Re: Lake Superior State Hockey Lakers 2013-2014 (part II)
Winning Fall: Few Posts.
Losing January: Many Posts.
That's a sad state of affairs, and it has nothing to do with coaches, coach's pay, or third string keepers.
I don't think that is necessarily fair, speaking for myself I posted just as frequently in the fall as I do now, but even if the posts in the fall were of a lower frequency overall I don't think that is a just indictment of our posting fan base. We all know the Lakers pattern in the Roque era of having a promising first half only to fall apart during the season's second half. The Lakers came out of the gate fast, faster than they have in any previous Roque season, and that was exciting but I think the lack of posts were due to many Laker fans being afraid to "buy in" due to the previously mentioned pattern of Laker teams. If anything the Lakers subsequent performance has exacerbated our fans worst fears and if anything, vindicates their cautiousness towards displaying enthusiasm, because they figured the rug would be pulled out from under them, and low and behold it has been yet again.
I'm at my wits end with this program, there is still a handful of games left and the opportunity is certainly there to finish strong and make a run during the playoffs, but it certainly does not appear to be trending that way. I'm with Bill in suspecting that there is a disconnect between the players and Roque, perhaps they are also not buying in. The talent of players has gotten so much better as the Roque era has progressed, as evidenced by the numerous players getting opportunities at pro hockey in their post-LSSU days but despite having better ingredients, Chef Roque is still churning out a sub-standard dish.
The quotes from Roque this season have been absurd, as others have noted; constantly leaning on the excuse that some of his better players are playing elsewhere, saying that he doesn't really have a system, that he just tells the players to go out there and do their thing, I mean seriously what is that?? JR has been a D1 coach for a decade and he's making quotes that would cause head shaking even if it were coming from the most ill-prepared, rookie coach. There are certain things in each profession that you just don't say. As a coach at the highest level of college hockey for a decade how have you not figured out to at least talk the talk and not make excuses and hide the fact that you don't even do what your job title is, which is coach?? If the players really aren't buying into JR, I don't blame them, the way JR runs LSSU's program is probably a sloppy step down from many of their previous junior programs.
