So is it fashionable to kick Lucia when he is down?

Recently Adam Wodon from the College Hockey News wrote an interesting article about the Minnesota Gophers and their head coach Don Lucia. Lucia has been under a lot of heat lately for his team's play the last two seasons; Gopher fans are unhappy and find their results from the last two seasons, subpar and unacceptable. It’s not much of a stretch to say that many in the Gopher State are ready to grab the pitch forks. While it has become fashionable to pile on Lucia, an Islander blogger was none too impressed with Lucia and or his Gophers hockey program.

The whole thing was stupid, except that it suddenly became trendy to bash Lucia. And when Minnesota failed to make the NCAAs the two following years, after having been powerhouses for so long, people could go back to those comments by Snow and use them as fuel for their own misguided criticisms.

Snow, of course, belied his comments when he drafted Aaron Ness, a player committed to Minnesota, the following summer. Meanwhile, Ness hasn't blossomed yet after two seasons, so this is now Lucia's fault too, apparently. Yet the Islanders aren't rushing out to grab Ness away from Lucia. Why is that? Is it because the Islanders know that if Ness is to develop at all, it will have to be at Minnesota? That would actually be smart on the Islanders' part — but it contradicts the idea that Lucia can't develop him.

Meanwhile, this folly reached a new level when Chris Botta — former Islanders media relations director and now a well-read, well-regarded blogger about the Islanders — wrote a post in March that suggested Ness was looking to get out of Minnesota. In it, Botta wrote that Lucia routinely "bashes" the American Hockey League, and suggested, again, that Ness was looking to get out because Lucia was ruining his career. He wrote that Snow was "publicly ahead of the curve" when it came to Lucia.
[College Hockey News]

In case you hadn't seen it, here is the blog post in question that Adam Wodon is talking about from the New York Islander Blog Point Blank.

Multiple sources tell Point Blank that Ness, who just concluded his sophomore season with the Gophers, is ready to turn pro - if the Islanders want him. A league source said the Islanders have not given up on Ness and hope to strike a low-risk Entry Level contract agreement so the 5-10 defenseman can play in the minor leagues.

A former powerhouse, the Minnesota hockey program has been a shambles the last few years under the direction of coach Don Lucia (yes, Garth Snow was very much publicly ahead of the curve on this one). The Gophers finished this season at 18-19-2.

Ness has regressed under the tutelage of assistant coach John Hill. At one time thought to be a lock for Team USA at the World Junior Championships, the strong-skating Ness did not even make it to the final round of cuts. Islanders prospect Matt Donovan, a fourth round draft pick now with the University of Denver, made the team. In 29 games this season, the offense-minded Ness had just two goals and ten assists.

According to a source close to the Minnesota team, Lucia is known for telling young players of the “horrors” of the minor leagues in an attempt to keep them with the Gophers. Ness’s development has fallen off to the point where the pro ranks are his only option if he wants to give himself the chance of achieving his dream of playing in the NHL. His closest friend, Jordan Schroeder, has just left the school after signing a contract with the Vancouver Canucks.

If I was Donny Lucia the first thing I would do would be to find out who the hell the source close to the Minnesota team is, then I would ask him what the hell he/she is trying do? While I am not in the Gophers locker room it would appear that Donny also might want to get better control of his locker room and who he allows access to.

Next thing I might do if I was Lucia is that I would try to sit down with the Islanders leadership and have a discussion, maybe try to mend a few fences and do some damage control. It’s also not good to have media people from NHL teams and NHL front office brass dusting the Gophers program. This could hurt the Gophers recruiting and have an affect on player retention in the future.

Lastly, it would appear that John Hill is a reoccurring theme that keeps popping up over and over again and might be the real problem hindering the Gophers. The Gophers also lost two very good assistant coaches (Mike Guentzel and Mike Hastings) and retained the one that they should have let go in John Hill.