The rumor mill has been saying that Don Lucia's job as head hockey coach isn't secure. When I read that on Sioux Sports last year I thought it was silly. My opinion at the time was that Don Lucia had earned a very secure position at the University of Minnesota.
Compared with the other major sports I thought that Lucia had the most secure job of any of their coaches. After all, Lucia has a couple national titles. The other programs at Minnesota have been uniformly disappointing.
This year when the rumors inevitable surfaced I had to wonder. It's not that I thought that the Gopher's record put him in jeopardy. It was the effort on the ice that was lacking, not necessarily a lack of wins.
It's not that the Gophers don't have talent. Judging by the NHL draft picks on the team they have plenty of that.
We know Don Lucia can coach. He's been successful everywhere he's been. So what's wrong? Is it the leadership on the team that's lacking. Is it that the coach put his son on the team that's demotivating the team?
I went to the archives and found that Don Lucia's coaching record prior to Tony Lucia joining the team is 203-86-26. That gives him a winning percentage of 69%
Lucia's record since Tony joined the team is 84-57-21. That's a winning record of only 58%.
The best season for the Gophers since Tony joined the team was his Freshman year. They went 31-10-3 that year. Chris Porter was able to end their season with an overtime goal.
Since Tony's freshman year the Gopher's record has really tanked. They're only 52-47-18 for that period for a winning percentage of 52%.
This year the Gophers named Tony Lucia as one of their captains and things went further downhill. Right now they're sitting at 17-17-2. If the Sioux have a good weekend we can end their season and give Don Lucia his first losing season in Minnesota.
We know Don Lucia can coach. We know the Gophers have talent. Maybe I'm putting the blame in the wrong place, but I'll predict that next year the Gophers, without Tony Lucia improve and the talk about firing Don Lucia goes away.
Maybe it's not Tony that's hurting this team. But he's the coaches kid and a captain. I think it's fair to consider him first.
What I simply cannot fathom is that Minnesota has something like 17 or 18 NHL draft picks and yet they finished 7th in the WCHA standings and a very slim shot to even qualify for the NCAA tournament. That is truly pathetic. Just goes to show you can't win on talent alone, you need team chemistry, hard work, coaching, and most importantly, you need consistent goaltending.
ReplyDeleteI know it was a big goal to end the Gophers season, but to elevate Mr. Porter from Chris to Christ is a bit much Goon...
ReplyDeleteRJ, that was me, not Goon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up, I fixed it.
WCHAdominates, there is no chance they make the NCAA playoffs.
ReplyDelete