Maine Offseason 2020: We Stay Home But Swayman Leaves

[UVM Cat in Texas]

Walshy was a transformative A-lister. Timmy was a B-lister. Red?? What's below a B-lister??

Hmmm, C-lister?

[Runsub5]

I seem to remember Walsh connecting with Hawn when he was in California receiving medical treatment? Didn't he stay with her and husband Kurt Russell?

[Wayuphere]

I seem to remember Walsh connecting with Hawn when he was in California receiving medical treatment? Didn't he stay with her and husband Kurt Russell?

“While in California, Walsh called his assistant coaches nearly every day. He spoke to recruits and kept tabs on the programs while living with actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. His connection to the Hollywood couple? Russell, whose family is from Maine, befriended Walsh at the 1999 Final Four in Anaheim, Calif.

"Kurt took me out golfing a couple time, just to take my mind off things," Walsh said. "That was important, being in a home and feeling comfortable. I can't say enough about Kurt and Goldie."

[Chuck Murray]

“While in California, Walsh called his assistant coaches nearly every day. He spoke to recruits and kept tabs on the programs while living with actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. His connection to the Hollywood couple? Russell, whose family is from Maine, befriended Walsh at the 1999 Final Four in Anaheim, Calif.

"Kurt took me out golfing a couple time, just to take my mind off things," Walsh said. "That was important, being in a home and feeling comfortable. I can't say enough about Kurt and Goldie."

Gosh, that seems like it was forever ago ... but in some ways, it feels like it was just yesterday.

Kurt always seemed like the prototypical "California kid" when he was a child actor in the '60's, I never, ever would have even imagined he/his family had roots in the Downeast.

[NorthMike]

“While in California, Walsh called his assistant coaches nearly every day. He spoke to recruits and kept tabs on the programs while living with actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. His connection to the Hollywood couple? Russell, whose family is from Maine, befriended Walsh at the 1999 Final Four in Anaheim, Calif.

"Kurt took me out golfing a couple time, just to take my mind off things," Walsh said. "That was important, being in a home and feeling comfortable. I can't say enough about Kurt and Goldie."

This forum is a never ending source of education. I had to look up kurt russel, and google says he has a house in the rangeley area and his dad was from rangeley. Never knew that.

[walrus]

Now back to your regular scheduled programming
"
We are not always providing the resources necessary to be successful. It’s easy to point a finger at one person and say they are the problem. Just turning over a position doesn’t always help if your fundamentals are not solid. We’ve asked coach Gendron to be preparing the team for next year. We want to be able to compete,” says Ralph, “We’re also not going to make excuses. We needed to be better than 3-11-2. I don’t want to downplay that. We want to win in hockey "

Sounds like the AD is throwing maine hockey into the Stillwater

[NorthMike]

Bdn
“We expect Coach Gendron to do everything necessary to prepare our team to compete next year,” UMaine athletic director Ken Ralph said on Wednesday. “There is no [contract] extension at this time.”

“UMaine Athletics will not be commenting publicly about personnel issues until we have items finalized,” Ralph said.

[Drew S.]

Bdn
“We expect Coach Gendron to do everything necessary to prepare our team to compete next year,” UMaine athletic director Ken Ralph said on Wednesday. “There is no [contract] extension at this time.”

“UMaine Athletics will not be commenting publicly about personnel issues until we have items finalized,” Ralph said.

You won’t see a more embarrassing statement than that.

[amkirby10]

The quotes out of the ADs office are definitely wishy-washy and not encouraging. However, in some other news, Eduards Tralmaks has signed a contract with the Boston Bruins organization. He is expected to debut in Providence sometime next week.

[rw1733]

UMass Lowell defeats BC 6-5 in two overtimes.

[AMC]

Now back to your regular scheduled programming
"
We are not always providing the resources necessary to be successful. It’s easy to point a finger at one person and say they are the problem. Just turning over a position doesn’t always help if your fundamentals are not solid. We’ve asked coach Gendron to be preparing the team for next year. We want to be able to compete,” says Ralph, “We’re also not going to make excuses. We needed to be better than 3-11-2. I don’t want to downplay that. We want to win in hockey "

Sounds like the AD is throwing maine hockey into the Stillwater

You all laugh when I say Maine should drop to Division II. This athletic department couldn't even handle that.

[umhockey91]

UMass Lowell defeats BC 6-5 in two overtimes.

Good.

[Fishman'81]

The article is in the Newsletter. Can't seem to link it. Here it is. Ryan McLaughlin Sports Chowda reply.

Fire Whitehead.

Fire Blodgett.

Fire Woodward.

Those are simple but hot takes University of Maine sports fans frequently bombarded comment sections with in the early part of the 2010's.

Fast-forward to March of 2021. New leadership is again needed in the UMaine men's hockey program.

So I ask Black Bear Nation, why are we making excuses for Red Gendron?

Fans can't be OK with losses continuing to pile up, the Black Bears struggling to score goals, and no appearances in the Hockey East semifinals or NCAA Tournament since 2012.

Athletic administrator Ken Ralph isn't saying too much about the coaching situation, but the BDN's Larry Mahoney reported last week Gendron's future is in doubt while WVII reported that a source expects Gendron to be back behind the UMaine bench in the fall.

Woodward and Blodgett deserved the criticism from fans as they endured one losing season after another guiding the UMaine men's and women's hoop teams, respectively. Richard Barron, who now coaches the men's team, ignited the rebuild of the women's hoop program now under the guidance of Amy Vachon.

We all know about Whitehead. He had the unfortunate luck of replacing the late, legendary Shawn Walsh. You could argue Whitehead's 2002 and 2004 UMaine teams could've won national championships if not for bad calls in the respective title games.

As the NCAA Tournament run stopped, fans grew weary of Whitehead's "nice guy" attitude even though he was a good X's and O's coach who brought in some talented players including Spencer Abbott, Brian Flynn, Devin Shore and Scott Darling.

Even as Whitehead's 2012 team made a run to the NCAA Tournament, he continued to deal with unfair criticism from fans. He was bounced a year later following a first-round exit from the Hockey East playoffs, and in stepped Gendron.

Every year as the losses mounted, it was always "wait until he gets his recruits. The best Gendron recruit was Jeremy Swayman, and it wasn't even close. You take Swayman off the 2019-20 team, and that Black Bear team is probably an 8th or 9th place team.

Gendron is a good man who always called me back within 5 minutes whenever I needed something from him. He always made it a point to talk to fans prior to home games and to be present at community events. But it's time for UMaine fans to stop making excuses for him and to think about the future.

Excuses only buy you more and more losses and that's not what UMaine fans want, especially as needed upgrades come to Alfond Arena in the coming years.

Yup. All there really is to say at this point.

[Fishman'81]

You all laugh when I say Maine should drop to Division II. This athletic department couldn't even handle that.

D-2 barely exists. Teats on a ping-pong ball, as far as hockey goes...

D-3 would work for Maine right now, though.

[Fishman'81]

I get recognized all over Maine, you never forget a pretty face

And how is Goldie Hawn a B list actress? I can tell Chuck wasn't going thru puberty when Laugh In was on.

Chuckles was probably trolling his neighborhood back when he only had two tin cans connected by a wire.

He's only here via schadenfreude, as per usual. If UHN hadn't been eliminated already, he'd be beating his old wizened chest on their thread.