The Barr Has Been Raised at UMaine

[Chuck Murray]

Not disputing your comment, just wondering who those plenty of present NHL/former ECHL coaches are.

I suspect he's referencing guys like Cassidy and Laviolette (sp?), perhaps a couple more?

[Chuck Murray]

UMASS fan here- not sure what the issues are in Orono if any, but if Barr needs to address things and he follows Carvel's approach, there will be a lot of turnover in the players. Carvel's approach was that he did not want any a**h***s on the team so many were moved on. That is why in his first year UMASS won only 5 games. In the long run, that approach paid big dividends. Of course, at the time, he was not under the spotlight like Barr will be at Maine.

I think that's a great approach, one I've long adopted in coaching a different sport at a lower level.

Cost us a few talented players, but our teams always thrived when there were no distractions.

[KrbFlint]

I'm curious -- no one on the thread seems at all disappointed that Ben Guite didn't get HC job. Maine alum, lots of NHL experience, from Quebec and native French-speaker = great for recruiting. Am I missing something? Does Guillaume Richard -- clearly a Guite recruit -- decommit now that the coaches he signed on with are no longer there?

Specific individual recruits aside, the general feeling is that there has been a lack of overall talent on the roster. Guite, as the lead recruiter, has to shoulder a large chunk of the blame. You say "great for recruiting" but it hasn't appeared to translate, for whatever reason.

[acs64]

I think Barr's reputation, his approach to the game and the opportunity to help build back UMaine hockey is going to be a big enough draw for most recruits. At least get some top notch talent into the Alfond for a visit....then its a much easier sell.

[Blackbear96]

I'm curious -- no one on the thread seems at all disappointed that Ben Guite didn't get HC job. Maine alum, lots of NHL experience, from Quebec and native French-speaker = great for recruiting. Am I missing something? Does Guillaume Richard -- clearly a Guite recruit -- decommit now that the coaches he signed on with are no longer there?

I think it's worth bringing up since Richard is one of the better on-paper recruits that we've had in awhile, but I have a counterpoint to your concern. Any incoming player, or current player, can clearly see his track record at WMU, Union, Providence, and UMass. What exactly about Coach Barr would make you want to leave? I mean he had a hand in developing Cale Makar just two seasons ago, so I don't see how young Mr Richard could look at that and not see an opportunity to get better.

Possibly it's my glass half-full optimism, but I don't foresee any of those issues and quite frankly if any existing players leave, it allows Barr to put his blueprint on the club earlier than anticipated.

[amkirby10]

Per the team's Instagram page, Coach Barr has arrived on campus in Orono today. He got some photos taken at Alfond and is being given a tour of the campus. Looks like his tour guide is Amy Vachon. I'd say he's in good hands with that one.

[BassAle]

I think history will be very kind to Red & Co. In five years or whatever when we look back it will be obvious they were able to get things headed in the right direction.

lol. You're delusional.

[Cross Check]

Nothing is a guarantee of course, but I'd say on paper this looks like as a good of a move as Maine could have hoped for.

[Sean Pickett]

I think history will be very kind to Red & Co. In five years or whatever when we look back it will be obvious they were able to get things headed in the right direction.

Drew, I know that you have supported Coach Gendron here, but I disagree with you on this. There are a lot of different facets to coaching in college, but by every objective measure his head coaching tenure at Maine was a failure. His career winning percentage was 0.438 after eight seasons; that puts him at 142 out of 167 coaches (the bottom 16%). Of course, regular season and postseason success are also factors, and Coach Gendron had just 3 winning seasons out of eight and you can argue that he only had 2 of them because of an outstanding goalie, while he had no conference semifinal or NCAA appearances in those eight seasons*. Of the other 166 coaches 52 never reached the equivalent of their league semifinals, but 7 won one or more regular season titles, leaving just 45. Of those another seven made the DI, DII or DIII Frozen Four, and two others made one NCAA tournament, leaving just 36 other coaches with no regular season or postseason success. Of those 14 had no opportunity to win a league regular season title or participate in a league tournament, leaving 22 coaches, of which 9 had a winning cumulative record. That leaves just 13 other coaches along with Coach Gendron with both a losing record and no regular season or postseason success of any kind out of 167 (8%). Furthermore, I added up the records of every coach to see what the cumulative winning percentage for every first year, second year, etc. is and after eight season the winning percentage for the 167 coaches is currently 0.540, fully 0.100 higher than Coach Gendron. You may have seen my chart of the Maine coaches cumulative winning percentage vs each other, but I created a new one that also includes the combined winning percentage for all the coaches:



As can clearly be seen, Coach Gendron was above the overall coaches percentage only for his first season. If Coach Whitehead is considered a failure despite being above the combined percentage for his entire tenure and his postseason success, than I find it hard to believe that Coach Gendron will be looked upon favorably in the future.

Sean

*I know that there was no postseason in 2019-20 and that Maine was 15th in the pairwise, but a win in the Hockey East quarterfinals and making the NCAAs was not guaranteed.

[Drew S.]

Drew, I know that you have supported Coach Gendron here, but I disagree with you on this. There are a lot of different facets to coaching in college, but by every objective measure his head coaching tenure at Maine was a failure. His career winning percentage was 0.438 after eight seasons; that puts him at 142 out of 167 coaches (the bottom 16%). Of course, regular season and postseason success are also factors, and Coach Gendron had just 3 winning seasons out of eight and you can argue that he only had 2 of them because of an outstanding goalie, while he had no conference semifinal or NCAA appearances in those eight seasons*. Of the other 166 coaches 52 never reached the equivalent of their league semifinals, but 7 won one or more regular season titles, leaving just 45. Of those another seven made the DI, DII or DIII Frozen Four, and two others made one NCAA tournament, leaving just 36 other coaches with no regular season or postseason success. Of those 14 had no opportunity to win a league regular season title or participate in a league tournament, leaving 22 coaches, of which 9 had a winning cumulative record. That leaves just 13 other coaches along with Coach Gendron with both a losing record and no regular season or postseason success of any kind out of 167 (8%). Furthermore, I added up the records of every coach to see what the cumulative winning percentage for every first year, second year, etc. is and after eight season the winning percentage for the 167 coaches is currently 0.540, fully 0.100 higher than Coach Gendron. You may have seen my chart of the Maine coaches cumulative winning percentage vs each other, but I created a new one that also includes the combined winning percentage for all the coaches:



As can clearly be seen, Coach Gendron was above the overall coaches percentage only for his first season. If Coach Whitehead is considered a failure despite being above the combined percentage for his entire tenure and his postseason success, than I find it hard to believe that Coach Gendron will be looked upon favorably in the future.

Sean

*I know that there was no postseason in 2019-20 and that Maine was 15th in the pairwise, but a win in the Hockey East quarterfinals and making the NCAAs was not guaranteed.

Sean, I think the issue with an analysis like yours assumes every coach starts from the same place. That obviously doesn’t happen and I think when we can look at the totality of Red’s work his tenure will look a lot better. As I’ve said before it’s not another the wheat you reap but the seeds you sew.

[umhockey91]

Ben Barr + Alfond Foundation $$$ = a good start. There are plenty of programs out there right now that are probably just a little jealous of Maine’s current fortunes….now they need to translate into a more consistent winning program. How can you not be giddy right now if you are a UMaine Hockey fan?

[NorthMike]

I think it's worth bringing up since Richard is one of the better on-paper recruits that we've had in awhile, but I have a counterpoint to your concern. Any incoming player, or current player, can clearly see his track record at WMU, Union, Providence, and UMass. What exactly about Coach Barr would make you want to leave? I mean he had a hand in developing Cale Makar just two seasons ago, so I don't see how young Mr Richard could look at that and not see an opportunity to get better.

Possibly it's my glass half-full optimism, but I don't foresee any of those issues and quite frankly if any existing players leave, it allows Barr to put his blueprint on the club earlier than anticipated.

I'm sure coach Barr will look at all the incoming recruits to see if they fit regardless of their prospect rating. Even Richard. He emphasized that hes not going after pure talent but also those who want to play for maine, accept the culture, etc. The fit.

[NorthMike]

lol. You're delusional.

Yeah, I sure hope we arent talking about who was better Whitehead or Red then Barr or Red in a year or two.
Good grief.

[Wayuphere]

Ben Barr + Alfond Foundation $$$ = a good start. There are plenty of programs out there right now that are probably just a little jealous of Maine’s current fortunes….now they need to translate into a more consistent winning program. How can you not be giddy right now if you are a UMaine Hockey fan?

I’m not giddy because they haven’t played a game yet plus we still have to live through the “Red effect” for at least one more season. Optimistic? Definitely.

[Drew S.]

Yeah, I sure hope we arent talking about who was better Whitehead or Red then Barr or Red in a year or two.
Good grief.

To clarify I don’t think we’re going to look back and see Red as more successful. I think we’ll look back and realize Red built a foundation for Barr’s success.