The Barr Has Been Raised at UMaine

[acs64]

I'm old Maine fan....time for an old bahstid like me to start this thread. Great hire in all aspects. Humble, knowledgeable and enthusiastic... Whats not to like here ?

[acs64]

After listening to this guy speak, there is no question in my mind he is the best fit for UMaine. It wont happen overnight, but I believe it will happen eventually. Congrats coach Barr.

[Drew S.]

I was really pleased with the press conference. Ben came across as very likable and caring towards the players. He definitely isn’t the smoothest speaker in the world and it’s likely that worked against him in the other head coaching jobs he applied for, I doubt it impacts his job performance though.

It was nice to hear his thoughts on the current team and my I suspect were closer to where we want to be than many realize. I’m happy he’s not big into transfers as I don’t think that’s the right way to go either(not that you shouldn’t get any.)

I’m a lot more encouraged than I was this morning. Hopefully Ben and Alfie end up in good situations and I feel confident the players are in good hands. The biggest thing at this point is making sure they stay.

Will he go for Tyler Walsh as one of the assistants? I think it would be pretty cool if it happens.

[umhockey91]

Throwing out some names for top assistant coach. These may or may not make sense in terms of pay, but I thought that I would take a stab at it....

Kevin Swallow - UNE HC (Maine alum)
John Ronan - Union AC (Maine alum)
Joel Beal - Providence AC (Union alum)
Mathew Deschamps - Chicago Steel AssocHC (Maine alum)

Tyler Walsh could be a candidate, but maybe more likely as Assistant #2?

[BlackBearFan19]

Throwing out some names for top assistant coach. These may or may not make sense in terms of pay, but I thought that I would take a stab at it....

Kevin Swallow - UNE HC (Maine alum)
John Ronan - RPI AC (Maine alum)
Joel Beal - Providence AC (Union alum)
Mathew Deschamps - Chicago Steel AssocHC (Maine alum)

Tyler Walsh could be a candidate, but maybe more likely as Assistant #2?

Good list, Swallow would be a great hire but I think the pay is probably going to be low compared to what he’s getting at UNE. Deschamps would be excellent as well.

Barr has been so been so many places that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s people we’ve never heard of.

I thought his press conference was great. He seems like a really genuine and humble guy, so it’s no surprise he’s a great recruiter. His philosophy was really interesting to, he doesn’t seem like he’s chasing recruits and trying to convince them, he wants guys that believe in the program and want to be here. He also impressed me by saying it won’t be hard to recruit at Maine, the other programs he was at didn’t have the stature of Maine prior to his arrival. That was a nice change of tune from what people have been saying.

It feels like we have the next great coach, his resume speaks for itself and his press conference was affirmation of that. I love that he’s not crazy about the portal and that he wants guys that will stick around.

I have no doubt that this is the guy to bring us back.

[walrus]

Should get some fannies in the seats. Might take awhile to be competitive on the nat'l stage but I hope we see some differences right off.

[Chuck Murray]

Never underestimate the power of hockey moms. Coach Barr looks like someone who can not only tick all the boxes on the hockey side of the ledger, but (like Nick Saban in football) can waltz into a recruit's home and absolutely charm the socks off the recruit's mom with his sincerity and his appearance. I'm assuming he'll want to keep himself at the forefront of recruiting for the first few years in Orono anyway, and then migrate more to the "closer" role once he gets comfortable with one or both of his assistants' abilities to keep top notch recruits in play.

It'll be interesting to see what impact his absence has on the UMass program in 5 or so years ...

[Sean Pickett]

I have no doubt that this is the guy to bring us back.

Congratulations of your new coach and I hope that it works out for Maine. However, just a note of reality: of the 384 current and former head coaching stints since WWII I have researched only 186 (48.4%) have a cumulative winning percentage over 0.500 and just 81 (21.1%) have a cumulative winning percentage over 0.600. Also, you should be patient as most coaches had their worst cumulative winning percentage either their first (152 - 38.8%) or second (84 - 21.9%) seasons.

Sean

[HockeyRef]

Congrats Black Bear fans on a new coach, a new beginning..see you on the ice!

[Ralph Baer]

Throwing out some names for top assistant coach. These may or may not make sense in terms of pay, but I thought that I would take a stab at it....

Kevin Swallow - UNE HC (Maine alum)
John Ronan - RPI AC (Maine alum)
Joel Beal - Providence AC (Union alum)
Mathew Deschamps - Chicago Steel AssocHC (Maine alum)

Tyler Walsh could be a candidate, but maybe more likely as Assistant #2?

Ronan is at Union.

[umhockey91]

Ronan is at Union.

Thanks for the correction.

[jericho]

Throwing out some names for top assistant coach. These may or may not make sense in terms of pay, but I thought that I would take a stab at it....

Kevin Swallow - UNE HC (Maine alum)
John Ronan - Union AC (Maine alum)
Joel Beal - Providence AC (Union alum)
Mathew Deschamps - Chicago Steel AssocHC (Maine alum)

Tyler Walsh could be a candidate, but maybe more likely as Assistant #2?

as someone who attended classes with Ben at RPI, his work ethic is top notch. He’s someone who always wants to succeed off and on the ice. His hockey knowledge is bar none (no pun intended). Great hire. On the coaching side, if Nolan Graham is able to, I’d imagine that he’d get a call. He and Ben were teammates at RPI and had great on-ice chemistry. I don’t know if Nolan’s recovery is complete or, if it is, wants to get back into coaching, but I’d at least consider him.

[Chuck Murray]

Congratulations of your new coach and I hope that it works out for Maine. However, just a note of reality: of the 384 current and former head coaching stints since WWII I have researched only 186 (48.4%) have a cumulative winning percentage over 0.500 and just 81 (21.1%) have a cumulative winning percentage over 0.600. Also, you should be patient as most coaches had their worst cumulative winning percentage either their first (152 - 38.8%) or second (84 - 21.9%) seasons.

Sean

Party pooper. ;-)

On the flip side, probably zero (0) of those 384 HC stints have followed an assistant coaching career of recruiting for multiple D-1 championships at multiple D-1 programs. I think Barr will be fine.

[Drew S.]

as someone who attended classes with Ben at RPI, his work ethic is top notch. He’s someone who always wants to succeed off and on the ice. His hockey knowledge is bar none (no pun intended). Great hire. On the coaching side, if Nolan Graham is able to, I’d imagine that he’d get a call. He and Ben were teammates at RPI and had great on-ice chemistry. I don’t know if Nolan’s recovery is complete or, if it is, wants to get back into coaching, but I’d at least consider him.

It would be nice to have someone from BC on the staff. For me one of the first orders of business is to get Maine back into Ontario and BC. In the glory days we used to get a lot of players from both but that has largely dried up in recent times. They both still produce a lot of talent and would seem to be a couple places Maine could do reasonably well.

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Great hire. Benny has earned his shot and I wish him nothing but the best. I hope RPI can schedule some games vs the Bears. No idea who he'll hire as AC's but one possibility I'll throw out there is his former RPI teammate Kirk MacDonald who is coach of the Reading Royals in the E. Dunno if he'd be interested in jumping into the college grind...but he's a BC native and was a skilled forward at RPI.