren't around.

Overall attendance is down this year, but that's not surprising considering that the team wasn't supposed to be good anyway.

The perception that many of us had was that 2 years ago was the building block, with last year being another forward step, but then a bit of a downer this year. Unfortunately that "bit of a downer" has (so far) been a pretty steep fall. We knew this team would struggle just to make the playoffs, but the way the team is losing is disheartening. It's made all the more frustrating by the fact that the the upperclassmen are either having a disappointing year so far, or are injured, which is piling more pressure on the freshmen and sophomores (albeit, those two classes have played surprisingly well considering everything).
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

[

All I know is, there doesn't appear to be much fan support for UML right now. There's a radio ad up here, offering a two-ticket package including hot dogs and a drink for like $30. "Help make this a home game on the road for UNH, and turn Tsongas into the Whitttemore South." Sounds like the program didn't sell as many season tickets as they'd hoped . . .[/QUOTE]
I think the Tsongas is a little oversized for college hockey anyway...rarely sells out, so a ticket deal is always a good way to raise some money through consessions. I seem to remember Lowell having one of the highest average attendance rates last year. Don't think thats a big deal. Merrimack had a $5 ticket deal when Lowell played them, and $1 when they play Providence. Just trying to fill seats when the visiting team doesn't have a local following...
 
Re: Is it time for change at UMass-Lowell?

Question about the class sizes: My understanding is that in Blaise's tenure, there have been a couple of LARGE classes that moved through, creatng this cycle of building while the large class is young, to being a contender by the time the class matures, and then collapsing back down to building when the large class graduates, and a new large class comes in as freshmen. This happens because the size of that large class prohibits them from recruiting younger players. Would it be possible to thin out that class as they get older, and restore some balance to the recruiting? Just wondering if there's a "fix" to the problem.

mikeinlowell said:
I think the Tsongas is a little oversized for college hockey anyway...rarely sells out, so a ticket deal is always a good way to raise some money through consessions. I seem to remember Lowell having one of the highest average attendance rates last year. Don't think thats a big deal. Merrimack had a $5 ticket deal when Lowell played them, and $1 when they play Providence. Just trying to fill seats when the visiting team doesn't have a local following...
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Oversized? Do you mean for the size of the school that plays there? I could understand that, as Lowell is smaller than a lot of the other D-I schools.

As for deals to "fill the seats when the visiting team doesn't have a local following," I'm pretty sure UNH has a local following (I would also argue that UML has a local following when they play at Merrimack, but I don't know how well UML fans travel these days).
 
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