A lot of names being thrown into the blame mix on this – many of whom I’m in no rush to defend – but I just have the nagging feeling that 90% of this entire mess is on Umile.
On-ice: I don’t know him but he has to be the least introspective person out there. He must see how far performance has fallen, how can he not see that’s all on him? He checked out, put the program on auto pilot and headed to Portsmouth CC, for years on end. He didn’t go on the road, didn’t run practices, didn’t work the phones, didn’t meet or get to know the underclassmen. He threw all of that on one guy. I’m not saying I live in that world but I do know that his program was at the extreme end of the scale in terms of group effort, let’s all hit the trail v. one guy lives on the road.
My question is how does he not care about UNH enough to see he’s doing the program a dis-service by digging in his heels? For a guy who supposedly bleeds blue how can he watch the program fall apart while he collects a paycheck that he hasn’t earned in years?
And let’s all not forgot that this latest lacking in talent phase of his regime has only served to make us forget the previous can’t adjust/can’t win in the post season phase of his regime. I guess one way to not choke in big games is to not bring in players good enough to get to them.
Off-ice: The current AD pretty much killed the golden goose he had by milking the loyal season ticket holders for all they were worth, and insulting them with his attention to the corporate crowd and the casual fans while taking the core completely for granted. That’s a fact, but it’s totally unrelated to this coaching issue and I think a lot of us want to get our pound of flesh in any way we can, even if we have to make a leap to do it. Umile pretty much has the AD by the short hairs on this one contractually. Not sure there’s much to be done in this specific case, with the only lesson being, don’t ever give away the farm in a contract, no matter how desperate you are. I’ve seen that happen a number of times in various walks of life and business and I can say that in almost all cases it would have been better to take the hit up front and move on rather than defer the pain – often to years down the road – and be absolutely handcuffed in your ability to run your own business.
What would have happened if Umile had left for UMass when he threatened to? Maybe the program falls apart, or maybe we hire a Gwozdecky, Jackson, Blais closer type who takes what’s already in place and has what it takes to finish the job, or maybe we find the McDonald, Leaman, Allain, upcoming hotshot type who knows a golden opportunity when he sees it. But no, instead we sign a one-sided contract that could still be haunting us 5 years from now. Never sign a contract in desperation unless it’s literally an existential situation. That’s our problem now, UNH signed it, a guy who supposedly believes in himself made them sign it, and that same guy who supposedly loves UNH is holding them to it well beyond the time where he got what he wanted and needed out of it.