UML 2004/2005 Post Mortem

UML 2004/2005 Post Mortem

Interview with Coach Blaise MacDonald

April 14, 2005

Part II

The tough part though for the fans will be watching those 11 players leave after this upcoming season. The headliners of course will be Bruin draftee Ben Walter (90 points in his Lowell career), Elias Godoy (94) and Andrew Martin (88), all of whom should hopefully hit the 100 mark plateau at some point early in the season. This class though will be remembered for the depth though, not just the main three players. Danny O’Brien (66 points in his career) could also hit the 100 point mark in he can improve just a bit on his 29 point junior season. Bobby Robins and Brad King will be remembered for some tough hits and some nice goals. Mark Pandolfo, who showed himself to have a good sense of timing, notching a couple of goals at just the perfect moment. Two blue liners will also be playing in their final season. Matt Collar, a solid stay-at-home defenseman, and Kim Brandvold, who picked up his play as his career moved forward. Two kids who transferred into Lowell will also be finishing their careers. Matt Walsh didn’t get much of a chance to play this past year, but he’s noted as being a good team player, a good locker room presence, and goalie John Yaros, who overcame injuries and an illness to put up very good numbers this year. A solid corp of players that helped pushed Lowell into a more prominent position than when they first got here. Even though MacDonald has experienced a huge class like this leaving before (he lost 15 seniors to graduation one year at Niagara), he goes into this final year for the Class of 06 with mixed feelings. “It’s not easy,” acknowledged MacDonald, “but do you look at them leaving or what they’ve accomplished. In my opinion, the Lowell program has made a quantum leap in every aspect through their four years.” The other side that needs to be looked at though is the kids that will be coming in, including the aforementioned 5 recruits. Those young men will have some solid shoes to fill, but MacDonald admits that watching them try and grow into the players he believes they can be and helping continue to grow the UML program is enjoyable for him.

The coach of the River Hawks noted that the program is now beginning to be recruited by many players, who want to play for MacDonald, want to go to school at Lowell and want to play at the Tsongas Arena. “We’re getting some really quality kids, we need to recruit the right kids,” said MacDonald, implying that it is not necessarily the ‘name’ kids or the blue chip recruits that Lowell is looking at. While he acknowledged that the school will not win too many recruiting battles against BC, BU and UNH, he’s very happy with the type of kids that Lowell is getting. The Hawks don’t necessarily go after the big name recruits, as they might not fit in for what Lowell is looking for anyway. MacDonald used Mercyhurst as an example of this, saying that he would venture to guess none of the players on the Lakers roster had been recruited by any Hockey East school, but yet they put in a good bit to upset BC in the NCAA Tournament. About the 06/07 recruiting class, MacDonald said, “I really like how it’s shaping up, a good blend of the type of player that will excel here.” He noted that it’s important for the incoming recruits to “continue the legacy and the direction of the kids we’ve brought in to this point.” MacDonald and his staff haven’t had to do too much recruiting the last couple of years, as they’ve only lost 5 players the last two years. Assistant Ken Rausch is the lead recruiter and sees many more players than MacDonald. But this summer, MacDonald will be a lot more involved, especially while looking for blue line help. “I think I’ve got a good eye for that,” said MacDonald, “but as much as [his assistants] want me to be involved, I think I can go in and close most deals.” He did note that his assistants have a lot of responsibility in the area of recruiting.

MacDonald also mentioned how much fun he had doing the CSTV work during the NCAA Tournament. While he did acknowledge it was hard work and it took away from his family time, he went because it’s good for the UMass Lowell program. The story that ESPN.com did on the regular season road trip to Maine was actually their idea, something ESPN.com Editor David Albright decided to bring up with MacDonald. “I’m a big believer in all-access things,” said MacDonald and he sees the benefits to the fans to learn about the game, what the kids have to go through with practice and school work, what the type of prep work coaches have to do in preparation for the final product that the fans actually do see, the actual games. MacDonald also sees the added benefit that ESPN and CSTV provide in that “it’s exposure for UMass Lowell on a national level.” Listening to MacDonald, it’s obvious the pride he takes in being the coach at UML and he definitely gave off that vibe during both of the aforementioned items. Information from these types of media things, and learning things like the fact that the team carries a deep-tissue massage therapist on the road, shows fans and possible recruits that “we do a lot to try and put our kids in the best position possible to have success.” The ESPN.com piece was well received around the country by college hockey fans, by UML fans and also by one rather well-known alumnus, as current Minnesota Wild goalie Dwayne Roloson sent an email from Finland (where he’s currently playing due to the NHL lockout) to Albright thanking him for the article. While MacDonald does like the exposure, the one thing he won’t do is spend the hard earned money that his budget allows him to bring in the US NTDP (the U-18 team) for an exhibition. It costs $5,000 to get the team for a game, and with the state University system budget getting cut hard the last couple of years, this is money that MacDonald is not willing to part with.

While fans are already looking forward to next season, it’s interesting to note that the coach and his staff do not have a lot of time off to themselves during the summer. Between recruiting, organizing the upcoming golf tournament, working on improving the Center Ice Club, MacDonald said “There’s just too much on my plate to ever feel like I could sit back.” Other ‘off-season’ activities will include some coaching clinics, and a currently in-the-works plan to meet up with some other college coaches and have a brainstorming session. If the NHL does start up, the Lowell coach hopes to be able to go out to some team’s training camp and be with an NHL staff and see how things run on that level. “I just want to always make sure that I’m getting better as a coach,” said MacDonald.

Not known as being shy and reserved, in his actions or while stating his opinions, MacDonald blasted away at segments of fans that find it easy to say, ‘Fire the Coach.’ MacDonald says “I think the chat rooms are reckless in that regard,” when talking about the speculation/rumor mongering that constantly follows the coach of a losing team. Mentioning specifically Bruce Crowder (recently let go by Northeastern) and Paul Pooley (fans have been asking for his ouster for years), MacDonald believes fans give coaches too short a life line if results don’t come as quickly as the fans think they should. He notes that people need to remember that the players are college kids, and have other issues constantly to deal with. It’s not just as easy as being able to shape or mold them to how the fans think the team should play. On the NU situation, MacDonald believes that the expectations were probably too high for the Huskies once they hired Crowder away from Lowell. On the Providence situation, his words were even stronger. “Where do [PC] fans think Providence should be? Have you been down in their locker room? Have you been down to see what they can sell?” MacDonald noted that one edge that PC has is name recognition, being a Big East school (in most sports). He went on to expound on his ‘reckless’ comment saying that these threads on websites like USCHO “kill your recruiting, break down the synergy of your team and then you have situations like you have at Merrimack and Canisius.” While it can be safely assumed that MacDonald knows that coaching is a results oriented business, it’s obvious that he feels that fans forget that the coaches are trying their best to succeed at their jobs, and many times outside influences can have a negative impact on the hockey program.

Part of that ‘speaks his mind’ attitude showed up in the preseason last year, as MacDonald was very comfortable talking about how he expected his team to play in at least the Hockey East semifinals during the 04/05 season, as well as playing in the NCAAs. With the River Hawks losing in the first round of the playoffs once again (Lowell is 1-3 in the first round with MacDonald as coach), will the coach be a little more reserved with his predictions for the upcoming year? Not very likely. “We set the bar high for ourselves and we’re not afraid to tell people publicly,” said MacDonald. He did acknowledge that there can be a negative to that if the team doesn’t reach the expectations they publicly stated, but that the team wouldn’t change. Apparently MacDonald received a few emails from disgruntled fans stating that the season had been a failure since the team hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament. The coach though will continue to do things his way, and will continue to set the bar for his own team. For next year, MacDonald says “I want us to be in a position going into the Hockey East playoffs where we’re secure to get an NCAA Tournament bid.” A very reachable goal but MacDonald knows that if the team doesn’t make it, the emails and calls will grow in number.

MacDonald in general is a very eloquent speaker, and so it was interesting to see how he could describe certain players in quick responses. Most of the players he quickly responded, but a couple he had to give a second or two of thought. To MacDonald, seniors Andrew Martin (33 games in 04/05, 12-20-32) was “speed,” Ben Walter (36, 26-13-39) was “poise,” and Elias ‘Ice-man’ Godoy (34, 12-27-39) was “big time gameness.” Rookie of the Year Peter Vetri (25, 13-7-3, 2.52 GAA, 91.2%), whom MacDonald had already compared to UML’s only current NHLer Dwayne Roloson before one NCAA game, was described as "competitor." Another couple of seniors in Danny O’Brien (35, 11-18-29) and Matt Collar (36, 1-5-6) were “energy” and “warrior” respectively, according to MacDonald. And to MacDonald, “skill” was the word used to describe the leading scorer from the blueline, and arguably one of the best defensemen in Hockey East, in junior to be Cleve Kinley (36, 8-21-29).

MacDonald happily went on to expound on Vetri. MacDonald also remembered and pointed out that this writer had been surprised at the comparison that had been made of Vetri to Roloson. “I thought [Vetri] separated himself as an elite goaltender in this league, certainly a well above average one” said MacDonald. During the season it was noted several times in newspaper articles that Vetri was very hard on himself, and hated to even let a goal in during practice. That attitude hasn’t changed much at this point, as according to MacDonald, Vetri rated his season as a 7.5 on a scale of 10. With three years left still for the youngster, MacDonald seems comfortable having Vetri as his number one for a long time. He describes Vetri as “Very competitive and demands a lot from himself.” Lowell fans hope that Vetri continues to improve as his career at UML moves along, especially with the offensive fire power that will be lost after next year. The defense will pretty much all be back, and if the goaltending stays solid, the River Hawks should be a solid team for a few years to come.

And that leads us to this upcoming season. Expectations will be high for the River Hawks, both internally and externally. With a team that won 20 games, returns 100% of its scoring, returns its numbers one and two goaltenders, how could expectations not be high? The one issue going into last year for the coaching staff was that they weren’t sure where the goaltending situation would be during the 04/05 season. With Vetri claiming the #1 spot though during the season, and Yaros proving to be a much more than adequate fill in, MacDonald should feel more secure about that position going into the year. It’s very obvious that he’s excited about the team he’s returning next year. “I love the way the guys come to the rink, I love their work habits,” said MacDonald, “I love how other coaches talk about our team totally different from my first year here.” He goes on to refer to how multi-dimensional the team is, with guys who have skill and still will hit without any problems. “We’re a hockey team that can play with anybody,” said the coach. There is some nervousness in this as well for the UMass Lowell coach, who surprisingly concedes that he is “actually a little concerned with the expectations that people will put on our team and how we can handle that.” He referred to the fact that the team hasn’t made it to the Hockey East semis, that they haven’t made it to the NCAAs, and the expectation will be there next year for both those things to happen. He also made note of the fact that the staff has to keep in mind certain what-if? scenarios, in regards to injuries to players, and other unexpected items. Listening to MacDonald though, one gets the feeling that the expectations he sets for his team will be higher than anything anyone else will set. He will get his team ready for next season, and if he, his staff and his players do what they all believe they can, there should be no need for Lowell fans to suffer another ‘disappointing’ year.