2021-22 hockey investigation

Mel is walking to collect his things [James Coller]
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118

Exit: Mel Pearson
Alex.Drain • August 5, 2022 • 12:51pm

A messy, tiring, and embarrassing saga in Michigan Athletics history came to the only logical end today as interim university President Mary Sue Coleman and Athletic Director Warde Manuel announced that hockey coach Mel Pearson has been relieved of his duties: 

For those living under a rock, Pearson was under investigation by the WilmerHale law firm from fall 2021 until spring 2022 due to a complaint filed by former goalie consultant Steve Shields that Pearson retaliated against him in firing Shields in August 2021, in violation of the university's code. The investigation's report, which was finished on May 5 and leaked to the public on Tuesday through MLive, concluded that while Pearson did not technically violate university code in firing Shields, the tenure of Pearson and his right-hand man, former Director of Hockey Operations Rick Bancroft, was deeply troubling and problematic.

The report painted a rather muddled picture of the allegations that Pearson directed his players to lie on contact tracing forms during the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2021 and regarded the allegation that Bancroft's (supposed) knowledge of Dr. Robert Anderson's conduct was central to the feud between Shields and Pearson as unfounded. However, the report did uncover what could best be described as a toxic workplace culture towards female employees in the hockey department, largely perpetrated by Bancroft, forcing one employee into retirement rather than to continue to work for Michigan. The report didn't list a multitude of instances of negative conduct by Pearson towards women, but did highlight one troublesome incident involving Hockey Sports Information Director Kristy McNeil that Pearson was involved in. At the very least, the report described Pearson as enabling Bancroft's behavior. 

Finally, the report detailed a culture of intimidation between Pearson and some members of the Michigan team. It stated how Pearson set conditions around team captain Strauss Mann that pushed Mann towards departing the program after Mann spoke up in favor of greater "respect" for the players (Mann was closely associated with Shields), leading to Mann signing in Sweden in April 2021. After that, the university commissioned an anonymous survey of players and staffers, which found that between 30 and 35% felt that they were not "respected and treated fairly" by Pearson, that they "personally experienced offensive, intimidating, discriminatory, or harassing conduct", and that they rated the culture more negatively than positively (this was not in the report but was leaked to The Athletic on Tuesday in conjunction with the report). The report also documented a meeting between the eight seniors from the 2021-22 team and Sport Administrator Josh Richelew, in which the group stated that Pearson "holds grudges", that if players were to speak up or complain they "won't play", and that the Mann incident made them "afraid of the consequences" if they "came forward". 

If you would like to read the report in full, you can do so here, or you can read a full summary with excerpts included in a tweet thread from your author here. 

[James Coller]

After the report was released to the Athletic Department in early May, Warde Manuel and his department did.... basically nothing. Pearson's contract expired at midnight on May 1, 2022, and for three months, he remained as head coach without a contract, one of the stranger developments anyone can remember. Insiders on paid sites like 24/7 and Rivals continued to signal that the university intended to keep Pearson, but as the weeks went by with no extension announced, more confusion and doubt began to shroud the situation. In June, MLive reported that Bancroft had been let go, leading many (myself included) to theorize that Michigan intended to use Bancroft as the fall guy to keep Pearson. That said, as the dog days of summer began to arrive and still no news was around the corner, more questions began to be asked. Then, the report was leaked to the media. We got word it had been obtained by independent journalists (no word as to how) a week ago today, and then it was published on Tuesday. 

The report's shocking bombshells led many on this space and elsewhere to conclude on Tuesday that Pearson needed to be removed from his position. Interim President Mary Sue Coleman met with Manuel on Wednesday, who, it had been indicated to this blog privately, was still in firm support of Pearson. That was confirmed publicly yesterday morning when John U. Bacon reported that Manuel stood in opposition to Coleman, as well as the unanimous (8-0) assent of the Board of Regents, who all supported the firing of Pearson. It was then reported last night by Bacon that unanimity had been reached between Manuel, Coleman, and the Regents. Given that Coleman and the Regents are the superiors to Manuel, most saw the writing on the wall as to Pearson's future. Indeed, the news that was very predictable last night came to fruition today. 

[it the JUMP for a reflection on the Mel Era]

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Take that, Badger-man! [Marc-Gregor Campredon]
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Hockey Weekly Is Swept Up In Off-Ice Controversy
Alex.Drain • February 2, 2022 • 12:25pm

I had not initially planned to do a Hockey Weekly this week because we had one last week and there isn't much new news to report on-ice. The team bulldozed the Wisconsin Badgers this past weekend, as expected, and now coast into their bye week in first place in the B1G standings, sending their four Olympians off to China. Unfortunately, the reason I decided to write this piece is two elements related to the program that have come out in the past week, one being a FOIA request made public pertaining to the murky WMU GLI cancelation, and the other being an MLive article detailing an ongoing investigation into the program. This will be a shorter piece than normal, as I'll quickly share a few takes on the Wisconsin weekend before then talking (briefly) about both of those off-ice matters: 

 

Badger Revenge 

On-ice, the Michigan Wolverines swiftly took care of business this weekend against a bad Wisconsin team. It was sweet revenge for the worst loss Michigan has suffered this season, when they lost to the Badgers at home back on October 29. Neither game was particularly close, 5-1 and 6-2 victories, though the second game had a wild flurry in the second period that temporarily made it interesting. Here's a few HockeyBullets from the weekend: 

- Ethan Edwards, continued. Last week I discussed the terrific play of Ethan Edwards, who has been coming on strong. This weekend he had the highlight reel moment of his season thus far: 

Edwards continues to grow as the season rolls around and now it's showtime for him. With Owen Power out of the lineup attending a Team Canada Olympic camp in Switzerland, Edwards was bumped up to the top defensive pairing with captain Nick Blankenburg. That's a lot of responsibility for a freshman, because that pair will draw top assignments over the two weekends of games during the Olympics. Edwards seems up to the task, though, and I'm excited to watch him in this final month of the regular season. 

- Speaking of Edwards, the defense scores a lot of goals. The Saturday game saw the team's defensemen score 3/6 goals that Michigan scored and the team now has two defensemen with double digit goals in under thirty games played (Luke Hughes has 10 and Nick Blankenburg has 11). Add in Owen Power with 3 and Ethan Edwards now with 2 and, and that's a lot of goal scoring to come from your blue line. But scoring goals is not the only way that the back end contributes to the offense for Michigan. They are a central component of driving offensive play whether or not they're the ones who actually put the puck in the net, either by facilitating breakouts or controlled entries, joining the rush, or pinching down in the offensive zone to aid the cycle. That large role they play is why they get the goals, which often come on plays looking like this: 

Mobility is key for Michigan's blue line. An old-time(y) defenseman with skating issues isn't making the play that Luke Hughes makes. The goals Michigan's defensemen score look like that because skating are their big assets. The team has a stable of smooth skating defensemen who are comfortable moving up and joining the play, which is why they play a big role in the offense, and then sometimes they get rewarded with having the goals attributed to themselves alone. The Michigan Colorado Wolverines Avalanche, basically. 

- A nice weekend for the non-Olympic guys. It was decently reassuring that, in the last weekend of games before the Olympics, Michigan got some solid offensive contributions from players who will not be heading to China. After all, they are the players who will be leaned upon to deliver Michigan victories against MSU and OSU in a couple weeks. The first goal I really liked from that crew is this one: 

Keaton Pehrson brings the puck down the wall and below the goal line before losing possession. 5th year senior Michael Pastujov gets involved in the ensuing puck battle, winning it and shielding possession of the puck to move it to the forehand, then delivering a good pass to a high danger area. There, Philippe LaPointe sees the open ice, moves to it, and receives the feed to wire it by the goalie. Beautiful play all around from three guys who will be in the lineup next time we see the team at Yost. 

Another goal I liked was this one by Mackie Samoskevich: 

Edwards leads the entry, puck bounces around to Beecher on the far side, who slides down the wall and makes a nice pass to Samoskevich in the slot, who rips it by the netminder. Beecher, Samoskevich, and Edwards are all drafted players, but none are going to the Olympics, making them exactly the kinds of folks that will need to step up. This goal showcases how much skill will still be on the roster even when you subtract Beniers, Brisson, Power and Johnson. 

- Erik Portillo, still good. Thanks to this weekend's performance (three goals against in two games), he's now up to a .953 SV% and a 1.54 GAA in nine games since Christmas. Michigan is 7-0-2 in those games and he's allowed two or fewer goals in eight of the nine games. Pretty good! 

[AFTER THE JUMP: one more take, and some off-ice deliberation]

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