As Groundhog Day approaches nothing seems more appropriate than the regular "Mike Ayers as UNH Head Hockey Coach" and /or "We need an alum as Head Hockey Coach" threads....
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UNH- How Far West Do We Go?
- Thread starter norbert
- Start date
Ha! Dream on!! No shot...would probably be an upgrade tho
Darius
Go 'cats!
Darius
Go 'cats!
Fair comp. Junior high school a better comp.Bring it...I'm not afraid I taught High School for 41 years bwahahaha
Darius
Go 'cats!
Might some of this be skill related? Hard to imagine coaching a slower more deliberate PP.
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Ayers is extremely plugged into recruiting esp goalies...thats what I heard can't remember who told me that but they were a good source.
I dont know...after reading MS7's comments about the climate college hockey recruiting challenges (he didnt say it out right but assu.e it was in regard to NIL) wondering aloud if a guy like Ayers wants to leave the huge endowments of BC...
I mean..if he wants to HR is
on board!Ps reading his comments made me think UNH can't compete if we cant entice blue chip players...yet...if we can't pay them. Maybe Im clueless and you'd have to read the comments for yourself. Kind of agree the ice is slanted but please let's not make this another reason why we can't have trips to the Garden...
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Did that as well...(shudders)
HockeyRef
Well-known member
I wonder if the creative side of our players isn't being celebrated...
I don’t recall saying he was a diva. Again you can’t keep facts straight. Was he on the ice last night? Big night with zero points.
We need to stop with the legacy hires. Hasn’t worked for hockey or football which has done it again. We need new blood
I think some of it is skilled related, but also a decent chunk of coaching too (or lack thereof). It just seems whenever they pass, they don’t know where the puck should go next. There’s a momentary “pause” where the defense can reset or get in front to block etc. And if the other team starts to press/forecheck even a bit, everything falls apart.
Don’t know whose job it is coaching the PP, but something has to change. I swear some of the recent PPs they don’t even get a shot off. They just bring it down ice, try to wrap it around, get taken away, and then the other team sends it the length. BC even had a few decent short handed opportunities last night. They aren’t the first team this year who have had those golden opportunities…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m 1000% behind this. I just don’t see it happening, unless Jimmy T has more power in the decision making process than I think he does. The legacy hire has the potential for the “Friends and Family” discount. I have no idea if Ayers (or other UNH alumni) would take it, but they are gonna try for that angle at first. I’d love for them to go for a young, passionate assistant or perhaps a HC in the juniors that has a track record of strong player development.
Look at how well new blood has performed at “the school up north”. I hope the AD has taken note of that… hopefully she makes the right decision when the time comes.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
So, I kind of agree with some of this, and don't necessarily agree with other parts of it. Starting with Football, I don't know that you can say hires from within the UNH Football family tree haven't worked out? Going back to Bill Bowes in the early '70's coming over from Penn State, and then leading the program for over a quarter century, and leaving his job in his mid 50's as the winningest football coach in UNH history, he felt compelled to pass the job along to UNH alum and his top assistant Sean McDonnell. All McDonnell did was go on to coach for almost another quarter century, finishing as the second winningest coach in UNH history, with a coaching tree that would choke a fair-sized horse. Next up was UNH alum Ricky Santos, and while he was marginally less successful than his UNH mentor, he never had a losing season, and he's parlayed it into the HC job at Ivy League Penn. Goodrich is a younger Santos, we'll see how he does, but the decisions over the last 50+ years at UNH Football have been infinitely better than the decisions made for UNH Hoops, which have been mostly outsiders.
With Hockey, I'll start at Holt (I leave all pre-Holt stuff to Snives) and like Bowes, he came from away, but made UNH his destination and home, and we were all the better for it. Kullen came from within Holt's extended UNH family, and was by all accounts on his way to turning things around from the sad crash of the late Holt era when fate intervened, yet it was another guy from inside the UNH program (Umile) who took over the program for a quarter century of his own, and exceeded even Coach Holt's accomplishments. Umile was poised to make the next choice, but events of the previous seasons prior to his retirement all made the succession issue far more difficult. Separating from Borek in favor of Souza was a fatal error in judgment, and I'm not sure why it happened, but as both Borek and Jimmy T left the program in the years leading up to Umile's retirement, those errors are both on Umile's part. And that's not even touching on the biggest "what if?" in the program's history, which is why Blue Skies needlessly fired McCloskey from the Women's post, effectively exiling him from any consideration to succeed Umile. And Coach Lassonde had by then moved West as well.
Had Umile made his choice from amongst the pool of McCloskey, Borek, Lassonde and Tortorella, does anyone really think UNH Hockey would have fallen so far, so fast? Just keeping Borek and Tortorella around instead of phasing them out in effect for Stewart and then Souza, would have prevented the dramatic fall from grace in Umile's final 3 seasons, which we not-so-fondly recall as the "Quest for the NRN". Anyone who listened to the Boyle interview about Parker earlier this week will note how little importance a top winner like Parker gave to his own NRN, but it apparently mattered to Umile, who lacked Parker's NC's.
It would be fascinating to put Umile on truth serum, and find out why he effectively ditched his experienced and qualified assistants in favor of the younger and unproven Stewart/Souza UNH alum duo ... and also to find out why he didn't fight harder with Blue Skies to prevent him from the obvious overreaction with McCloskey??? For a guy who used good judgment over a long stretch of years at UNH, it's hard not to conclude Umile's ego got the better of him.
Does that all mean it would be a mistake for UNH to draw from their pool of alum candidates? I don't necessarily think so. Personally, I would love to see an energetic guy with NHL playing/AHL coaching pedigree like Eric Boguniecki get a chance to turn this around. It wouldn't devastate me if Jimmy T took over on an interim basis next season to see how that worked, and to otherwise give the program some time to vet a bunch of ambitious experienced guys out there.
But this ongoing parade of mediocrity has to come to an end. Every false dawn inevitably turns into the latest mirage of progress. How many more times, AD f/k/a SB????
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Naww I get too much pleasure watching Maine choke...oh wait...AND you are a UNH fan too. Definitely severe trauma.
The good news is 20 years of therapy can make you whole again.
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Not to spread disinformation but I believe the pp is coached by the HC...
Sparkee
Blackbear
You do need help, misremembering the ‘99 and ‘02 frozen fours is a sign of dimentia.
umhockey91
Well-known member
Is anyone else getting a nose hair removal ad with graphic picture?......dang.
Conmy was the decoy on the Hagens 2 on 1 goal that put BC up by 2 early in the third period. His presence gave the opening for Hagens to score so he did have an impact without getting on the scoreboard.
Darius
Go 'cats!
His former teammates had to practice against him last season. Like him or not they are familiar with his talent.
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Actually I wasnt a fan then so it doesnt count...