Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
My, how quickly time flies when you're having *fun* ... and as we reach the stretch run of another season of UNH Hockey the optimism that oozed from the program after a promising finish to last season has evaporated into "more of the same" disappointment, disgust and (perhaps worst of all) apathy that's been developing around the program during its gradual slide in receding from the prominence of the "glory years" of the seasons on either side of the turn of the century. Some on here had presciently sounded the warnings of a possible "false dawn" of the program, while others (myself very much included) naively fell hook, line and sinker for the combination of a young team seemingly stocked with promising talent, which had finished last season with an uncharacteristically strong February and early March run, noticed what looked to be a soft schedule tailor made to accommodate the next step forward, and jumped to some exciting conclusions.
But once the season got underway ... instead of the typically promising bright early start to the season to pick up where things had been left off at the Garden last March ... it was back to the monotonous Chinese water torture of yet another drip-drip-drip, gradual slide back from the level the program had stagnated at these last few seasons, when they'd been a .500 team waiting to go in one direction or the other. And that direction sadly continues the downward trend of the program, where now UNH stands as a sub-.500 team with sub-.500 talent, and (truth be told) sub-.500 coaching headed up by a head coach who's apparently *earned* the right in his own mind to operate at 70% capacity by virtually checking out of any significant involvement in determining and monitoring the supply of new talent coming into *his* program.
Long gone by over a dozen years now are the 4-out-of-6 season trips to the Frozen Four, and the twice in 5 seasons trips to the D-1 Finals. More recently departed are the near-annual trips to Boston for the HE Tourney, and the virtually annual trips to the D-1 Tourney ... so a lot of the competitive joy and *fun* of participating in these events are fond memories and nothing else but pie-in-the-sky hopes (not goals or expectations) for an underperforming program. In place of the old *fun* though ... if you look hard enough, there are any number of *interesting* situations which may be coming to a head in the coming weeks/months/years. The old Chinese adage (or more accurately, curse) goes to the effect of "May you live in interesting times", and if nothing else, I think UNH fans are indeed entering such an era, and the aftermath is something that will turn on the outcome of various on-ice and off-ice issues that have become very *interesting*, to wit:
* The Incredible Shrinking Lifetime Contract - already a fait accompli, last summer our far too complacent, what me worry, nothing but blue skies, "I've been doing this for more than 35 years" AD finally moved to frame an end game to our previous head coach in perpetuity approach. This came a year after ditching the "Cronyism 'R Us" approach to the assistant coaching appointments, and with the arrival of a second straight appointment of a young alum to fill a vacancy. Suddenly, the term "succession plan" was being publicly discussed ... and even when it turned out the young successors were both arguably protégés of the suddenly finite, former HC-in-perpetuity, the message was clear: BS35+y had finally run out of patience waiting for the turnaround. The outer limit of the Umile Era was now clearly defined ... and now with that done, the *interesting* question might be Will Coach Umile actually see out - or more fittingly perhaps, will he be allowed to see out - the end of his final UNH contract?
* Remind Me Why I Took This Job? - with the above events playing out around the future of Coach Umile, and with some light shed on what the post-Umile era might look like, some *interesting* loose ends have come into view, starting with the circumstances behind the departure of Coach Borek to Providence. Long believed to have had "no interest" in succeeding Coach Umile, yet as a former D-1 HC himself who had patiently worked as Coach Umile's long-time assistant, while apparently running the program's recruiting efforts with a virtual blank checkbook, it emerged from some sources that Coach Borek had indeed harbored aspirations to take over the UNH program, and when he asked to "get it in writing" from our uber-experienced AD, he set in motion the events that would lead to his exit from the program, and the arrival of Coach Souza, who was quickly designated as "The Next One". In the meantime, Coach Stewart - another UNH alum with roughly twice Coach Souza's D-1 coaching experience, who came to UNH only as a lateral move (and why does one accept a lateral career change, if not for better hopes of future advancement?) - must question his future in the program. Is Coach Stewart happy with being a lieutenant at UNH, or might he be the next coach to leave the program?
* Who's in Charge of This Jammed Pipeline? - with the advent of the changes to the current (and future) coaching staff as outlined above, the program's main supplier for the last decade or so is now plying his wares down in Providence, which may or may not be a good thing (TBD). The short-term future of the program - Umile's Last Stand - is pretty much cast in stone (or perhaps something slightly softer?), and mixed in among a few projected standouts are what appears to be more of the same mid-range prospects that had come to define the most recently arrived UNH recruiting classes. And as we've seen some de-commits and departures from the program in the wake of the Borek situation, and Coach Umile's failure to establish anything remotely approaching a bond with these suddenly stranded players, unexpected openings in the recruiting pipeline have opened up. But the rate of incomings over the last 9 months has been shockingly slow, and we're probably all going to learn the true meaning of "one man's trash becoming another man's treasure" as UNH picks through the leftovers to fill some of these near-term openings. Who is now actually in charge of recruiting, will UNH dump some of the more marginal incoming Borek leftovers, and does Umile or Souza make that call?
* Leaks and Gluts in the Pipeline, Sir! - Foegele leaves, Ryczek never comes, and there is much speculation about whether or not Poturalski will be back for his last two years of eligibility. Like Coach Umile's incredible shrinking lifetime contract, the much-ballyhooed recruiting classes of the last few seasons that were to make the resurrection of the UNH program likewise seem to be shrinking away. But one area of the pipeline that has been suspiciously untouched and now looks overcommitted is at goalie, where it now appears there will be three (3) legitimate D-1 goalies fighting for time for the next two seasons. Clark - the senior member of the threesome - started his UNH career as the #1 guy for a semester but may well spend the last two years of his career as the #3 guy. The guy who sent Clark to #2 - Tirone - now stands to face stiff competition from NHL draft pick Robinson, who comes in next season. For a program that has long transitioned smoothly at the goalie position, with only slight hitches from time to time, this is uncharted territory. At least one of the 3 goalies is going to be very unhappy - two have already experienced being a D-1 #1 goalie for extended periods, and the other will expect to be a D-1 #1 goalie sooner than later. Who is the odd man (men?) out of this bizarre situation?
* Give That Man a (Participation) Medal - after last season's botched captaincy appointment, in which the program selected a great kid (by all accounts) who'd struggled to stay in the line-up for his first 3 seasons due to a combination of limited talent and bad luck with injuries to act as their Captain ... which then (surprise, surprise) resulted in said Captain missing most of the season due to another injury, and playing to limited effectiveness before said injury - next season's selections would appear pretty straight-forward and idiot-proof. It's a small class, and folks like Kelleher and Cleland on the surface would seem to be prominent on-ice leaders of the team as it stands right now (some of us had thought TK should have been in THIS season's designated leadership team). Maller and Hill (the latter only if he returns for a 5th year senior season) are the only others in that class, and Maller's injury history (and Hill's in-the-stands history) bring back some sore spots from last season's decision-making process. Will the team make the right selections this year? And if they don't, and make another well-intentioned yet bizarre selection like they did last April ... will Coach Umile be bothered enough to step in and save the boys from their impressionable but misguided selves?
So yeah, there are a few *interesting* things to be watching - other than the disappointing on-ice results - to gauge the future direction of the program. I'm still hoping against hope that something can be salvaged from this forgettable season but for some of the various reasons discussed above, this *may* be one of those transitional years we look back at down the road, and say this is where things began to change, and to fall into place for the next great era of UNH Hockey. Dare to dream the big dreams ... because this increasingly creeping mediocrity is really curbing my enthusiasm, and I can't help but think it's been having a similar impact on increasingly more UNH fans as time goes by ...
But once the season got underway ... instead of the typically promising bright early start to the season to pick up where things had been left off at the Garden last March ... it was back to the monotonous Chinese water torture of yet another drip-drip-drip, gradual slide back from the level the program had stagnated at these last few seasons, when they'd been a .500 team waiting to go in one direction or the other. And that direction sadly continues the downward trend of the program, where now UNH stands as a sub-.500 team with sub-.500 talent, and (truth be told) sub-.500 coaching headed up by a head coach who's apparently *earned* the right in his own mind to operate at 70% capacity by virtually checking out of any significant involvement in determining and monitoring the supply of new talent coming into *his* program.
Long gone by over a dozen years now are the 4-out-of-6 season trips to the Frozen Four, and the twice in 5 seasons trips to the D-1 Finals. More recently departed are the near-annual trips to Boston for the HE Tourney, and the virtually annual trips to the D-1 Tourney ... so a lot of the competitive joy and *fun* of participating in these events are fond memories and nothing else but pie-in-the-sky hopes (not goals or expectations) for an underperforming program. In place of the old *fun* though ... if you look hard enough, there are any number of *interesting* situations which may be coming to a head in the coming weeks/months/years. The old Chinese adage (or more accurately, curse) goes to the effect of "May you live in interesting times", and if nothing else, I think UNH fans are indeed entering such an era, and the aftermath is something that will turn on the outcome of various on-ice and off-ice issues that have become very *interesting*, to wit:
* The Incredible Shrinking Lifetime Contract - already a fait accompli, last summer our far too complacent, what me worry, nothing but blue skies, "I've been doing this for more than 35 years" AD finally moved to frame an end game to our previous head coach in perpetuity approach. This came a year after ditching the "Cronyism 'R Us" approach to the assistant coaching appointments, and with the arrival of a second straight appointment of a young alum to fill a vacancy. Suddenly, the term "succession plan" was being publicly discussed ... and even when it turned out the young successors were both arguably protégés of the suddenly finite, former HC-in-perpetuity, the message was clear: BS35+y had finally run out of patience waiting for the turnaround. The outer limit of the Umile Era was now clearly defined ... and now with that done, the *interesting* question might be Will Coach Umile actually see out - or more fittingly perhaps, will he be allowed to see out - the end of his final UNH contract?
* Remind Me Why I Took This Job? - with the above events playing out around the future of Coach Umile, and with some light shed on what the post-Umile era might look like, some *interesting* loose ends have come into view, starting with the circumstances behind the departure of Coach Borek to Providence. Long believed to have had "no interest" in succeeding Coach Umile, yet as a former D-1 HC himself who had patiently worked as Coach Umile's long-time assistant, while apparently running the program's recruiting efforts with a virtual blank checkbook, it emerged from some sources that Coach Borek had indeed harbored aspirations to take over the UNH program, and when he asked to "get it in writing" from our uber-experienced AD, he set in motion the events that would lead to his exit from the program, and the arrival of Coach Souza, who was quickly designated as "The Next One". In the meantime, Coach Stewart - another UNH alum with roughly twice Coach Souza's D-1 coaching experience, who came to UNH only as a lateral move (and why does one accept a lateral career change, if not for better hopes of future advancement?) - must question his future in the program. Is Coach Stewart happy with being a lieutenant at UNH, or might he be the next coach to leave the program?
* Who's in Charge of This Jammed Pipeline? - with the advent of the changes to the current (and future) coaching staff as outlined above, the program's main supplier for the last decade or so is now plying his wares down in Providence, which may or may not be a good thing (TBD). The short-term future of the program - Umile's Last Stand - is pretty much cast in stone (or perhaps something slightly softer?), and mixed in among a few projected standouts are what appears to be more of the same mid-range prospects that had come to define the most recently arrived UNH recruiting classes. And as we've seen some de-commits and departures from the program in the wake of the Borek situation, and Coach Umile's failure to establish anything remotely approaching a bond with these suddenly stranded players, unexpected openings in the recruiting pipeline have opened up. But the rate of incomings over the last 9 months has been shockingly slow, and we're probably all going to learn the true meaning of "one man's trash becoming another man's treasure" as UNH picks through the leftovers to fill some of these near-term openings. Who is now actually in charge of recruiting, will UNH dump some of the more marginal incoming Borek leftovers, and does Umile or Souza make that call?
* Leaks and Gluts in the Pipeline, Sir! - Foegele leaves, Ryczek never comes, and there is much speculation about whether or not Poturalski will be back for his last two years of eligibility. Like Coach Umile's incredible shrinking lifetime contract, the much-ballyhooed recruiting classes of the last few seasons that were to make the resurrection of the UNH program likewise seem to be shrinking away. But one area of the pipeline that has been suspiciously untouched and now looks overcommitted is at goalie, where it now appears there will be three (3) legitimate D-1 goalies fighting for time for the next two seasons. Clark - the senior member of the threesome - started his UNH career as the #1 guy for a semester but may well spend the last two years of his career as the #3 guy. The guy who sent Clark to #2 - Tirone - now stands to face stiff competition from NHL draft pick Robinson, who comes in next season. For a program that has long transitioned smoothly at the goalie position, with only slight hitches from time to time, this is uncharted territory. At least one of the 3 goalies is going to be very unhappy - two have already experienced being a D-1 #1 goalie for extended periods, and the other will expect to be a D-1 #1 goalie sooner than later. Who is the odd man (men?) out of this bizarre situation?
* Give That Man a (Participation) Medal - after last season's botched captaincy appointment, in which the program selected a great kid (by all accounts) who'd struggled to stay in the line-up for his first 3 seasons due to a combination of limited talent and bad luck with injuries to act as their Captain ... which then (surprise, surprise) resulted in said Captain missing most of the season due to another injury, and playing to limited effectiveness before said injury - next season's selections would appear pretty straight-forward and idiot-proof. It's a small class, and folks like Kelleher and Cleland on the surface would seem to be prominent on-ice leaders of the team as it stands right now (some of us had thought TK should have been in THIS season's designated leadership team). Maller and Hill (the latter only if he returns for a 5th year senior season) are the only others in that class, and Maller's injury history (and Hill's in-the-stands history) bring back some sore spots from last season's decision-making process. Will the team make the right selections this year? And if they don't, and make another well-intentioned yet bizarre selection like they did last April ... will Coach Umile be bothered enough to step in and save the boys from their impressionable but misguided selves?
So yeah, there are a few *interesting* things to be watching - other than the disappointing on-ice results - to gauge the future direction of the program. I'm still hoping against hope that something can be salvaged from this forgettable season but for some of the various reasons discussed above, this *may* be one of those transitional years we look back at down the road, and say this is where things began to change, and to fall into place for the next great era of UNH Hockey. Dare to dream the big dreams ... because this increasingly creeping mediocrity is really curbing my enthusiasm, and I can't help but think it's been having a similar impact on increasingly more UNH fans as time goes by ...
, UMaine and UMass-Amherst all capitulated against stronger opposition. But that "poor" UNH point could be a big one, given that it did allow them to "gain" on some teams who could catch them for 8th and the final home seed for the MBPBEGAM round of the playoffs. So I'm on board with your assessment, Snively65.