What a shame ... a UNH team finally shows it can take the body effectively, against a top-notch opponent on their own home ice, and play some REAL postseason hockey ... except, well, the unfortunate part where the team comes off the bus in a haze, forgets to cover their own net-front and spots the top seeded homestanding hosts a 3-0 lead inside of about 5 minutes. Wow.
Listen, I want to take the last two periods as a massive positive as much as I'm guessing most of you want to as well ... but it's something we should have seen from this underachieving team much earlier in the season, never mind in just this game. And it would be nice to think that next year's team will have learnt a lesson to apply to the start of next season ... but just how many of those same players are going to be back for next season? If what's left over from this year's team, and some surprisingly strong new recruits can use this last performance as base camp for next season, then great. But the much more likely turn of events will be, UNH '21/'22 will have to restart from scratch, learn how to compete with even less talent on board, and the cycle of perpetual mediocrity will take another spin down into the lower reaches of Hockey East.
Moral victories are for losing teams/programs, unless the lessons can be translated into better performances - players AND coaches alike. MS7 had his team ready on Wednesday, and should have had them ready right from the start tonight. That they so obviously weren't is frankly on him. I don't want to hear about goalposts, whether it's April '99 or March '21. MS7 needs to own this, take a long hard look in the mirror, and if it sinks in that any turnaround of this program is only going to be possible if he himself does all aspects of his job better - no excuses, no "I'm proud of the boys" - then maybe today meant something. If not - then nothing is likely going to change. Not under him, and not until someone else takes over.
In the second most predictable outcome of the day, I see MS7's "mentor" bit the dust too. Shocking ...