Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond
Also interesting to note - once Tirone arrived the two goalies actually did rotate for two weeks. Clark allowed four goals in a loss at Omaha and a tie with Dartmouth. Tirone allowed two in a win over Omaha and one in a win vs PC - making 11 less saves. Then Clark had one bad start against UMass and the rotation was over. Even when Tirone's numbers ballooned up to 3.15/.899 pre-UConn Clark never sniffed a second chance...
Umile wanted Tirone to be the guy from the start - and has used every Clark struggle as rationalization for his pre-judgement while giving Tirone pass after pass. THAT is unfair. To Clark. To Tirone. To the team. Me calling for an open competition and accountability amongst the goaltenders while backing it up with evidence is not...
See, that's the problem with advocating for a rotation including Clark. He started the process (as pointed out by HR) as the projected back-up for CDS, and based on Coach Umile's quick decision (and I accept your correction on the timing, Dan) to call in Tirone a year early, it's pretty clear that what you call the "pre-judgment" - the pre-matriculation assessment that Tirone was going to be top dog, and Clark was going to be his back-up - was simply the assessment of Umile, Borek, et als. Assessments like that happen all the time. Right or wrong, but that's part of the process. And as someone who's involved in recruiting, you also know that certain promises are often made to induce certain players to commit to your program. Do you think it's possible that such promises may have been made to Tirone that he was likely to be the top dog - especially when he had to decide to come a year early or not? And do you think it's possible that someone (most likely Borek) had a similar discussion with Clark, telling him they projected him to be a back-up, unless his performance knocked their socks off?
I'm not getting into whether such promises or inducements or whatever should be made. Personally, I'm not a fan, but I can imagine that sometimes you need to tell someone something to get their commitment over the line. And if that's been the case, you can perhaps begin to understand why Tirone seems to get the benefit of the doubt, whereas Clark has always been on a short leash from the outset to today.
But Clark's biggest enemy (unfortunately) has been Clark himself. He had the half-season head start, and you've outlined above that he did get a (brief) shot at a goalie rotation at the outset of Tirone's time here at UNH. You've outlined how that played out (though you managed to overlook a 4 G in 20 shots loss to UMaine a week after the UMass loss), and if you're Coach Umile and had always projected Tirone to be your top goalie, it seems that stretch of games supported his decision. And there was the end of season winning streak, into the playoffs. I'm not sure anyone entered season before last thinking Tirone hadn't earned the top job.
Season before last, Tirone struggled out of the gate, no question. Clark got another chance - albeit a brief one - then got injured, and was redshirted. That makes any "competition" for the '15/'16 season moot, unless you thought Jamie Regan deserved a shot - one that you did not think Regan's current equivalent (Lazzarro) was ever going to be up to when we last disagreed on that subject. Fair enough.
This past season, Tirone was again Jekyl & Hyde. Clark did get two (brief) chances, lost to SLU and blew a late lead to ASFU, when he let up 11 goals in 64 shots across those two games. I think that's a save percentage of not much over 80%. There was a relief performance against UML where his save percentage was in the 85% ballpark. Not exactly making a strong case for trusting him with more than back-up duty. While that may be harsh, and seems somewhat unfair, that's the role he seems to have always been projected to play anyway, and he's not really given the coaching staff much to ponder. An argument can be made that Regan showed more in his brief stint the previous season than Clark has shown at any time this past season. Clark's best stretch arguably was two road wins season before last, right before he got injured. Not Tirone's fault, and not Coach's fault either.
If you think expecting Coach to artificially force a goalie rotation with a projected career back-up when the "competition" is either injured or not in top form is realistic, then we're simply going to have to agree to disagree.
I'll let you have the last word on this.
) but certainly Lazzarro didn't show anything in his microscopically brief game experience. Unless he showed something to the staff in practice - which is doubtful to begin with, and unlikely to be a staff focus issue based on prior actions - he's back to #4 this season, and #3 for the rest of his UNH career.
