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The Barr Has Been Raised at UMaine

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Drew S. said:
We played two games at home against an Atlantic Hockey team and didn’t win either one. How does it get much worse than that? They did finish second in 19-20 and middle of the pack last year so not the worst team in the league but still there is no excuse for not beating them.

Those were most likely Maine’s third and fourth easiest games of the year. I know Maine isn’t going to be great this year but I don’t want to see them embarrassing either. Maine literally had their entire team available so can’t even make the injury excuse.

Next weekend is likely a sweep given Maine’s recent struggles with Northeastern and it’s not like Maine has been great against UConn.

The highlight last night was the refereeing. I hope that is how it is called all year and the officials stay out of the way.
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I sat through the 8 win season in 2015-2016 and I can assure you there were a lot of weekends more embarrassing than that.

It’s going to take time, the truth is Maine doesn’t have players capable of playing Barr’s style right now. For as good as the Hebert-Suthers-JSS line was, I really don’t see that being the blueprint for Maine’s success. All of those guys are 24ish years old seniors, they should be able to use their weight and work a cycle. The team needs more guys who can skate.
 
walrus said:
Chuck, in case you hadn't noticed Hockey has changed in how they enforce the rules . No team plays like Maine did in the 90s. And SMTs was coined about UHNs fans who thought there teams were angels on the ice.
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Actually, college hockey has always been over-officiated - then as now. And teams that win the biggest games are almost always teams that can play successfully with a physical edge. Walshy understood that, down to the ground, and Umile really didn't, until his teams in the early oughts (aughts?) started winning some big games with guys like Foley, Barker, Mounsey, etc. Unfortunately at around the same time, Umile lost his recruiting binky (McCloskey), so in retrospect there was really this two year window for them to make things happen. They managed to pull it off at the conference level, but not quite on the national stage. And then it was over, before it began. Except folks like me didn't figure it out until several years later.

The yahoo homer UNH fans back then were just like any other yahoo homer fans who b!tch about refs, except of course, a fair amount of UNH players were soft as puppy poo, which lent itself to the constant kvetching. Even back then, a lot of older UNH supporters were not sold on Umile due to his postseason woes. Admittedly, I was "on the fence" for quite awhile, as it did seem thru 2003 anyway that Umile was creeping closer & closer to the "inevitable" with back-to-back HEA tourney championships/trips to the FF, the last one which saw them put in a gutsy, undermanned performance into the 3rd period, until Vanek broke their backs. But the old guard was right, the yahoos were proven to be yahoos, and that would be the program's apex.

At the risk of cheesing off Ray and Fishy and a few others, I'll sign off for now with this ... I started coaching about 20 years ago (different sport, at least two levels below, but I've coached several players who went on to play D-1 after) and ended up coaching a lot of successful teams who won a lot of big games, both locally and on a statewide basis, even venturing into US regionals a couple of times. You develop your own style, but you borrow a lot of things from a lot of different folks, and I can honestly say Walsh was an influence on me, like maybe another half-dozen coaches (Lombardi, Bowman and Clough are three others, whilst Belichick is not). Umile was NEVER one of the guys on that short list I drew inspiration from. Fact.

I'll always be a UNH fan, but it doesn't prevent me from being objective and admiring others, too.

Edited version for Ray:

UMaine stinks, and is soft too. So is UNH. UMaine has reason for optimism; UNH has Mike Souza.
 
Looking at the schedule, Maine better find some offense so it can keep pace with Merrimack or the Warriors will make it a blowout. If the Bears fail to win that weekend this could turn into the 82-83 version of the team in a hurry. That team got its only D-1 win January 15 and managed to lose at home to Colby. Yes, Colby.
 
UncleRay said:
He's almost always too long. Chuck being an absolute windbag is his greatest detraction.
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I doubt that chuckles is "too long"...

My guess is that he's too SHORT down South, and that's why he spends his time trolling this thread.

I never consume his BS anymore, and I'd suggest that no one on here waste their time reading his masturbationary posts.

(And, yeah, I just invented a word!)
 
Gotta say, it's been a troubling weekend on this thread, with some UMaine posters musing about little girls and the size of other poster's junk ... but we can chalk that up to frustration over a winless home weekend against mighty Sacred Heart of the equally mighty Atlantic Hockey Conference.

Things WILL get better. Coach Barr has lifted other nondescript programs to the top of D-1 with his recruiting prowess, there's no reason to think he won't be able to do it for himself in Orono, where the hockey legacy is bigger than that of PC, Union and UMass Amherst combined.

That is not to bait you or "troll" the thread, or whatever it is you guys think I'm doing.

Just enjoying some banter with fellow college hockey fans. Barr is the real deal. Be patient.
 
ticapnews said:
Looking at the schedule, Maine better find some offense so it can keep pace with Merrimack or the Warriors will make it a blowout. If the Bears fail to win that weekend this could turn into the 82-83 version of the team in a hurry. That team got its only D-1 win January 15 and managed to lose at home to Colby. Yes, Colby.
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Actually I was witness to almost all of those games, both home and away, doing play-by-play for WMEB. It was a miserable season, but the Colby loss was on the road. I thought it would be my one bus ride with the team that would be celebratory, that turned out not to be the case.

This team in no way will resemble the team in '82-'83. It's early folks, truly believe the ship has been put in the right persons hands, but it will take time. And for the record in '82-'83 there was never an instance of Maine outshooting an opponent 37-19 like they did on Saturday night!
 
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BobF said:
Actually I was witness to almost all of those games, both home and away, doing play-by-play for WMEB. It was a miserable season, but the Colby loss was on the road. I thought it would be my one bus ride with the team that would be celebratory, that turned out not to be the case.

This team in no way will resemble the team in '82-'83. It's early folks, truly believe the ship has been put in the right persons hands, but it will take time. And for the record in '82-'83 there was never an instance of Maine outshooting an opponent 37-19 like they did on Saturday night!
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The media guide lists it as a home game, but it isn't the first time the media guide has been wrong. I expect this team is much improved over that 82-83 squad, but from a W/L perspective it could get very scary if Maine can't beat Sacred Heart at home.

It must have been fascinating to do play-by-play in those days. I fired up the WMEB stream Friday night but was disappointed to find the games aren't being broadcast. Very sad state of affairs.
 
ticapnews said:
I expect this team is much improved over that 82-83 squad, but from a W/L perspective it could get very scary if Maine can't beat Sacred Heart at home.
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That’s 100% what I think as well. These two games should have been a layup and somehow Maine bottled it. Someone slammed the 15-16 team but they managed a .500 record at the Alfond and that was with no games against Atlantic Hockey teams.

I was thinking Maine should get at least 12 wins this year given the schedule but who knows after last weekend. As much as Ben needs to get his systems in place he needs some positive momentum as well. I can’t imagine anyone in the locker room feels very good at the minute and that is going to make things that much harder for him.

For anyone who wants to make a UMA comparison please stop. It is unbelievably dumb and not relevant at all. They had been rock bottom for like three straight years and Maine has no one remotely close to the caliber of Makar coming in. Barr needs to do the best he can with the resources available and expecting Maine to beat an Atlantic Hockey team at home is not unreasonable.
 
Drew S. said:
That’s 100% what I think as well. These two games should have been a layup and somehow Maine bottled it. Someone slammed the 15-16 team but they managed a .500 record at the Alfond and that was with no games against Atlantic Hockey teams.

I was thinking Maine should get at least 12 wins this year given the schedule but who knows after last weekend. As much as Ben needs to get his systems in place he needs some positive momentum as well. I can’t imagine anyone in the locker room feels very good at the minute and that is going to make things that much harder for him.

For anyone who wants to make a UMA comparison please stop. It is unbelievably dumb and not relevant at all. They had been rock bottom for like three straight years and Maine has no one remotely close to the caliber of Makar coming in. Barr needs to do the best he can with the resources available and expecting Maine to beat an Atlantic Hockey team at home is not unreasonable.
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Drew that was me who said that and they were 6-8-3 at the Alfond and 2-14 away. This team isn’t off to a good start but I think they’ll manage to be better than the 15-16 team.
 
ticapnews said:
The media guide lists it as a home game, but it isn't the first time the media guide has been wrong. I expect this team is much improved over that 82-83 squad, but from a W/L perspective it could get very scary if Maine can't beat Sacred Heart at home.

It must have been fascinating to do play-by-play in those days. I fired up the WMEB stream Friday night but was disappointed to find the games aren't being broadcast. Very sad state of affairs.
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I was working with WMEB when I was a freshman (16-17) and sophomore (17-18) at UMaine. I also did play-by-play for a large handful of games, but I don't think anyone ever heard me. The station has become heavily music-centric and they don't really care for sports at all. I remember once the station sent my friend all the way to Virginia for a football game against JMU, paid for the whole thing, and the game was being broadcast in a time slot where no DJs had a show going. They still didn't put it on air. The sports department may as well have not existed, at least when I was there. Sad state of affairs indeed.
 
amkirby10 said:
I was working with WMEB when I was a freshman (16-17) and sophomore (17-18) at UMaine. I also did play-by-play for a large handful of games, but I don't think anyone ever heard me. The station has become heavily music-centric and they don't really care for sports at all. I remember once the station sent my friend all the way to Virginia for a football game against JMU, paid for the whole thing, and the game was being broadcast in a time slot where no DJs had a show going. They still didn't put it on air. The sports department may as well have not existed, at least when I was there. Sad state of affairs indeed.
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My understanding is that it was like that in the early 2010s when Bryan Roche took over the sports department. He turned the sports side into a beast. He and Cody Beckett in the booth, Whit Kinne doing features from ice level, Alex Quirk and Brandon Poli doing the between periods show. He even set up an alternate stream so the station could broadcast sports and music at the same time. They did every home game and even some on the road (I can still hear that damm goal horn at Merrimack) and in 2014 Cody, Whit and Alex did an epic broadcast from the (not so) Frozen Fenway. There were a couple of sports talk shows that aired during the week. After that group graduated it seems the people who ran the station wanted to kill sports. I don't think they even broadcast the football games anymore. It's a real shame. I love listening to Northeastern games on WRBB. They consistently have the best student college hockey broadcast. For a few years we had a sports department to rival them but like everything else UMaine-related it has fallen by the wayside.
 
ticapnews said:
My understanding is that it was like that in the early 2010s when Bryan Roche took over the sports department. He turned the sports side into a beast. He and Cody Beckett in the booth, Whit Kinne doing features from ice level, Alex Quirk and Brandon Poli doing the between periods show. He even set up an alternate stream so the station could broadcast sports and music at the same time. They did every home game and even some on the road (I can still hear that damm goal horn at Merrimack) and in 2014 Cody, Whit and Alex did an epic broadcast from the (not so) Frozen Fenway. There were a couple of sports talk shows that aired during the week. After that group graduated it seems the people who ran the station wanted to kill sports. I don't think they even broadcast the football games anymore. It's a real shame. I love listening to Northeastern games on WRBB. They consistently have the best student college hockey broadcast. For a few years we had a sports department to rival them but like everything else UMaine-related it has fallen by the wayside.
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Senior night weekend of my freshman year in 2017 we were playing NU, and I was in the booth for Senior Night (an amazing game, UMaine won 5-4 with the GWG being a shorthanded penalty shot by Blaine Byron). The NU guys were a great team, and they gave my friend and I advice on what software to use and tips for our broadcast. Regardless of what I think of the Huskies on the ice, their student broadcast was of excellent quality.
 
amkirby10 said:
I was working with WMEB when I was a freshman (16-17) and sophomore (17-18) at UMaine. I also did play-by-play for a large handful of games, but I don't think anyone ever heard me. The station has become heavily music-centric and they don't really care for sports at all. I remember once the station sent my friend all the way to Virginia for a football game against JMU, paid for the whole thing, and the game was being broadcast in a time slot where no DJs had a show going. They still didn't put it on air. The sports department may as well have not existed, at least when I was there. Sad state of affairs indeed.
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I used to listen to the play by play once in a while.

I miss how they used to video and post the post game coach interviews. Now they arent available anywhere.
 
I think there's something else about this team that isn't properly being discussed. Barr's system is very different from Gendron's. Less emphasis on dump and chase, less physically aggressive play, different and better breakout, etc. I don't think it's a coincidence that for the most part, a lot of the top players on the team so far have been transfers brought in by Barr this year (Breazeale and Hebert, and to a lesser extent Fawcett). Adapting players that were recruited for and played in (for most of them) a very different system than what's in place now is going to be tough. I think results will only improve as his system takes deeper root and more of the players in his vision populate the program. I'm still fully convinced the program is completely in the right hands, and I don't think anything I see on the ice this year could convince me otherwise. This is the definition of a transition year.
 
amkirby10 said:
I think there's something else about this team that isn't properly being discussed. Barr's system is very different from Gendron's. Less emphasis on dump and chase, less physically aggressive play, different and better breakout, etc. I don't think it's a coincidence that for the most part, a lot of the top players on the team so far have been transfers brought in by Barr this year (Breazeale and Hebert, and to a lesser extent Fawcett). Adapting players that were recruited for and played in (for most of them) a very different system than what's in place now is going to be tough. I think results will only improve as his system takes deeper root and more of the players in his vision populate the program. I'm still fully convinced the program is completely in the right hands, and I don't think anything I see on the ice this year could convince me otherwise. This is the definition of a transition year.
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Yup, I think I said pretty much the same in a recent earlier post. Agree 100%.

To Drew S. - the comparison to UMass Amherst is only drawn because Barr is the guy who recruited most of that team. Sure, there is no Makar right now in the UMaine pipeline, but there aren't that many Makar types who play D-1 hockey these days. And as a reminder, UMA didn't win the D-1 title until after Makar left. Further, Union and PC won D-1 titles with a good slice of Barr's recruits, and there were no Makars skating for those two programs, either.

If Barr can bring in a Makar or Kariya-level stud talent, then good for him (and you guys). If he can't, he's still shown he can recruit a team capable of winning it all. So chill, be patient, and enjoy the ride.
 
I'm trying to figure out why Maine should have beaten Sacred Heart easily? The Maine sweater automatically wins against an AH conf team?? Maines 2 Natl Championships from 100 years ago scares all incoming teams ? The ghost of Shawn hangs out in the visitors locker room? So now that they lost and tied I'm supposed to believe Barr sucks or something??
'
 
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