Is this the end for Lucia?

Here is an interesting article in today's Minneapolis Star and Tribune. Personally if I was the beat writer for the Star Tribune I might wait till the season is over before I start the fire Lucia story line. You might not get much access after this zinger.

Seriously, things must be miserable behind the scenes if this article is making its way into circulation before the season is over. If I was Coach Lucia I would think twice before it let this beat writer into my team’s locker room again. I also think its funny how so many people assume that Lucia is going to automatically be replaced by Blais. We will see. Just because Blais has an out in his contract doesn’t mean he is a shoe in either.

Personally I think Donny Lucia is doing a great job in Minnesota. All season long I have read on the internet and twitter about how Minnesota fans are ready to be done with Lucia, this is the same coach that won a Spencer Penrose and Back to Back Titles and numerous league titles. I am surprised they would throw him under the bus so fast.

Athletic director Joel Maturi has heard the rumblings of discontent. Even diehard fans of the Gophers men's hockey program are disappointed with its struggles.

"Gophers hockey is expected to compete at the highest level each and every year," Maturi said, "and the belief is that's not where we are at."

Coach Don Lucia, who led the Gophers to back-to-back national titles earlier this decade, is having another trying season. The Gophers are seventh in the WCHA, and barring a strong second half, headed for their third consecutive middle-of-the-pack finish.
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Last season, the Gophers started 7-0-4 before a second-half tumble. They were fifth in the conference, lost in the Final Five play-in game to Minnesota Duluth 2-1 and did not get a spot in the NCAA field. Exacerbating the sting was that the West Regional was at Mariucci Arena.

"Growing up watching Gophers hockey, we saw them win national titles a couple years in a row and, year in and year out, be in the NCAAs," Carman said. "A lot of us thought it was a given."
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Recruiting roulette

"Minnesota has missed on players like [Zach] Parise, [T.J.] Oshie, [David] Backes and [Ryan] McDonagh; we've missed some the last five, six years," said Reed Larson, a former Gophers defenseman who played in the NHL for 14 seasons. "There are some pretty good state players at North Dakota and Wisconsin. I am concerned with the school and the team; something's wrong."

Lucia said the Gophers will always primarily recruit Minnesotans, but he has to make offers earlier and earlier -- to compete with other colleges -- and it's harder to predict how good a 16- or 17-year-old player will be. Many WCHA teams stock their teams with Canadian talent. Lucia has brought in only a couple of Canadians; none have been impact players.

McDonagh committed to Wisconsin out of Cretin-Derham Hall as a junior days before Minnesota planned to make him an offer, Lucia said. McDonagh is a Badgers co-captain as a junior defenseman.

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If Minnesota keeps floundering, though, the criticism of Lucia will undoubtedly increase. He has two more years left on his contract, which will pay him a base salary of $250,751 for the 2011-12 season.

"Most Gophers fans already got a guy picked out to replace him," Sonmor said.

That would be Dean Blais, who won two NCAA titles in his 10 years as head coach at North Dakota. Blais, 58, played for the Gophers in the early 1970s and was known for his no-nonsense style and tireless recruiting before he left the Sioux to become an NHL assistant. He is in his first season at Nebraska-Omaha, which joins the WCHA next season.

A couple of years ago, replacing Lucia would have been unthinkable. But with the storied history of the Gophers program, it only takes a couple of mediocre seasons for discontent to boil to the surface.

And it has.
[Star Tribune]