Re: UML offseason looking towards 2010/11 season
This season is coming up very quickly and it's definitely the season of extremely lowered expectations. So ... what say you, Lowell fans ... what is your thought process on keeping Coach MacDonald at this point?
Are you willing to wait through this year with the hope that we see a nice step up next season? Or ...?
I know for myself, I don't want to have to wait every three/four years just to have the hopes that we'll have a good season. That really needs to stop.
Now, I do know that I like Coach. He's a very nice guy, and a good recruiter. On top of that, I'm proud of how the hockey team does academically, and we don't hear any bad news coming out due to actions of players on the team. So that part is good, as is the talent level increase (even with the departure of Melchiori).
Thoughts?
Great post, Monty...here's my take before I read the rest of the comments so I don't get biased.
In the short term, MacDonald is the defacto coach. Any action would have had to be done at the very end of last season shortly after the Maine debacle. With the record setting attendance, renovations to the arena, and overall youth of the team, now would be an imprudent time to make a move. MacDonald is this team's coach for at least two more years.
I've said this a million times before but one of the things that really irkes the hell out of me is the cashing in of the season before the puck is dropped. I'm not naive, but let's give the boys the benefit of the doubt for the first month of the season before we start saying "Check, Please" for 2011-12. Personally, on paper, I see this team finishing the year somewhere in the 6-10 range and if you put a gun to my head, I say we finish eighth. Without giving away my preseason picks just yet, other than BC (who I fully expect to get a 20-win HE season in a landslide), who is a real attractive pick right now....no one. 40% of this league has some major questions in net right now. Rather than wait until next season, my goal for this season "let's make the playoffs" and see what happens.
We will go through this three/four year cycle until we fix two problems, finding a true sniper and the double graduation of goalies. We all know about the former. Monty, you and I both saw the latter at Michigan in 1998, it happened again four years later when they both left, Vetri bought us a year before his problems, and now we are seeing it yet again. Maybe Jeff Boulanger is the next John Curry, maybe the second time around for Massie is like the second time around for Fankhouser/McCormack. Hopefully, it doesn't go the other way. That being said, the recruits have gotten better, but the haves always seem to win in the end from what I like to say "that one friggin goal"
As I've said in one of my end of the year diatribes, Coach MacDonald has been the best non-faculty ambassador in the past 10 years. He is an amiable, approachable guy, runs a first-rate program, his boys stay out of trouble and achieve in the classroom, and they have the community at heart and in their mind. It's all anyone can ask for from student athletes. Let's be crystal clear, he is on the hot seat and finishing 10th this year would be a total CF. I would not be surprised if some would call for his head and I can't really say that I would blame them.
There is now an unfortunate business side to this equation. Coach MacDonald is finally getting the D-1 support he's been looking for during the past ten years. The University has made a significant "corporate" investment in the arena. We can't go back to the people levels of 2003, 2007, and I pray not the second half of 2011, simply because the University can't afford it. Hopefully, the ice capades of the last decade aren't even approached. My year is 2011-2012; what is the makeup of this team and do they have a realstic shot of being more than a one-year wonder for the following two. Then we will have an answer if Coach MacDonald is the permanent coach for this team for a long time to come.
However, if we are back at this same point in another four years, it will probably be time for a change. That would be 12 true years under Blaise and a sign to me that it just isn't working. I can only wish this doesn't come to fruition.
