Re: Notre Dame Hockey 2014-15: The year of the Freshman
It's hard to give your all every night. It's even harder when most of your roster is comprised of freshmen. I know that expectations were supposed to be higher given the facilities and TV contract, but a top-4 finish was a good goal coming into this season all things considered. Look at the senior class. You have Russo, Schneider, and Johnson who have regularly played. That's just a huge imbalance of experience versus youth. This is a team building to compete in the tournament, but not this year. It was pretty clear as soon as SCSU scored that OT goal last March. That's no excuse for the lack of focus from some of the older players, but let's have realistic expectations for 14-15.
Your expectations certainly have to be anchored somewhat in reality, yes. But for Jackson this has become an annual proclamation. He said it last year and he said it in the last couple of CCHA years. I also suspect he says it at least in part to manage expectations of both the fans and his bosses. That's typical of coaches with the coaching personality he has. If we finish 4th we did as well as we were led to believe we could. A little worse and he has a couple of built in excuses (young roster, untested goalies, officiating concerns, etc) and if he finishes better, well he looks like the coaching genius he used to be.
The last time his roster was comprised of a lot of freshmen the team blasted their way out of the gate, finished 2nd in the league and went to the FF. Playing in the infamous "dump" that he insisted we could not continue to recruit or win in. Given that since then Jackson has been handed nearly everything he has wanted I think his expectations should be adjusted upwards. The roster issues are of his own making anyway and cannot be excused since he is enamored with filling his roster with NHL draft picks, kids who are of course going to be on the radar of Major Junior and/or being pushed in other directions by some of the more impatient NHL teams. Isn't part of being a successful college coach managing a roster that is going to see significant turnover every season? It was also entirely his decision last season to play his seniors to the exclusion of his younger classes no matter the production or the level of effort some gave. It's easy to see why this team is struggling so much right now, but only because he has poorly managed and coached the team in the first place.
As for effort, that is the only thing you can control. I don't expect every player to be at 100% effort every single shift. That isn't humanly possible. But for this team it has fallen below an acceptable level frequently. Friday night, both games last weekend, both games in the Shillelagh tournament, the first Minnesota game, the list is far too lengthy. Their focus wanders constantly. They haven't been there for their teammates. I don't know how anyone could watch what I was 10 feet from Friday night and think otherwise. UNH had their way with them for the first 39 minutes of that game for two reasons, the coaches did not have them prepared, and when the team saw what that lack of preparation led to, they stopped trying. It was only the fact that they are so much more skilled than UNH that they scored the two goals and as soon as they did, they quit playing. Lucia's comments following the loss were horrendous. He lamented the fact the period had no more time left and had it had five more minutes they could have potted another goal. Well what about the 20 minutes of the 3rd period? This is a team that doesn't get it. Or more precisely it is a program that doesn't get it.
