Long and in-depth analysis: What happened to the University of Minnesota hockey?

[BleedGopher]

per the City Pages:

The Gophers could not be more different. According to alumni who've soured on the program, Minnesota's star system has bred self-admiration, stroked and infantilized by a culture that doesn't prize selflessness and hard work.

"You tell a 10th grader or even a ninth grader they're going to be a Gopher, and for even the best of kids it's going to be hard for them to think they're not better than other people," says one former player.

Another is more succinct: "They're arrogant little jerks. They've been raised to be the kings of the land because they're youth hockey players that are great. But they're jerks. There's no other way to put it."

And this chorus of critics lays blame at the feet of one man: Coach Don Lucia.

"It's his job to set the tone for his program," says an NHL scout. "At Minnesota, what I see is a coach living off past accomplishments."

http://www.citypages.com/news/what-happened-to-the-university-of-minnesota-hockey-program-7960026

Go Gophers!!

 

[LakerFan]

Nice to see people disparaging these young men as a group as if only players at the U of M have ego issues. Lucia is going down with the ship for not playing rosters filled with kids spending 2-3 years beefing up and getting better in juniors and trying to crystal ball a bunch of 15 year olds instead of picking the cream of the crop of 21 year olds playing juniors. It mirrors how coach Woog held out on keeping the team exclusively from Minnesota years back.

It doesn't make Lucia a bad coach or the players bad kids or selfish. A group of 18-21 year olds (even if they are more talented) isn't going to compete well with a group of 21-24 year olds that spent 3 years in juniors proving why they should having been picked when they were younger. Reality is there are gopher players leaving the program for the NHL who still need time to reach their ceiling and there are teams beating us with players who reached their ceiling before they started college.

They bring up Union in the article which is the poster child for what's wrong in college hockey. If it's such a great system maybe we should allow them to play 5 years of juniors so we can watch 26 year olds who will never play in the NHL play for a college championship. Maybe college football should follow suit and start allowing 3 red shirt years for players to bulk up.

 

[Stan]

Geez more quotes

"They run around all over with no discipline," says Gopher alum Kevin Hartzell. "They don't do the little things that are the most important. Getting traffic inside the dots. Winning puck battles along the boards. Never getting beat up the ice so you don't give up odd-man rushes. What we've seen this program become is a glorified high school team."

"That sums up the state of the program. There's always an excuse," he says. "You blow a two-goal lead with three minutes in your own barn against an average team, and it's a freshman's fault. It's another example of how they've lowered their standards, and Lucia gets away with it, having an explanation for everything. It's like because they were once good, they don't have to work to be excellent now."

"The Union game was the most high-profile example of how the program under him falls short," says a pro scout. "Minnesota consistently — and it's only gotten worse with time — doesn't show the discipline required to be an elite program."

"What makes the relationship between the head coach and alumni unique is many of us live in the Twin Cities and Minnesota, and still are involved with hockey, be it as youth coaches, junior hockey, whatever," says a former player. "Ties to the local hockey community have helped make the program. But he couldn't care less. When guys reached out, he blew them off. When there were alumni events, he barely popped his head in."

 

[bemidjigopher]

Frankly to win in college you need balance. Minnesota clearly has no problem getting the elite recruits in this state, but Lucia's best teams, the one's that won or got to Frozen Fours had lunch pale guys. You need players like Matt Demarchi,or Tom Serretorre, Stu Bickel, guys who are willing to get after it to go along with the Kyle Rau's of the team

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

There's a lot to unpack in that article. I do take an exception with Bjugstad and Wheeler being underperforming Gophers.

After the last alumni revolt didn't we end up with Woog and one of the best teams in Gopher history losing the NCAA championship in OT to Harvard?

And yes, I wish Herbie was around to speak for himself.

 

[gopherfun]

per the City Pages:

The Gophers could not be more different. According to alumni who've soured on the program, Minnesota's star system has bred self-admiration, stroked and infantilized by a culture that doesn't prize selflessness and hard work.

"You tell a 10th grader or even a ninth grader they're going to be a Gopher, and for even the best of kids it's going to be hard for them to think they're not better than other people," says one former player.

Another is more succinct: "They're arrogant little jerks. They've been raised to be the kings of the land because they're youth hockey players that are great. But they're jerks. There's no other way to put it."

And this chorus of critics lays blame at the feet of one man: Coach Don Lucia.

"It's his job to set the tone for his program," says an NHL scout. "At Minnesota, what I see is a coach living off past accomplishments."

http://www.citypages.com/news/what-happened-to-the-university-of-minnesota-hockey-program-7960026

Go Gophers!!

The Gophers are great people and not jerks! They are really nice and still have a great chance to do well this year. If they can win either the Big Ten title or the Big Ten tournament they can make the NCAA tournament and they can beat any of the teams in it for one game. I wouldn't give up on them yet. They are getting better every week.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

http://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/2...defense-of-his-players-after-city-pages-slam/

Jess Meyers: Lucia defends players, says he hasn't read article.

The story by Cory Zurowski titled, “What Happened to the University of Minnesota Hockey Program?” features extensive claims by a few former Gopher hockey players like Reed Larson and Kevin Hartzell, who has been vocally critical of Lucia for close to a decade, writing several pieces in Let’s Play Hockey urging the University of Minnesota to change coaches. The City Pages story also includes a dozen quotes from unnamed or anonymous sources critiquing Lucia, the program and the players.

The coach, who has been in the spotlight for more than 25 years running college hockey programs at Alaska, then Colorado College and now at Minnesota since 1999, says the criticism of him is fine, but that he is not OK with verbal attacks on the guys with skates on.

“People can go after me, that’s part of the deal,” Lucia said. “I understand, although I haven’t read it, that they went after our players too. That’s crossing the boundary for me.”


Also noted in the story is the fact that Lucia, although born and raised in Minnesota, is a Notre Dame grad and once hosted a fundraiser for his alma mater in the Twin Cities. His non-Gopher past has been noted by some disgruntled alumni for years. Lucia said his relationship with most veterans of the program is fine, and has been lucrative as the hockey program raises funds for a major upgrade of Mariucci Arena’s locker room areas, set to begin on April 1.

“There are some alums that have been great,” Lucia said. “There’s a reason we’ve raised over $5 million and we’re going to start a locker room renovation. We’ve got a group that’s been very, very supportive and have helped do that. There’s also a group that five years ago tried to get me fired, and told me I’m not an alum so they can’t support me. Nothing I can do about that.”

 

[LC19]

Geez more quotes

"The Union game was the most high-profile example of how the program under him falls short," says a pro scout. "Minnesota consistently — and it's only gotten worse with time — doesn't show the discipline required to be an elite program."

"

This one gets me laughing all the time. Do they realize that Gophers, Boston College, and Union were the top 3 teams in the country the entire year? Just because Union did have a "name brand", doesn't mean they were not good. They beat BC in the semis to advance to the championship game. Was that BC's low point of their program also? Gophers beat a couple of teams this article states are so much better now, St Cloud they spanked in the regional final, and beat North Dakota in the semis. That "pro scout" must be from WI with that non-intelligent hockey quote. I hope he doesn't scout for the Wild.

 

[Schnauzer]

Shots of Lucia behind the bench nearly always reveal a man that looks like he is about to fall asleep. Cheap shot on the ice, followed by camera shot of Lucia... looks like he is about to fall asleep. Team looks flat?... looks like he is about to fall asleep. Unfortunately the team often plays just like the way their coach acts as he stands behind the bench.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

This one gets me laughing all the time. Do they realize that Gophers, Boston College, and Union were the top 3 teams in the country the entire year? Just because Union did have a "name brand", doesn't mean they were not good. They beat BC in the semis to advance to the championship game. Was that BC's low point of their program also? Gophers beat a couple of teams this article states are so much better now, St Cloud they spanked in the regional final, and beat North Dakota in the semis. That "pro scout" must be from WI with that non-intelligent hockey quote. I hope he doesn't scout for the Wild.

I was about to say the exact same thing before I saw your post. It seems like a stretch to point to losing in the national championship (a point where you had the second most successful season of any team in the country) as evidence of a program in trouble.

 

[goldengophers]

Shots of Lucia behind the bench nearly always reveal a man that looks like he is about to fall asleep. Cheap shot on the ice, followed by camera shot of Lucia... looks like he is about to fall asleep. Team looks flat?... looks like he is about to fall asleep. Unfortunately the team often plays just like the way their coach acts as he stands behind the bench.

It's odd for a program headed by a two time national champion and runner up two years ago but the apathy is like Kentucky prior to Calipari and Alabama prior to Saban. Time to make a change and attempt to wake the sleeping giant, all of these excuses will fall by the wayside when a coach more equipped to handle College hockey in 2016 and beyond takes over.

 

[beavergopher]

Don is like a nice loaf of bread that has gone stale. Time to try something different.

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

Gophers came out with an inspired effort tonight.