The Barr Has Been Raised at UMaine

[NorthMike]

Maine played with energy for 60 minutes. A very nice win and hopefully they now have the confidence to carry it forward. I can't remember a BC team ever being this bad, There is something wrong with this team internally. They have tons of talent but can't seem to put it together. I thought Maine out skated them and was much quicker to loose pucks.

The thing is this gives me a good indication/hope that Barr will do good here. Look at the progress he has made developing these players, team, and the style of hockey vs the start of the season. With considering the level of talent on the roster in October. Player/team development is a key indicator of the coach success. Translate that to increased levels of talent recruited and things could be looking up soon.

[ticapnews]

Maine played with energy for 60 minutes. A very nice win and hopefully they now have the confidence to carry it forward. I can't remember a BC team ever being this bad,

After Len Ceglarski retired and before Jerry York came to town, there was Steve Cedorchuk. Speak his name on the Heights and the locals will dunk you in Boston Harbor.

[Runsub5]

After Len Ceglarski retired and before Jerry York came to town, there was Steve Cedorchuk. Speak his name on the Heights and the locals will dunk you in Boston Harbor.

LOL That was before my time following college hockey. I never saw Charlie Holt coach either.

[UncleRay]

Or booze.

Or he called his players bad names/smacked them on the helmet/ made them do a lot of sprints. In my personal opinion, if there is something in a coach's style that gets him bleepcanned after 17 years that the AD didn't know about already, shame on the AD. Every boss should know what their people are up to in terms of the broad (sorry!) strokes.

[Fishman'81]

My friend (UMO alum) and I were at that game. Huge disappointment. The place was 95% Maine fans. We were sitting in the loge about 15 rows up in the corner behind the net when the goal was overturned. The worst thing was, Maine had a 6 on 3 at the end of the game (2-man advantage and goalie pulled) and still couldn't score. They were snake-bitten that entire game and that call was ridiculous. Toe or no toe, it had NO effect on the play and did not "obstruct" anything.

Why oh why remind me of the 6x3...? What did I ever do to YOU???

But, yeah, Maine had 3 guys right on the crease when a nice centering pass skipped over all three blades. Especially Levielle's (sp). And he was a terrific college player.

Funny how the losses burn more deeply into my memory than the wins do.

[Fishman'81]

Or he called his players bad names/smacked them on the helmet/ made them do a lot of sprints. In my personal opinion, if there is something in a coach's style that gets him bleepcanned after 17 years that the AD didn't know about already, shame on the AD. Every boss should know what their people are up to in terms of the broad (sorry!) strokes.

I get you. He coached grown men who chose to be in his program... What, they were too afraid of him to run back home to Mama? Please.

Sounds like bull**** to me, too, and I'm a *snowflake*.

[Ma#1ne Hky]

Just think had Maine won in Minnesota and Boston, Tim Whitehead would have hung on past his firing date in April of 2013 and that could have prevented a Red Gendron era[error]...as for Friday night's win over BC, Maine came out hungry/aggressive and played with a so called chip on their shoulder...they had confidence from the opening face-off to the end...nice to see an all out 60 minute effort. Should be interesting to see when year 2 comes in and a whole sale roster change.

[Ma#1ne Hky]

I get you. He coached grown men who chose to be in his program... What, they were too afraid of him to run back home to Mama? Please.

Sounds like bull**** to me, too, and I'm a *snowflake*.

Times have changed and now Coaching the so called hard way is looked upon as a no-no...but think had he won another Championship @ Union...everything would be a-ok.

[Ma#1ne Hky]

Why oh why remind me of the 6x3...? What did I ever do to YOU???

But, yeah, Maine had 3 guys right on the crease when a nice centering pass skipped over all three blades. Especially Levielle's (sp). And he was a terrific college player.

Funny how the losses burn more deeply into my memory than the wins do.

I was a few rows behind the net on the goal which was disallowed and at the end of the game with a 6x3...Maine had no plan/no idea and everything was in disarray.

[tylerzx2002]

I was a few rows behind the net on the goal which was disallowed and at the end of the game with a 6x3...Maine had no plan/no idea and everything was in disarray.

I can realistically think of only a few other times I've seen a 6x3 and they always look chaotic as hell. I imagine that's not a scenario they are running through in practices often (if at all).

Shame they couldn't score on the PP because that would have been an all-timer.

[Chuck Murray]

After Len Ceglarski retired and before Jerry York came to town, there was Steve Cedorchuk. Speak his name on the Heights and the locals will dunk you in Boston Harbor.

Steve "Count" Cedorchuk. Long-time BC assistant coach under Lenny "The Rug" Ceglarski, appointed BC head coach after a losing season in '92 cost Ceglarski (BC's own "Dick Umile" - couldn't win the big one) his job. The Count was fired after two losing seasons, but not until after landing BC in hot water for extending too many scholarship offers to players.

Cedorchuk was replaced by none other than Mike Milbury for all of two (2) months during the 1994 offseason, by which time Milbury had seen enough of what The Count had done to the BC program, and decided to step aside to take work as a color commentator (a year later, he would begin his decade-long stint as Islanders' GM).

Jerry York then stepped in to replace Milbury at the helm for BC. Yes, York was BC's second choice for the job at the time. BC struggled under York for the first three seasons (all under .500), but then once they cleared the debris from The Count's work earlier in the decade, BC zoomed to its place among the D-1 elite starting with their '98 FF Finals OT loss to Michigan.

One can only wonder how it would have all played out at BC, had Milbury not freaked out when he realized the mess he'd just inherited, and stuck it out for a few seasons at The Heights. Would York have ever come, or would he have gone elsewhere? His last four seasons at Bowling Green were .500 or under on the whole, after winning the '84 Frozen Four a decade earlier, so there were reasons he wasn't the obvious clear first choice. But if so, how much deeper would the recruiting hole Milbury dug behind The Count have gotten, even if York's arrival was only temporarily delayed by those few seasons in the mid-to-late '90's? UMaine and BU were clearly HEA and D-1 elites during this period, and UNH (even if a distant-but-closing 3rd) had its best seasons yet to come. The days of BC being a shoe-in as one of the "Big Four" in HEA didn't really begin until after '98.

So regardless of what folks on The Heights might think, I always smile when I hear Cedorchuk's name, and harken back to what many of us will always recall as the "good ol' days of BC Hockey". :-)

[Sean Pickett]

[B]...after a losing season in '92 cost Ceglarski (BC's own "Dick Umile" - couldn't win the big one) his job...The days of BC being a shoe-in as one of the "Big Four" in HEA didn't really begin until after '98.

I must dispute your claim that BC wasn't a shoe-in as one of the "Big Four" in HEA until after '98. Despite Coach Ceglarski being unable to win the big one (or more than a few Beanpots) BC was indeed one of the HEA "Big Four" from the start of the league. They won the league regular season the first three seasons and six of the first seven, along with 2 tournament titles and 5 championship game appearances.

Sean

[Runsub5]

Just think had Maine won in Minnesota and Boston, Tim Whitehead would have hung on past his firing date in April of 2013 and that could have prevented a Red Gendron era[err0r]

Yes, I agree. Tim has won 3 straight New England Elite 8 Championships (until last year when the streak was broken). This year his team is 18-2-1 so far.

[ticapnews]

I must dispute your claim that BC wasn't a shoe-in as one of the "Big Four" in HEA until after '98. Despite Coach Ceglarski being unable to win the big one (or more than a few Beanpots) BC was indeed one of the HEA "Big Four" from the start of the league. They won the league regular season the first three seasons and six of the first seven, along with 2 tournament titles and 5 championship game appearances.

Sean

The early years of Hockey East look like a Boston College yearbook. Token pages are assigned to BU and Maine, with a special section for Chris Terreri. And allegedly there were other teams in the league back then, but that's just a rumor.

One could argue there was no "Big Four" to be a part of until the mid-90's when UNH joined BC, BU and Maine atop Hockey East.

[Chuck Murray]

I must dispute your claim that BC wasn't a shoe-in as one of the "Big Four" in HEA until after '98. Despite Coach Ceglarski being unable to win the big one (or more than a few Beanpots) BC was indeed one of the HEA "Big Four" from the start of the league. They won the league regular season the first three seasons and six of the first seven, along with 2 tournament titles and 5 championship game appearances.

Sean

Maybe I should have been more specific, Sean. BC was (for sure) a Big Four HEA team through the late '80's but was already a losing program by the time Ceglarski retired/was retired at age 65 at the end of the '92 season. For UMaine purposes here. UMaine's big HEA rivalry in their seasons as an emerging national power was with BU (your team), not with BC. There was a 6-7 year gap in between BC eking into the '90 Frozen Four, and returning to glory in '98 where BC was a middle of the pack (at best) HEA team, and an absolute non-factor on the national stage.

As you well know. Jack Parker's BU program had a slight slide between '99 through to their '09 D-1 title win, but no matter how you slice it though, the slightly longer Parker/BU "meh" period still had significantly better on-ice results than BC's down period for a good chunk of the '90's. I don't think BU ever dropped out of the "Big Four" during that stretch - as BC clearly did the previous decade - but there were years when BU was a pretty clear fourth-out-of-four in that BC/UMaine/UNH/BU group.

There were SO many pivotal HEA events in the '90's and early '00's that shaped the league and its programs - one of which was almost an afterthought for a generation until UMass Amherst rose to power in recent years after joining as the lowest of the low - but I just wanted to relive the "glory" of the very memorable Steve "Count" Cedorchuk Era after ticapnews raised it a few posts ago. :-)