AnchorsAway
Registered User
Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2
Great post, I think what we have here is a couple of conversations being thrown into the same ring. One regards the extremely disappointing finish to the season for the Lakers and who should "get" the blame for it. On that my take is that it falls on both the players and the coaches; for the players portion I think what needs to be acknowledged is that at the end of the day they are the ones who are playing the games and are very responsible for how the season plays out i.e. it's not all the x's and the o's, it's also the jimmys and the joes. Being a ranked team at Christmas and falling apart in the second half shows not playing to potential, you cant have a 1-0 lead in a best of 3 series on home ice and go out and get outscored by 10 goals in the last two games against what is essentially an equal opponent, simply put it can't happen. Lakers2Glory seemed to take offense to the harsh words said about the players effort in that final series and to that I say that yes, these are college kids but college is supposed to prepare young people for the real world and the fact of the matter is that in the real world you are held accountable for your actions personally, professionally, financially, etc. if you don't perform to the expectations, there will be consequences, this if nothing else, should serve as a reminder of that. For the coaches part in the second half swoon there is a clear pattern under this coaching staff of teams falling asleep at the wheel when the calendar turns over and they are responsible for identifying lapses in player conditioning, focus, etc. and rectifying the problem, this isn't happening. They are also responsible for scouting and preparing game plans and making adjustments based on what they are seeing. Losing 6-3 only to come out the next night and lose 7-0 shows a severe lack of this also.
The second conversation seems to be the ongoing speculation about Coach Roque, and his abilities to do this job, much of which ties into the reasons I just discussed. The facts are that Coach Roque has, as others have said, certainly stabilized the program from where it was when he took over and made it out of the lowest tier of division 1 hockey. He has improved the level of players wearing a Laker sweater, under him many have made the jump to professional hockey. Under him the program received a fantastic donation that should improve the facilities for year to come. The man has spent decades in this program and knows the LSSU environment as well as anyone could. However the facts are also that under Coach Roque the team has shown a pattern of jumping out to a pretty good start to the season then falling apart in the second half and disappointing in the playoffs. During these times the team has also often shown the tendency to play close hard fought games with top tier teams only to lose close games, and then turn around a play at a much lower level against weaker teams that produces middling results. Has JR tried changing his approach over the years during these times? If not, he should be by now, and if he has then maybe he simply doesn't have it in him to get this team to the next level. There are coaches out there in every sport that make a living in taking teams that are bad and improving them greatly, but never making it to the top (Marty Schottenheimer in football comes to mind). There is nothing wrong with that, that doesn't make them bad coaches or people; Jim Roque has done an awful lot for the LSSU hockey program, no one should deny that, just as no one should deny that JR has shown a glaring inability to produce a team that plays at a high level for an entire season, even with improving levels of talent. It does not appear at all that his job is in jeopardy at this time, but if next season's arc is similar to the past several even with the change in leagues then I don't see how even the most staunch JR defenders will have a leg left to stand on.
Great post, I think what we have here is a couple of conversations being thrown into the same ring. One regards the extremely disappointing finish to the season for the Lakers and who should "get" the blame for it. On that my take is that it falls on both the players and the coaches; for the players portion I think what needs to be acknowledged is that at the end of the day they are the ones who are playing the games and are very responsible for how the season plays out i.e. it's not all the x's and the o's, it's also the jimmys and the joes. Being a ranked team at Christmas and falling apart in the second half shows not playing to potential, you cant have a 1-0 lead in a best of 3 series on home ice and go out and get outscored by 10 goals in the last two games against what is essentially an equal opponent, simply put it can't happen. Lakers2Glory seemed to take offense to the harsh words said about the players effort in that final series and to that I say that yes, these are college kids but college is supposed to prepare young people for the real world and the fact of the matter is that in the real world you are held accountable for your actions personally, professionally, financially, etc. if you don't perform to the expectations, there will be consequences, this if nothing else, should serve as a reminder of that. For the coaches part in the second half swoon there is a clear pattern under this coaching staff of teams falling asleep at the wheel when the calendar turns over and they are responsible for identifying lapses in player conditioning, focus, etc. and rectifying the problem, this isn't happening. They are also responsible for scouting and preparing game plans and making adjustments based on what they are seeing. Losing 6-3 only to come out the next night and lose 7-0 shows a severe lack of this also.
The second conversation seems to be the ongoing speculation about Coach Roque, and his abilities to do this job, much of which ties into the reasons I just discussed. The facts are that Coach Roque has, as others have said, certainly stabilized the program from where it was when he took over and made it out of the lowest tier of division 1 hockey. He has improved the level of players wearing a Laker sweater, under him many have made the jump to professional hockey. Under him the program received a fantastic donation that should improve the facilities for year to come. The man has spent decades in this program and knows the LSSU environment as well as anyone could. However the facts are also that under Coach Roque the team has shown a pattern of jumping out to a pretty good start to the season then falling apart in the second half and disappointing in the playoffs. During these times the team has also often shown the tendency to play close hard fought games with top tier teams only to lose close games, and then turn around a play at a much lower level against weaker teams that produces middling results. Has JR tried changing his approach over the years during these times? If not, he should be by now, and if he has then maybe he simply doesn't have it in him to get this team to the next level. There are coaches out there in every sport that make a living in taking teams that are bad and improving them greatly, but never making it to the top (Marty Schottenheimer in football comes to mind). There is nothing wrong with that, that doesn't make them bad coaches or people; Jim Roque has done an awful lot for the LSSU hockey program, no one should deny that, just as no one should deny that JR has shown a glaring inability to produce a team that plays at a high level for an entire season, even with improving levels of talent. It does not appear at all that his job is in jeopardy at this time, but if next season's arc is similar to the past several even with the change in leagues then I don't see how even the most staunch JR defenders will have a leg left to stand on.
