Mel Pearson is why Michigan Hockey was great
Red's done great things for this program and no doubt he has universal respect in the hockey world, but as Michigan just shot themselves in the foot for the 3rd straight year I thought I'd look at the numbers to see the impact Mel has had.
Mel has been at either Tech or Michigan since the 1985-1986 season. Darker lines are with Mel (2014 is projected based on current win%)
(Apologies for the hastily assembled, hard to read chart)
Red is a great guy, but I think it's his time. Retire with all appropriate fanfare and respect, but Hackett needs to call Mel and ask what he needs to come back to Ann Arbor.
February 21st, 2015 at 4:10 AM ^
February 21st, 2015 at 10:47 AM ^
February 21st, 2015 at 12:19 AM ^
The Big Ten sent two one seeds to the tournament last year and missed a 3rd team by 1 game. Just because it's a down year dosn't mean the conference is terrible.
February 20th, 2015 at 11:06 PM ^
February 20th, 2015 at 11:06 PM ^
February 20th, 2015 at 11:46 PM ^
We haven't had a good-great goalie since Montoya. Red brings in the talent, but just hasn't had that top notch goalie. And for the defense, Johnson, Trouba, ect., they didn't stick around for long, and this years D is not good. And we all know a good-great goalie can make an average defense look good.
February 21st, 2015 at 12:17 AM ^
February 21st, 2015 at 12:45 AM ^
Selective memory.
Billy Sauer was often great, but was incredibly prone to completely psyching himself out when it mattered. Red fully admitted the upset loss in the Frozen Four in 2008 was almost entirely because he made the mistake of choosing Billy to take to the presser the day before, where he was peppered with questions about what happened the year before against North Dakota in the same arena, when Billy just about folded under pressure of playing in a big game in the home arena of the team who had his draft rights. The reporters flat-out spooked him, Billy went out the next night, and completely shat the bed.
I saw a good portion of Billy Sauer's starts at Michigan. Great kid. Streaky goalie at best.
February 21st, 2015 at 9:56 AM ^
Sauer is better than what they have now, but he was not a great goalie.
February 21st, 2015 at 11:09 AM ^
February 21st, 2015 at 7:14 AM ^
Sauer was often great but prone to collapsing. However, Hunwick was one of the best goalies we've ever had. Hogan had pretty long stretches of being great as well IIRC
I don't recall goaltending being an issue until the Racine / Rutledge fiasco
February 21st, 2015 at 8:31 AM ^
February 21st, 2015 at 10:12 AM ^
I started with Sauer
February 20th, 2015 at 11:51 PM ^
February 21st, 2015 at 4:12 AM ^
February 21st, 2015 at 12:39 AM ^
It's been incredibly unpopular for the past four years or so to call Red's grasp of this program into question. We were right--the enforced groupthink was wrong. At some point, Red's going to have to actually put his money where his mouth is when he says he's willing to step down when it's clear he's hurting the program. We're there. We've been there. I'll follow Red into the fire any time, but I think we've been seeing over the last few years that a legend with a blank check and an endless supply of rope doesn't a great program make.
Mel is the guy. Mel's been the guy. Dave Brandon's little experiment of sending him off so he could get head coaching experience, as if that should have been a prerequisite, seems to have failed--because Mel very well might just stick around in the fucking tundra at this point. Ugh.
February 21st, 2015 at 12:56 AM ^
Who the hell was Dave Brandon to even suggest that option? Couldn't Red just be like "uhhh Dave... no"
Idk I would just assume that a legend like Red would have more of a say on his successor...
February 21st, 2015 at 12:15 PM ^
Dave Brandon had nothing to do with Mel leaving for the UP.
February 21st, 2015 at 8:40 AM ^
...but I believe he's earned the right to decide when that's going to be.
If he's wanting one more good one to "go out on top," perhaps he should delegate more to his assistants as far as things like scheme, video analysis, or analytics.
February 21st, 2015 at 10:00 AM ^
See Paterno, Joe and Bowden, Bobby. Situations like these tend to get worse not better. Trust me, I'd love to see Red go out with a NC next season, but there's simply no evidence this team will be capable of that with what we've seen the last 3 seasons.
February 21st, 2015 at 10:21 AM ^
Maybe this is a telling sign. I too believe the time has come, but that it truly sucks that the time has come.
We need Pearson, or at least a culture change.
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February 21st, 2015 at 5:35 PM ^
Does anyone believe the best way to get Mel Pearson to come back is to push Red out now?