NCAA hockey tournament needs an overhaul
The curious regional setup of the NCAA hockey tournament has outgrown what once was a novel idea. It needs an overhaul, and the sooner the better.
The NCAA continues to look upon the hockey tournament as sort of a nuisance child in the family of NCAA tournaments. The ruling committee selects 12 teams to play at two sites. This year’s sites were Madison, Wis., and Worcester, Mass. Madison should be fun, you figure, recalling all those nights of sellout crowds screaming and chanting.
Kohl Center has been built in Madison now, and the Badgers have to share it between their hockey and basketball teams. It is large, with over 15,000 or 16,000 possible. But Dane County Coliseum bid for the tournament, and got it with more like 8,500 capacity.
The Badgers weren’t in the tournament, and neither was Minnesota. Without two such noted draws, the first-round games drew 2,414 fans to see Boston College edge Northern Michigan, while Colorado College whipped St. Lawrence 5-2. The next day, 2,910 poured into the place. Where are those Badger fans? On spring break. But consider this: In the plush new Kohl Center, neither the Badger hockey team nor the basketball team sold out its 14,000-plus seats for even one game.
However, that total of 5,324 fans would have fit nicely into Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, or even at the new facility in Colorado Springs, although it is certain that holding the tournament at any campus rink where its team is involved would easily outsell the paltry showing in Madison, where the question was answered once and for all that the crowds are Badger fans, regardless of the sport.
The current setup has a couple of glaring problems. First, it needs to be presold to fans more enthusiastically than this one was, with only 2,400 sold before the tournament began. Second, I don’t like a tournament where one team has a bye while its opponent is decided in a rugged game the night before.
My suggestion is to go to 16 teams, something the NCAA steadfastly has refused to consider. Then we do away with the ridiculous power-rating setup and simply advise the four leagues that they each can come up with four teams. Let the leagues decide who will be seeded 1, 2, 3, and 4. Submit them to the NCAA, then they can put the tournament together by the following formula:
* Pick four sites, one for each league. Hockey East could be in Boston, ECAC in Lake Placid, CCHA in Detroit, and the WCHA could rotate among the various capable buildings, or, better still, be held until the final week before being decided, based on the No. 1 seed.
* At each of the four sites, the host team is seeded No. 1, while a No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 — all from different leagues — will also be seeded in. Then you play 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 in the semis, with the winners going the next night for a spot in the final four.
Local fans would probably be more tempted to go watch the other teams play, in addition to their own, in this setup. And they play off to one winner. At Madison, there were a couple buses from North Dakota, but they left before dawn on Sunday, got in to see the game, then headed home after the game. While it’s tough for a team to have to play a good team for the right to play a rested, better team, it’s also unfair to the team seeded with a bye. And why should that team, or its fans, show up and spend money for games a day early when their team is scheduled to play just one game, the next day?
I envison the Lake Placid site having Clarkson, Michigan, Denver, and Boston College; the Boston site would have New Hampshire, St. Lawrence, St. Cloud State and Ohio State; the Detroit site would have Michigan State, Colorado College, Maine and RPI; and Grand Forks could host North Dakota, Northern Michigan, Providence and Colgate.
Next year, the WCHA host could be Denver, or CC, or St. Cloud, or Wisconsin, depending on who is No. 1 seed. If some arena is too small, think about last weekend, and how easy it would be to get more than 6,000 for each session.
Whatever, this formula would leave room so that if one conference is better — or luckier — in a given year, it would gain more than one berth in the final four. But it would be determined on the ice, not in a boardroom. This year, the committee weighed all the criteria carefully, and decided the CCHA was deserving of four places while the ECAC got two, and, since those two weren’t seeded very high, both were whipped quickly. But if the CCHA got four teams, only one made it, in Michigan State. The WCHA got blanked, while Hockey East got three teams — and all three made it to Anaheim. Does that mean the computer was bunk? Should it have given four spots to Hockey East and cut down the CCHA and WCHA?
Forget the politics, or even the computer. Let each league have four teams, and let those leagues decide how they want to seed and submit their four. Regular season? Fine. Playoff? OK. Just submit your own league’s 1-2-3-4 teams, by preconceived formula or by league vote.
Bulldogs thrive on hectic baseball schedule
It was a bright, fairly clear and fairly mild spring day in Duluth, but it would turn into typical Duluth spring weather soon.
By the time the UMD baseball team had whipped Bemidji State 11-4 and the second game of Tuesday’s Northern Sun doubleheader had begun, the clouds had swept in, the temperature plunged about 15 degrees, and the handful of fans who remained zipped their jackets up to the top and wished they had worn heavier ones.
It was a critical doubleheader for the Bulldogs, who had gone into last weekend with a 2-3 league record, and stood 6-8 overall. But they swept Minnesota-Morris 10-4 and 7-1 on Saturday, and took Morris again, 7-2 and 10-0, on Sunday. A rescheduled doubleheader at Carleton was played on Monday, with UMD winning 3-1 and 12-4.
So the Bemidji State doubleheader meant doubleheaders on four consecutive days — eight games in four days. Winning the opener was huge, as ace pitcher Chris Swiatkiewicz, who set a school record for career strikeouts on Saturday, struck out 11 more.
“Chris is a great pitcher, he’s something like 15-1 now,” said coach Scott Hanna. “The Dukes are looking at him, and the White Sox have scouted him.”
Robert Rothe hit a home run in that first game, while Dave Tafelski, Bryan Spaeth and Jed Meyer had two hits each.
The second game, the team’s eighth game in four days, became enormously important to the Bulldogs in the league picture, and Hanna started Jamie Swenson, a sophomore from Woodbury, on the mound. “He worked his way up from pitching relief to become one of our four starters,” said Hanna, who is in his 21st year as UMD coach.
Swenson had good stuff, chilly weather or not, as the second game stood 2-2 in the last of the fourth. With two out and a runner on third, Kiel Kreidermacher attempted a squeeze bunt that went foul. But two pitches later, Kreidermacher, a senior from Mendota Heights, lined a single to right-center to break the tie.
Matt Joesting, the team’s top hitter at .390, socked his fourth home run of the season in the fifth to make it 4-2, and Andy Dooley, a junior from Albert Lea, and another reliever who has earned a starting slot, relieved Swenson and finished off the last two innings of a 5-2 victory.
The back-breaking task of eight games in four days had resulted in eight straight UMD victories. The Bulldogs, once 1-3 in the Northern Sun, vaulted to 9-3, and from 6-8 to 14-8 overall.
It’s been a team effort, with Joesting (.393), Tefelski (.388), Kreidermache (.357), Ryan Skubic (.349); Steve Battaglia (.333), Rothe (.306), Bryan Spaeth (.302), and Marty Spanish (.300) leading the way offensively. As for pitching, Chris Swiatkiewic is 5-0, Swenson 3-1 and Dooley 3-0, seeing double-duty between staff rotations.
“It’s a stretch on the pitching staff, and it wears me out, but the players seem to thrive on it,” Hanna added. “It was tough, because we played at Carleton last night, then bused home late, and had to play Bemidji today. But it’s the same for everybody.
“Besides, next week we’ve got 10 games in six days. We play Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.”
Monday’s game is against Wisconsin-Superior at 1 p.m. at UMD; Tuesday is a return trip to Bemidji State; Wednesday, Mount Senario comes to Duluth for a 1 p.m. doubleheader; and Southwest State visits UMD for Friday and Saturday doubleheaders. Before that, though, UMD hit the road on Thursday to play doubleheaders at Northern State in Aberdeen, this Friday and Saturday.
As for the jammed-up schedule, Hanna described it best.
“It’s kind of like a fight with a muskie,” said Hanna. “It’s a short, violent fight.”
]That was one of the equalizers in playing Bemidji State, which is possibly the only school on the schedule with a shorter, less-predictable baseball season than the springtime in Duluth.
Laaksonen, Bottoms lead state team to Chicago
Those of us who are stubbornly proud of the caliber of Minnesota high school hockey might be so bold as to proclaim “We could whip any other state’s top players with one arm tied behind our back.” Well, the equivalent of tying one hand behind their collective backs is what makes Minnesota’s entry in the 24-team Chicago Showcase tournament such a fantastic endeavor.
The tournament, which is in its 15th year, will be held in two weeks and it brings together teams from different cities, states and combined states. There are teams from Colorado, Missouri, Alaska, Ohio, Illinois, California, Colorado, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Buffalo, New Jersey, and, of course, the mainstays from Massachusetts, New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Minnesota.
But there is a difference. While those other states send their top prep players, Minnesota organizers and co-coaches Ted Brill and Dave Hendrickson take Minnesota’s top high school prospects — EXCEPT: no players who already have a Division I commitment, or who prefer to play spring sports.
Obviously, that cuts down dramatically on candidates. But Minnesota is overflowing with players, and even when you skim off those elite players who decline for the above reasons, the selected team is proof of the depth of skill in Minnesota.
“We won the tournament last year and the year before,” said Brill, from his home in Grand Rapids. “The year before that, we lost 2-1 to Massachusetts, and they went on and won the tournament. We had quite a few boys turn us down, and that’s great, because it means they’ve got something solid to look forward to.
“The players we take are sort of the unsung heroes. They’re really good, but maybe they’ve been overlooked. We tell them, when they’re sitting at home with their parents at the dining room table, they know how good they are, and we know how good they are, but maybe by playing in this tournament somebody else will find out how good they are.”
Up North players selected for the Minnesota team include Cloquet goaltender Adam Laaksonen, Hibbing forward O.J. Bottoms, and Roseau’s forward tandem of Mike Klema and Jesse Modahl. Several others that Brill said they would have liked to have had to decline. Players such as Jon Francisco of Hermantown, Josh Miskovich and Beau Geisler of Greenway of Coleraine, Andy Sacchetti of Eveleth-Gilbert, Jay Dardis of Proctor decllined because they are committed.
Minnesota will play in the elite level pool against Buffalo on Wednesday, April 14; against Northern New England on Thursday the 15th; and against Wisconsin on Friday the 16th. Teams are paired by their records in pool play against the other brackets for a game on Saturday the 17th, with the semifinals at 9 a.m. and the championship game at 4 p.m. on Sunday the 18th.
The full Minnesota team: Goaltenders–Laaksonen and Adam Berkhoel of Stillwater; Defensemen–Brian Skrypek of Roseville, Greg Zemple of Blaine, Joe Martin of Buffalo, Josh Singer of Holy Angels, John Dubel of Maple Grove and Bryan Schmidt of Bloomington Jefferson; Forwards–Bottoms, Modahl, Klema, David DuBord and Brett Hammond of Roseville, Matt Koalska and Dan Miller of Hill-Murray, Gabe Hilmoe of Anoka, Dustin Lick of Eagan, Dave Ianozzo of Maple Grove, and Josh Bertelson of Wayzata.
WCHA NOTES:
* The hot rumor circulating around the WCHA all week was that University of Minnesota coach Doug Woog had already been fired and replaced by Colorado College coach Don Lucia. There were even details, such as a five-year deal, eliminating the whole Gopher staff to start anew, and complete recruiting freedom. The rumor, if anything, is certainly premature. Preliminary contacts had been made several weeks ago to North Dakota coach Dean Blais, who is from International Falls, and to Lucia, who is from Grand Rapids. Secondary contacts also have been made more recently with both, but nothing official, such as asking official permission from those colleges to discuss job details. The whole thing has just been a scouting mission, in case Minnesota decides to remove Woog as coach. Those coaches logically did some preliminary scouting on their own, which may have caused the assumption it was done, and led to the rumors. Until Minnesota administrators meet with Woog to discuss options — which might be anticipated in the next few days — all such rumors are premature, if not unfounded.
* Indications are that the Nashville NHL franchise might offer UMD freshman Kent Sauer a contract to turn him pro after only one year of WCHA hockey. Sauer said he hasn’t heard anything concrete and, unless an outstanding offer presents itself, he intends to stay in school. Sauer, only one year out of high school, had to battle to become comfortable at the WCHA pace. Nashville, a new team, may be looking for a young tough guy as a fighter, and Sauer’s size (6-2, 225) make him a worthy candidate. He probably would have a better chance to develop as a complete player by staying at UMD, but it could come down to how much money is offered to him.
‘Cloquet Connection’ helps Cup-favorite Stars
DALLAS, TEXAS
It seemed strange, with the temperature in the 90s, to be fighting rush-hour traffic to get to Reunion Arena in downtown Dallas for a hockey game in late April. At that, it was sort of a reverse homecoming, because the Dallas Stars were once the Minnesota North Stars, and there are still some familiar faces.
The best Up North touches, however, are newcomers to the Stars this season. Among them is Duluth resident and former UMD star Brett Hull, who came in from St. Louis and is the No. 2 scorer on the club, which took the NHL’s top regular-season rating into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
More to the core of Up North hockey, Jamie Langenbrunner and Derek Plante are both regulars in the Stars lineup. Langenbrunner, in his second full season with the big club, scored the game-winning goal in last Friday’s 3-2 victory over Edmonton in Game 2 in Dallas. For good measure, Langenbrunner set up linemate Joe Nieuwendyk for the winner in Edmonton on Sunday night for another 3-2 victory — this one after the Stars rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a victory that put them on the brink of a four-game sweep against the Oilers.
The odds of two hockey players from Cloquet both making it in the NHL are pretty steep; the odds of both of them playing on the same team are off the scale.
“It’d be fun to figure out the odds on that,” said Plante. “Not bad for a town of about 11,000. And not only are we both here, but Corey Millen, who’s now playing in Europe, played for the Stars a few years ago. And Rick Mrozik was drafted by the Stars. So there could ha ve been four Cloquet guys playing for the Stars.”
At 28, Plante is five years older than Langenbrunner, and while Plante started his sixth NHL season in Buffalo, he has had to make a major weather adjustment. “I’m not high on heat, but at least in Dallas you can see the sun,” said Plante.
Langenbrunner saw the light last season, when he followed up a 13-26–39 rookie season by scoring 23 goals and 29 assists for a 52-point season that earned him a spot as a solid regular in Dallas. But he missed the start of this season when negotiations for his second pro contract broke down. Since signing, he has been satisfied to work hard, skate hard, and increase his assists to 33 while scoring only 12 goals.
“It’s been frustrating at times,” said Langenbrunner. “But I’ve been playing with Nieuwendyk quite a bit this season, so it’s not like I haven’t been on a line that can score. Sometimes the pucks go in quite a bit and sometimes they don’t.”
Langenbrunner’s output indicates how NHL has changed since its days in Minnesota. Defense is everything, and scoring chances — let alone scoring — are at a premium. So Langenbrunner’s hustling, hard-charging style is a tremendous asset, and when the chances come, he can score.
It was that way Friday. Langenbrunner might not have had another good chance all game, but in the third period, with the Stars leading the rugged Oilers 2-1, Langenbrunner moved off the right boards to pounce on a loose puck at the top of the circle. He veered toward the net with the puck on his backhand, and, with no chance to shift to his forehand, he snapped off a wicked backhander at goaltender Tommy Salo.
“I got it just over his blocker,” said Langenbrunner. “The odds are, you won’t get many chances, especially in the playoffs, so it’s nice to put it in when you get the chance.”
While Langenbrunner and the Stars established themselves as the stingiest defensive team in the NHL, Buffalo was having a decent season across the continent. But Plante wasn’t playing much. He’s a quick, light, creative player and the Sabres decided they needed beefier players in the lineup. His ice time diminished last season, and lessened this season, where he only scored 4 goals and 11 assists in part-time duty in 41 games. Things had reached such a low point that Plante asked for a trade from the Sabres, the only team he had played for in the six years since he left UMD.
“It got pretty frustrating in Buffalo,” said Plante, who was sent to Dallas for a second-round draft pick on March 23 for a second-round spot in the amateur draft. “Their plan was to be more physical, so I probably only played in half their games, and not many shifts in those. I’d asked for a trade earlier in the season, but it never came. I was praying I’d get traded, anywhere, even though I knew I could get sent to a rebuilding team. So to finally get traded right before the deadline, and to have it be to what possibly is the best team in hockey, it couldn’t have been better.
“We were in New Jersey when I heard I’d been traded, so I had to go back to Buffalo and then be on a 10 a.m. flight to join the Stars in Los Angeles. My stuff just got sent here.”
While both of them grew up in the Cloquet youth and high school system, they were separated by five years, which meant they never played together.
“I watched Derek play when I was younger,” said Langenbrunner. “My dad was an assistant coach of the high school team when he played, and then I watched him at UMD, and we’ve skated together some in the summer. We didn’t know each other all that well growing up, but I’m really glad we go him. He’s a great guy and he’s played well since coming here.”
Plante went on to UMD, where he made sensational progression in four years, with scoring stats that went from 10-11–21 as a freshman, to 23-20–43, as a sophomore, 27-36–63 as an outstanding junior, and finally to 36-56–92 in his splendid senior year as captain. Langenbrunner chose a different route.
After leading Cloquet to the state tournament as a junior, he bypassed his senior year after being drafted by the North Stars, and went to play at Peterborough, in the Ontario Hockey League’s Tier I junior competition. He played 62 games at Peterborough for two seasons, scoring 33-58–91 and 42-57–99. In 1995-96 he got to play a dozen games with Dallas and spent the other 59 games in the International Hockey League, scoring 25-40–65 for Michigan, before getting his chance to stick with the big club for a 13-26–39 rookie year in 1996-97.
With such high-profile stars as Hull and Mike Modano, both Langenbrunner and Plante know and accept their roles with the Stars.
“This team has a system where it doesn’t matter who scores, we focus on defense,” said Plante. “It’s basically the same system — a basic trap — that we played in Buffalo. You always have to make sure some forward is back defensively.”
General Manager Bob Gainey is always cautious with his praise, but he has built this team according to his own defensive playing-style. “Jaime has struggled at times this season, but only because, with his tools, we’d like to see him be a bit more noticeable,” said Gainey. “We’re hoping that Derek may be able to pop a few goals. They’re both good kids — good people.”
In that Friday game, Modano centered Hull and Jere Lehtinen, while Guy Carbonneau centered Blake Sloan and Dave Reid on lines that accounted for the Stars first two goals. Langenbrunner played left wing with Nieuwendyk at center and Benoit Hogue on left wing, while Plante centered Mike Keane and Grant Marshall. The lines got jumbled from frequent power plays and penalty kills, but coach Ken Hitchcock did an excellent job of juggling lines to keep everybody in the game.
“It’s so funny how this game goes,” said Plante. “You start thinking about how much luck has to do with it. You get a chance and take a great shot, and hit the goaltender in the helmet. Then you get a lousy shot and somehow it goes in. But it’s great to win.”
The Stars, with their Cloquet Connection, are likely to still be winning when the playoffs of April and May turn to June.
Woog regime ends at U hockey
The 14-year reign of Doug Woog as coach of the University of Minnesota hockey team came to an end Monday, when Woog met with athletic director Mark Dienhart to discuss his options.
It was widely reported throughout the Twin Cities that those options included either a one-year deal to continue coaching or potential multi-year security if Woog would relinquish the coaching job and move into a fund-raising capacity at the U.
That is almost correct.
First of all, the option of coaching for only a one-year contract would have merely been the continuation of status quo, had it been an option for Woog. He has operated on the basis of a one-year contract for several years, with the terms rolling over automatically if neither side had a reason to interrupt it. It has been interrupted.
Amid widespread speculation that Colorado College coach Don Lucia and North Dakota coach Dean Blais were the two front-runners to replace Woog, if a replacement was to be required, it was also announced by Dienhart, with flair and some degree of righteousness, that no “emissary” from the U. had contacted any other coach because Dienhart would consider that unethical.
That is almost correct.
What really happened was that Dienhart and Woog talked about getting together after the NCAA hockey finals. The main public reason for the change was two losing seasons, back to back, after a dozen very impressive finishes.
Beneath the surface, however, the reason for the faltering record was the belated effect of internal unrest that had grown to near-mutiny proportions. Some parents had, recently and finally, come forward, seeking to make their feelings known to president Mark Yudof and/or vice president and former athletic director McKinley Boston. They had genuine complaints about a pattern of negative verbal harrassment that worsened in recent years from sarcastic badgering to something closer to psychological and perhaps emotional abuse. Players were humiliated in front of teammates, in terms that would shock stereotypical longshoremen, and it turned a lot of promising, bright-eyed players into discouraged under-achievers.
The seniors are called in for discussion every year, but this year, some underclassmen were called in as well. They took advantage of the opportunity to say their piece. Several of them were vehement that if Woog came back, they would not.
By the time Monday rolled around, it was clear that Doug Woog could choose to become a fund-raiser, but his well-publicized option to continue coaching was no longer available. Woog made his decision, but waited until Tuesday to meet with the Gopher players before any announcement would be forthcoming. He was not going to gather them together to inform them he would continue coaching. And the actual press conference followed at 3 p.m.
Before then, a group representing the U. was already booked on a flight west, reportedly to meet with Lucia. Always classy, and always respectful for tradition and protocol, Lucia refused to comment on any of the speculation. It was known, however, that the U. had asked for and received official permission to talk to Lucia.
Blais also said he wouldn’t comment until the job opening was official.
It is also known that both Lucia and Blais had been talked to, by people representing the University of Minnesota, on at least two occasions BEFORE Dienhart said no emissary of the U. had talked to any other coaches because it would be unethical. That made the later statement interesting. Was it simply an untrue deception, a pre-admission of unethical behavior, or an indication that Pat Forciea was operating on his own without Dienhart’s knowledge?
I don’t believe Dienhart would lie and say nobody had contacted Lucia or Blais if he had knowledge that it had indeed happened. I think he didn’t know about it, which is an indication of a curious lack of institutional control in the department.
Both Blais and Lucia have lucrative contract offers to stay where they are. Lucia worked a miracle when he went to CC six years ago and led the Tigers from last place to the WCHA title, then, in his first three seasons, became the first coach ever to win three consecutive WCHA titles. Murray Armstrong didn’t do it, John MacInnes didn’t do it, Herb Brooks didn’t do it, Badger Bob Johnson didn’t do it — nobody had ever done it.
Injuries prevented CC from a fourth title — injuries and the emergence of Blais at North Dakota, where, over the last three seasons, he became the SECOND coach to ever win three straight WCHA championships.
Colorado College now plays in a spectacular new arena in Colorado Springs, and Lucia could easily spend the rest of his career there, happy and prosperous. Blais is about to be on the receiving end of a huge and lucrative contract and the Fighting Sioux are going to be beneficiaries of a new $50-million arena, courtesy of Ralph Engelstad, a former Sioux goaltender from Thief River Falls, who is spending some of the wealth from his Las Vegas casino and other holdings to improve UND’s stature by $100-million.
It was altogether fitting and proper, and predictable, that Minnesota would go after Blais and Lucia if it wanted to seek the best young coach in the country. Both qualify.
Blais was a star player at Minnesota and is from International Falls. Lucia was a star defenseman at Grand Rapids and then Notre Dame, and while he is not an “M” man, that hasn’t mattered in football or basketball, or in the administration, where Dienhart and Forciea are both St. Thomas guys.
It appears that because Blais is in the process of finalizing a large contract, one that Minnesota may not be able to match, the Gophers may be leaning toward Lucia. The group traveling on Tuesday to meet with him indicates that, and speculation is that somehow Minnesota will get around the usual month-long equal opportunities waiting period. If the offer to Lucia connects, he could be the coach before this weekend.
Blais still may be in the picture, too. In either case, the university can’t miss. The talent is there, always has been. If I’m right about that, let me be the first to predict that under either one of those coaches the Gophers will win the WCHA title next season. More importantly, the program will rise like a rocket ship to regain its stature as one of the nation’s half-dozen most elite programs.
It had slipped to something less than that. There were the publicized issues of NCAA violations, and several unpublicized issues of allegations of more NCAA violations, but those were secondary to the treatment of players. Some threatened to come forward, and parents threatened to go to the administration, but rarely did that happen and they became enablers for the program to slip.
Understandably, nobody wanted to be the one who criticized the lofty Gopher hockey program. Scott Bloom came forth with a shocking speech at a post-season award banquet in 1990, about how it hadn’t been as much fun on the inside as the perception might have indicated, and he was ostracized by the strongest boosters for speaking out.
Brian Bonin spoke up for his teammates during his Hobey Baker season four years ago, but others backed away from public statements and simply went away in silence.
I have written about some of the issues, and while some thought it was too strong, the letters and e-mails I received since then have been emotional and remarkably poignant.
One of them was from someone who shall remain nameless by my choice, but wrote about a nephew who is a current member of the Gopher team but not from the Up North area:
“It has been his dream since peewee days to play for the
Gophers. He turned down other offers. He thought he would succeed on his
ability to play. He has been dead wrong. Our challenge as a family has been
to keep his self-esteem from going away altogether. He almost transferred…but he has made friends and he doesn’t want to be a ‘quitter.’ He has been ignored; not allowed a regular place on
any line; been bumped from travel without any explanation; all mind games he
has a hard time understanding or playing.
“We hear the stories–everyone talks about them–every player has experienced
something of Woog’s power problem. One player spoke out a year or so ago. So,
the team has been told that at banquets they each have to ‘thank’ Woog for all
he’s done. They are to offer no opinions or make no editorial comment .
“[Some] parents are trying to move behind the scenes, but the good old boy, Minnesotans-don’t-talk-about-it syndromes are in full play here. Everyone is upset. No one will talk about it. No
parent wants to risk their kid’s hockey career. They have been hockey
supporters since their kid got on skates and have been brought up to let the
coach do his job. The kids think being tough means taking whatever he
dishes out. College careers have been horrendous experiences; pro career
possibilities have disappeared; but most importantly young kids have spent
four years being told indirectly that they don’t matter; they aren’t capable;
they can’t make it and no one cares.”
The silence has ended. A new regime is about to be installed, and the returning players will rejoice. I don’t dislike Doug Woog, even if I don’t like what has happened to the program during the second half of his tenure. He and I always have been able to talk, to trade opinions, and to share a few laughs. I imagine we can do that more freely now. I wish him well in his future endeavors.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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