I find it odd that so many here fail or choose not to acknowledge that the hockey program is a example of a much larger UNH problem - underfunding. UNH and NH for that matter have long prided themselves on doing more with less (i.e. frugality, Yankee ingenuity, blah blah....) The University currently has an admissions acceptance rate of 88%, which is a joke frankly. There's a systemic problem that is destroying the integrity of the University.
Most industries over time become more efficient. The cost of no doing so is bankruptcy. Public education and government have no need to improve efficiency and performance unless the public demands it AND is willing to pay for better productivity. The University is slipping. Obviously, it will never completely fail but it can consistently fall short of achieving its mission, which is to provide the opportunity for a student to obtain a strong education at a much lower cost than private colleges. NH really is not serious about higher education. I'll leave it to the residents of NH to discuss grammar and HS educations.
The fact that the NH citizens and legislature don't insist on better performance and provide the funding AND school management IS the problem. Little Michael Souza, the not so motivated coach of a poorly funded hockey team, is nothing more than an example and product of the problem. Firing him does very little, although it likely is necessary. The sugar high of a new coach in time will be swallowed up by the larger problem that is the way NH residents and politicians view higher public education.
NH has long chided Massachusetts as being a bastion of crazy liberalism in defending itself against accusations of frugality, cheapness, lack of innovation, etc... The reality is that over time well funded communities run by intelligent, forward thinking people thrive. I dare say Massachusetts innovation/business employs many (most) of the residents of southern NH with six figure incomes. The underfunded communities run by, well, mediocre people proud of being cheap simply stay the same, which in the real world means fall behind. Underfunded communities run by intelligent people tend to hang on and occasionally perform fine. But they always swim upstream. UNH and NH in general have too many mediocre people in positions of influence running an underfunded enterprise.
... and yet "underfunded" UNH Men's Hockey not so long ago had a 20+ year run of winning hockey, where Coach Umile took multiple teams to the cusp of a D-1 title, all while managing to get a state-of-the-art arena (at the time) that was the envy of most of Hockey East built along the way. Oh, and Coach Umile was doing pretty well himself, as the long-term highest paid State of NH employee, plus a fair amount of side source income generated as a result of his program's consistent bankable success.
If Blue Skies was "in it to win it", he would have jumped on hiring Ben Barr at the first possible opportunity. He didn't. And so here we are.
The rest of your rant is so stereotypical, and really not worth the argument (I'll go there if we need to though), but I will simply point out that "over time, well-funded communities run by intelligent, forward-thinking people thrive" is
something you might want to revisit with 90% of the Massachusetts population outside the Route 495 arc. Not to mention how much the largesse generated over many generations (by politicians named Kennedy) of
Federal tax subsidies played a part in lifting Boston from its mid-20th century malaise and mediocrity, to where they went for a few decades after that. But those things need not be permanent nor sustainable, all you need to look at is places like both Buffalo and Detroit, which were FAR ahead of Boston for long stretches of the last century. Looking at the crew currently running the "Commonwealth" (try saying that term west of Worcester without being derided) and its two biggest cities, their future is in dire jeopardy ...
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Finally ... hoping to hear good news on Jared Whale after tonight's scary scenes down in Chestnut Hill ... not saying anyone did anything wrong, but if you've been watching HEA and D-1 hockey for awhile, I don't think you could escape flashbacks (not comparisons) to Joe Exter and his injury on the same ice surface, what, 20 years ago now?
Assuming we could be seeing a lot of DiMatteo (sp?) in goal down the stretch, didn't look at all out of place IMO. Almost makes you wonder why he's been so sparingly used ... but that's probably a conversation best left for another day.
