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UNH Men's Hockey 2022 Off Season Thread- Goodbye Lake Whitt!

Felger said:
Hey Chuck just wondering if you watched Unrivaled and if so what your thoughts were.

I found it interesting and almost wish I had ESPN+ to watch the expanded edition.
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Yeah, Felgie - I did catch it, some of it was fantastic, but in the end I was hoping for more (hence the expanded edition on ESPN+ I'm guessing?). It seemed to end somewhat prematurely, as the final bookend on the rivalry is seen by most on my side of the aisle as the Wings waxing Roy and the Avs 7-0 in Game 7 of the '02 Western Conference Finals. Video is attached to show what was arguably the greatest collection of talent ever seen in the NHL, a year or two before the strike that brought the salary cap (and more parity) into the NHL.

When I say "bookend" ... as the "Unrivaled" E:60 showed, the start of the rivalry was arguably the night the Wings waxed the Canadiens 11-1 in the old Forum in late 1995, when then Montreal goalie Patrick Roy was chased from the game early but left in way too late, leading to the fracturing of his shaky relationship with former teammate/then head coach Mario Tremblay, when Roy literally leaned over to the Habs' GM to demand a trade mid-game after he was pulled. We had rented out the old Children's Museum of Portsmouth (now in Dover, as I understand) for our eldest's 6 year old birthday party that same night, and when we got home afterwards, the Wings were laying the wood to Roy/Habs like never before (or since). Great night!!!

Anyway, that triggered the trade of Roy to the Avs, and then the '96 Western Finals and the Lemieux hit on Draper did the rest. But Roy getting lit up by the Wings started AND ended the rivalry.

The Lemieux/McCarty detente feels more than a little contrived to me though, Felgie. McCarty was an underrated big game performer - his '97 Cup clincher vs. Philly was Exhibit A of several other timely goals in his career - but he seems (to me) to be a little too willing to cash in on every last opportunity to remind folks he was a 4 time Cup winner in Detroit. Kind of a knock-off version of Bob Probert, but Probie misbehaved once too often, got himself traded before the Cups started coming, and McCarty always knew where his bread was buttered. Even now, with diehard DRW fans, there is reverence for a flawed Probert (RIP) who won nothing, and some level of scorn for McCarty, who won lots. Probably down to style points TBH.

But all in all, "Unrivaled" shows a great slice of the greatest extended pro rivalry of my lifetime.
 
Snively65 said:
Ok, this post brings me out of 8+ months of retirement, before I go back under my rock for another 8+ months. When I was growing up in Durham, two classmates played hockey (I skied) for the Oyster River High Bobcats before matriculating at UNH: Dave Savidge (1965/65-1966/67; first year students did not play varsity then) and Bob Grant (1967/68-1969/70). A backup UNH goalie Dave Hagerman from Plymouth, NH (1965/66-1967/68) was married and rented the downstairs apartment in our house. Dave backed up Colin Clark in net his first year (on 3 March 1965, Colin made 65 saves in a 8-0 loss to BU a couple weeks after Snively Arena opened, a really tough game to watch) and Rick Metzger his second two seasons.

In a post during my absence, someone (maybe Whalers?) asked who got the assist(s) on the first goal in Snively Arena by Brad Houston on 13 February 1965 in a 4-3 OT loss to Norwich, but I never read the answer and do not remember despite being at all of the games in Snively that opening year (all of the earlier games that season were played away, as Snively's footprint overlapped with the old outdoor Batchelder Rink). Ironically "Whoop" Snively died on 15 April 1964, the same day that the new indoor arena was announced (did the announcement cause his heart attack?), and then named for Whoop soon thereafter. The quick construction of Snively Arena was fun to watch over those few months, but alas no more hockey pucks were to be collected by schoolkids during spring snowbank melt out. Some of these vintage hockey pucks now sell on EBay for over $70. :)

UNH men's hockey progressed quickly over the first few years in Snively Arena, primarily the result of hiring Rube Bjorkman as head coach. Rube's record his first year (1965/66) was 11-12, but that improved dramatically over the next three years to 18-7, 22-7, and 22-6-1, as Rube recruited many of his own players from Canada. His 1966/67 team was loaded and included forwards Bob Brandt, Rich David, Dick Walsh, Dave Sheen, Colin Sutherland, Joe Bartlett, the Rothwell brothers, and Mike Ontkean; D-men Graham Bruder, Mickey Goulet, Pete Stoutenburg (married a beautiful ORHS classmate), and Bill Noble; and aforementioned Rick Metzger in net. Mike Ontkean went on to become a Hollywood actor and performed a featured role in the film Slap Shot. Before either Rube's second or third season at UNH, the team moved from ECAC-2 to ECAC-1 where they had some post-season success in the late 1970s.
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Snives, where you been?!?!? Great to see you back, hope you visit more often, hope all is well.

The place simply ain't the same without you to keep us all honest. Have a great summer, mon ami.
 
So ... I see that 'dc teased the "white smoke" thing and then disappeared. Which gets me to thinking ... I was away this past week in the friendly burgh of Allentown PA for business travel (no snarky comments, but if you do, make it good!) and on my way home yesterday midday (Friday) I was on Rte. 287 East near Rte. 684 North somewhere in Westchester County NY when what do my eyes see? The UNH Wildcats sports travel bus!! Just north of NYC on the First of July?!?!? That was weird - hardly the first place I'd have expected to have seen that bus on that date.

Maybe the vaunted "UNH Steering Committee for Hiring of the New AD" was taking a junket into the Big City to meet with the lead candidate for a "Pretty Please Come to Durham" pitch?? But ... who???

* Former US President Bill "Bubba" Clinton
* (Almost) Former US President "Lion" Hillary Clinton
* Former NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio f/k/a Warren Wilhelm Jr.
* Former ESPN/current ABC personality Robin Roberts
* Former Clinton/current ABC shill George Stephanopoulos
* Whoopie "Pie" Goldberg and/or Joyce Behar from The View
* Itinerant NHL head coach Gerard Gallant (just a matter of time)
* Standout Penn swimmer/graduate Lia (f/k/a Billy) Thomas
* UNH dropout/former borderline NHL *star* James van Riemsdyk
* US Senator from New York, Charles "Chucky Baby" Schumer
* Cultural icon/UNH Class of '64 (Alpha Tau Omega) Alfred E. Neuman
* Westchester's own all-around Woke icon (and BU grad) Sandy Cortez
* A very bored Rudy "America's Mayor" Giuliani
* Sean Hannity (OK - just kidding about the last two on this list!)

Anyway ... so many choices, so much time (what, almost 8 months now, late November to early July), the possibilities frankly are endless. Bon voyage, Blue Skies, don't let the door hit you in the ...
 
Chuck Murray said:
So ... I see that 'dc teased the "white smoke" thing and then disappeared. Which gets me to thinking ... I was away this past week in the friendly burgh of Allentown PA for business travel (no snarky comments, but if you do, make it good!) and on my way home yesterday midday (Friday) I was on Rte. 287 East near Rte. 684 North somewhere in Westchester County NY when what do my eyes see? The UNH Wildcats sports travel bus!! Just north of NYC on the First of July?!?!? That was weird - hardly the first place I'd have expected to have seen that bus on that date.

Maybe the vaunted "UNH Steering Committee for Hiring of the New AD" was taking a junket into the Big City to meet with the lead candidate for a "Pretty Please Come to Durham" pitch?? But ... who???

* Former US President Bill "Bubba" Clinton
* (Almost) Former US President "Lion" Hillary Clinton
* Former NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio f/k/a Warren Wilhelm Jr.
* Former ESPN/current ABC personality Robin Roberts
* Former Clinton/current ABC shill George Stephanopoulos
* Whoopie "Pie" Goldberg and/or Joyce Behar from The View
* Itinerant NHL head coach Gerard Gallant (just a matter of time)
* Standout Penn swimmer/graduate Lia (f/k/a Billy) Thomas
* UNH dropout/former borderline NHL *star* James van Riemsdyk
* US Senator from New York, Charles "Chucky Baby" Schumer
* Cultural icon/UNH Class of '64 (Alpha Tau Omega) Alfred E. Neuman
* Westchester's own all-around Woke icon (and BU grad) Sandy Cortez
* A very bored Rudy "America's Mayor" Giuliani
* Sean Hannity (OK - just kidding about the last two on this list!)

Anyway ... so many choices, so much time (what, almost 8 months now, late November to early July), the possibilities frankly are endless. Bon voyage, Blue Skies, don't let the door hit you in the ...
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Geeze Chuck nobody was spared in your list of possible ..candidates covered all of your bases. Sad to see your continued diss of JvR...the rest are not surprising. Still had to be quite the surprise to see the UNH bus in PA...

Hope that whomever gets the nod for the AD puts out something....anything of value to counter all of the other HE schools that I get emails for since I've bought tickets from. Shoot even a thank you for renewing would be a bonus. Maybe I missed it???
 
UNH announces AD...Allison Rich just got the email ...officially starts July 25th Presser July 14. Princeton background. Let the chatter begin!
 
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HockeyRef said:
UNH announces AD...Allison Rich just got the email ...officially starts July 25th Presser July 14. Princeton background. Let the chatter begin!
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Seems like more of a compliance person than a fundraising/development person. Hopefully it works out for you.
 
HockeyRef said:
Still had to be quite the surprise to see the UNH bus in PA...
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Actually in Westchester County NY, not far from White Plains, maybe 10-15 miles north of NYC?

Not exactly the place I'd expect to see THAT bus on THAT date (July 1st), so waiting to see if there's a potential connection to 'dc's "great day" (it'd better be, posting at 3:43 a.m.!) ...
 
Chuck Murray said:
Seeing the announcement, I suppose the UNH bus could have been returning from New Jersey ...

Allison Rich - Senior Associate Director of Athletics/SWA - Staff Directory - Princeton University Athletics (goprincetontigers.com)

Other than Princeton, she's been connected with a long string of non-hockey schools.
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Listen, I get that this is a college hockey forum and we are all hockey fans. I get that traditionally hockey has been UNH's premier program. But given all that is going on across the landscape of intercollegiate sports these days to expect a hire like this to be focused on a single sport is probably unrealistic.

The narrative on this board has been pretty simple, (and IMO lazy) that a new AD is going to come in, fire the current hockey coach, everything is going to be wonderful again, and we're all going to party like its 1999.

Maybe that's how it will play out. Nobody wants to see the clock turned back more than me. (I'm a get off my lawn kind of guy.) Just not sure its going to be that simple.
 
Chuck Murray said:
Pretty sure UNH used to practice at Dover Ice Arena, at least back when The Whitt was still under construction, and the roof over Jackson's Landing wasn't collapsing (pretty sure I've related the tale of skating on that sheet with our youngest the night before it caved in). So it would at least mark a return to the wide eyed optimistic "glory days" of the early Coach Umile Era, when we hadn't quite figured out yet that Mr. Turtleneck was going to have a star-crossed career when it came to winning the biggest of big games. But in fairness to Umile, he still owns the program's high-water mark, eh?

All credit to St. Anselm's for pushing the competitive boat out and trying to punch above their weight - maybe they'll shame SNHU into doing the same?? And then we're practically there (at least on the Women's side of the ledger). No doubt they've been reading out stuff on here for inspiration ...
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Punching above their weight? Saint Anselm beat Dartmouth AND Maine last year... UNH against both programs? 1-3.

Also, Franklin Pierce was the NEWHA champion... and UNH tied the Ravens, 3-3.
 
HockeyRef said:
UNH announces AD...Allison Rich just got the email ...officially starts July 25th Presser July 14. Princeton background. Let the chatter begin!
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Seems like such an underwhelming choice. Months and month of searching culminates in Allison Rich? Well at least it sounds like we don’t have to worry about breaking any rules.
 
Personally I have never been of the opinion that a new AD meant a complete overhaul of Men's Hockey. And you are right Felger its ridiculous to think that's tops on her list. That said I do hope that the program (as well as all of UNH Athletic) get detailed scrutiny AND support. Welcome Dr. Rich!
 
Felger said:
The narrative on this board has been pretty simple, (and IMO lazy) that a new AD is going to come in, fire the current hockey coach, everything is going to be wonderful again, and we're all going to party like its 1999.
Click to expand...

I’m pretty sure nobody has said this. One quick hire and back to partying like it’s 1999? An extremely needed and long overdue rebuild yes, one quick wave of a magic wand and all is better, no.
 
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d.gerry said:
I’m pretty sure nobody has said this. One quick hire and back to partying like it’s 1999? An extremely needed and long overdue rebuild yes, one quick wave of a magic wand and all is better, no.
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Exactly, the sentiment is not so much that it's a quick fix but the importance of getting this piece right in the long term goal of a return to prominence. As with everything else it is going to be wait and see, in terms of the hockey program there needs to be a very deep overhaul. Hopefully the hockey program rebuild (both men's and women's) is at or very near the top of the list of priorities.
 
Agree - it's not a quick fix, but a long term project. It MUST be the priority, however. I'll wait to hear more from DC, and those involved with the search, before I make any final decisions. I wonder about the priority of, and accountability to, athletic success just based on resume and the initial announcement. I'm always suspicious of discussion related to academics and student-athlete experience, as if you can't enjoy both AND win at a high level. Does anyone think the Denver players aren't good students and enjoying their collegiate careers?

Will Rich demand success and hold coaches accountable? Or will we be bickering about Souza and Witt or Herrion and Hogan a decade from now, assuming kids graduate and don't get into trouble. I'm not so sure either way. I hope she was hired because she gave a strong impression on her ability/desire to get the most out of UNH from a competitive standpoint...

--

Maybe the bus sighting was related to the AD hiring, but I'd tend to doubt it was. These buses are usually owned by the bus companies (and simply designed with athletic branding). If they're not being used for team travel they're often on the road for other charter/travel purposes...
 
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