LSSU Laker Hockey

[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.

 

[soofan]

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.
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.

You don't mention Pat Inglis who also went downhill. At least there is one freshman we can't tell regressed, as he never crossed the starting line (I found this on a hockey school website when googling but it must be a namesake).

 

[Mogerfan]

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.

The point of my previous post was to tell you not to be so thin skinned. It obviously failed.

Again, are there ANY "coach fans" on this board? If the team I saw Saturday night finished 4 games below .500 on the season, then there are coaching issues.

This year we had a VERY good top line, many upper classmen on the blue line, and a great young goalie. When are we ever going to have more talent on a team than we did this year? Likely never, and the best Roque could do was 8th place? I have to think that the best we will ever get under Roque is 8th place, and that isn't good enough. Bad bounces aren't the problem. The problem is the many nights when the team didn't show up. Even Crawford said regularly that the team often lacked intensity until its back was against the wall.

Someone said last fall that Roque had some connection to the $5 mil donorship group. Does anyone know if that is true or not? If that is the case we'll likely have Roque onboard indefinately.

If he isn't connected to that group, the administration must at least be considering a change. Though with the state of the budget in Michigan right now, they might give him a one or two year contract to tread water until the budget improves.

 

[PerkyforPrez]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

If anyone is going to email the admin keep it civil and include your name they can not take it seriouse if it's anonymouse.

I remember a couple years ago on here some people would reply to some of us wanting a new coach that if we got our wish it would send us back 5 years. I didn't get it then and i still don't get it because Western sure blew that theory out of the water. When they came to the soo to play us i payed close attention to him and his team to see if i could understand why they turned it around so fast. The only thing i could really tell is that they worked nonstop on the ice they looked like he really had the respect his players. Blashill i noticed quite often would make his way down to the boards and have a quick verbal exchange with his player or players and they would seem to respond. I have not seen that very often with the Lakers and coach Roque.

Laker hockey and really college hockey is nearing a crossroads and I can see the Lakers going DIII or even dropping the program in 10 to 15 years. This team never was very consistant all year they finnished the year well but the post season is not enough to warrant any more of coach Roque to try and prove me wrong. We do not want to hit 2013 with the changing landscape of conferences and the economy with a team that the fans have to wonder is it th A' or the B' thats going to show up.

 

[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.

It is nice to see people on here not afraid of the people sent out by the coaches attack dogs and blind defenders.

I too will send this to the Athletic Director along with some other things that I will add.

The Truth Is Out There....

 

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Already next season at the coaches and media day to pick the CCHA places. I am telling you right now they have Lake State picked to finish 9th-11th .

 

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

You don't mention Pat Inglis who also went downhill. At least there is one freshman we can't tell regressed, as he never crossed the starting line (I found this on a hockey school website when googling but it must be a namesake).

Why didnt Roque play Ravn in a game or two. My god,the man recruited the guy and had to think he had the skill to play at this level. Is this going to be another Inglis story. Inglis has the talent to be a NHL goalie but never even developed under Roque and Roque was the guy who said Inglis had the talent to play in the NHL.

 

[Neil Diamond]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Laker hockey and really college hockey is nearing a crossroads and I can see the Lakers going DIII or even dropping the program in 10 to 15 years.

Why?

 

[Neil Diamond]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Does that include the first place votes in each poll by the two-some of the Minister of Information and the head of the administration?

Quack, quack.

 

[AnchorsAway]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

Why?

lol I'm asking the same thing

 

[AnchorsAway]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey

The following is a copy of the e-mail that I sent to A.D. Dunbar 5 minutes ago, the only thing I cut out of it is my name at the bottom:



A.D. Dunbar,

I am currently a senior scheduled to graduate this spring and am an avid fan of the Laker hockey team. Over the course of my 4 years here I been to every home game the Lakers have had save for 5 or 6, and I have been watching hockey since the age of four, including 12 years as a player. I am writing to recommend that Laker coach Jim Roque be relieved of his duties as the head coach of the Laker hockey team.

Coach Roque has been head coach for 6 seasons now, which I believe most would agree is a very substantial body of work to judge his effectiveness as a coach on. During that period the Lakers have had a record of 85-108-39 for a winning percentange of .366, abysmal at best. 36 of those 85 wins (42%) came in Roque's first two seasons, when the roster he was coaching was almost completely filled with players that were recruited by the previous coach, Frank Anzalone. It is nothing but logical to expect a coach's record to improve once his roster contained players that he recruited to Lake State, because he would (or should) be bringing in players that fit his type of systems. His record as you know, did nothing but plummet since this time. The Lakers have finished between 3 and 10 games below .500 every season since that time, which is frankly unacceptable.

I think it's safe to say that we all live in the real world and can acknowledge the fact that in the present, LSSU is not the easiest place to recruit top notch players to. The schools that we are competing with are almost all blessed with bigger campuses, bigger "name appeal", finer facilities, and are located in more prototypical "college towns". Languishing near the bottom of the standings year in, year out, without making any changes even lessens the appeal to potential recuits and the respect level that recruits have for our school. I know a couple of D1 college hockey players (all that play in the CCHA currently) and over the years have had the opportunity to speak with not only them, but many of their teammates from the junior and college level and I can tell you that the level of respect that these type of players have for LSSU's program is very low. This type of reputation for LSSU that is held by many of the better players in North America is poisonous when it comes to recruiting efforts. For example, one of my friends played in the USHL for 2 seasons and over the course of that time EVERY other CCHA school got at least one recruit from my friends team, except for LSSU. When I asked my friend why, he directly stated "why would anyone want to go there? they're not any good and they have to be to even have a chance to get these type of guys, because they lack in so many other areas".

You have seen the other CCHA teams who have been bottom dwellers (Bowling Green, Western Michigan, Ohio State) recently make coaching changes after a few years of dismal success, and it is time that Lake State does the same. Is there a guarantee that a coaching change will change the amount of success that LSSU has? Absolutely not, OSU and BG had similar results this season (although keep in mind those coaches don't have many of their "own" players playing under them just yet) but there is just a good of a chance that it could (look at Western Michigan this season). The bottom line is that it is worth the chance to make an attempt to change the culture of LSSU's hockey program because we know what we are getting with the current coaching staff and it has produced poor records, dwindling attendance and fan enthusiasm, and a bad reputation among many of the junior hockey players in North America that we covet. We still have managed to get a top notch player here and there (Derek Smith, Rick Schofield, Zach Trotman, Domenic Monardo) but if this streak of pathetic records continues, it is likely that we will stop getting even the once every few years stars that we are currently managing to get to come here.

Granted, I realize that the Lakers just made a nice playoff run and stacked up well against Notre Dame, one of the top teams in the nation but the fact that we were so competitive against them is part of my point: inconsistency. The Lakers tied Minnesota-Duluth, beat Notre Dame in South Bend, and tied (with a shootout win, but that is inconsequential according to the NCAA selection committee, which sees it as a tie) Miami in Oxford. These are all teams that have spent time in the top 10 in polls the entire season and are legitimate NCAA title contenders. We also own a win and a tie against Western Michigan, a likely NCAA tournament team. Based on these results it's obvious that the Lakers even with a roster that is largely blue collar, lightly recruited players still had the capability to go toe to toe with some of the top teams in the nation. For this reason, the fact that we had 6 losses/ties (again counting the shootout results as inconsequential) against Bowling Green, Michigan State, and Michigan Tech, some of the worst squads in this region of the country is inexplicable (and 5 of the 6 the games I'm referencing happend on home ice, mind you). The only consistent this about the Lakers under Roque's tenure is the inconsistency (another example is last season when the Lakers were in a tie for 4th and ranked 18th in the country for a week in the second half of the season only to fall apart in the home stretch, finish in the bottom quarter of the standings, and bow out in the first round of the playoffs), inconsistency that has proven detrimental to the Laker's record.

Miami has been one of the top teams in the country over the last 5 years and have plenty of talent, including players who have been in the running for the Hobey Baker as part of some of the most skilled and deep rosters in the country. Yet the Redhawks still work their tail off, always have a man in the opposing goalies face to screen him, play flawless positional hockey, and are extremely disciplined and conditioned...these are things that in many games they quite frankly, don't necessarily need to do to get a win based on their high level of talent, but they do anyway. The Lakers, who pale in comparison to the talent of Miami, regularly fail in these areas and that leads to losses which contribute to the inconsistency. It would be one thing if the Lakers did all of these things, regularly played to their potential and were losing games based on the fact that they were out-talented by the other team but this is not the case, and that is the fault of the coaching staff.

I feel that now would be a great time to make a coaching change, the large freshman class is now the heart of the team going forward, and their only experience with the CCHA playoffs rewarded them a first round win and a close second round loss, so as a whole their morale about the future of Laker hockey should be higher than any class in awhile (being that every other class in the last handful of years save for the senior class last year who went to the Joe their freshman year, has had to deal with nothing but playoff failures). This is a great opportunity to build upon that by taking another step in changing the culture of LSSU hockey with bringing in a new face behind the bench...there are only two seniors leaving after next season so the majority of the Laker team will be here at least another two years (3 for many, including the goaltenders) and I feel that capitalizing on this youth by bringing in a new coach to (hopefully) build upon this year's run and improve the regular season record resulting in a consistent increase in success over the course of these underclassmen's remaining time here would be just the type of thing needed to raise the reputation and profile among potential recruits across the nation. From there we would likely to be able to bring in higher level recruits with more regularity, and could be off and running to really getting this program turned around for in the long run; as opposed to sticking with the same coach, who has proven incapable of building upon this type of success in the past (making it to the Joe in '07 and following it up with 4 poor seasons) and thus wasting an opportunity with to take advantage of a young and promising team.

I hope that you will seriously consider my recommendation and opinion that is held by many other Laker fans that I know, we all want to see the Lakers return to respectability and a coaching change is a step in that direction.