Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
I wanted to save this one for last today. It just goes to show how soft we've all become, when this PC censorship passes for community management, or whatever it is that the mods claim to police here at USCHO. Keep in mind, my comments were not directed at another poster - they were directed at the associate head coaching hire at UMaine (in the public realm, no?).
By the way, while complimenting UMaine for otherwise "knocking it out of the park" in the offseason by hiring Ben Barr, who I have no doubt will turn your program around in a positive way, and in less time than many on here seem to think ... I've said more than once that UMaine "won" the offseason. And I haven't ruled out the possibility that despite his excessive girth, AHC Fortier may prove to be a good D-1 coach after all at some point. He can end any talk about his weight simply, in two ways: (1) lose some of the weight, and look the part of a D-1 coach; and/or (2) keep the weight on, but beat everyone's brains out on the recruiting trails, and win lots of games on the ice. Having USCHO mods run interference for him shouldn't be Door #3.
It wasn't all that long ago that posters (and not just myself) would satirically mock or mimic Coach York for his manner of speaking, or Paul Pooley for being bald, or even Blaise MacDonald for being short. Arguably, any of those three coaches had less control over their "situations" that landed them in the line of fire than Fortier does. But none of those guys was ever afforded any protection from the USCHO mods (nor can I even begin to imagine they worried about it). Coach York ended his "situation" by winning a boatload of D-1 titles at BC. Pooley and MacDonald lost their jobs, and were eventually replaced by better, more accomplished coaches - not because they were bald or short, or whatever.
Lastly ... the whole way it was handled by USCHO (you?) was laughable. So, I was having some fun on the UMaine thread, because we have a rich and colorful history together, and believe it or not, I have some friends there as well. Some folks were thinking I was going soft on UMaine, and wondered if I was being sincere. I was (and still am) 100% sincere about thinking Barr is the right man/right time, and UMaine is on track to return to past glories, and being jealous that he wasn't at UNH. When Fortier's image started to become widely available after his hire, I decided to "reassure" my UMaine-iacs friends their "old Chuck" foe was still alive and well, starting a line of parodies on Fortier that apparently made some folks uncomfortable.
That would probably have played out by now, except one UMaine poster wanted to call attention to their displeasure with my postings, starting a new thread ("The Influence of USCHO") which was either brilliant satire in and of itself OR a thinly veiled threat to my posting status, legal issues, etc. I took that as an invitation to take the silliness out of the UMaine thread, and to continue it in the "Influence" thread. So I was either (1) joining on on the joke, OR (2) telling the poster what I thought of his threats, and where he could more permanently store them, so to speak. Keep in mind also ... if it was the former, it wouldn't have been the first time I adapted a UMaine poster's quip into a running gag (see WIS as Walshy is Satan, et al).
But now USCHO, after allowing free rein on all public realm commentary - including last year's WIS expose of BC Chancellor Shea a/k/a HEA referee Kevin Shea (presumably because it's 100% provably true) - is now stepping in as the PC arbiters of good taste to defend a nondescript UMaine AHC from obvious observations that he is just plain fat?
You at least owe an explanation as to exactly where the line is being drawn these days, and why ...
