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UMaine 25-26: Marques My Word: Back to the Big Time

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AMC said:
Two things can be true at the same time- this season was ultimately a bit disappointing because the difference between an NCAA tournament appearance and finishing in the Hockey East quarters wasn't an inability to beat the best teams on the schedule but rather avoiding losses to the worst teams on the schedule. At the same time, I'd have probably taken an 18 win season if you offered it at the start and told me about the goaltending issues. A top 5 Maine team was predicated on an All-American Albin Boija, and that Albin Boija wasn't here this year.

I do keep coming back to the question of whether it's reasonable for us to consider a Maine hockey season that finishes ranked about #20 to be a failure. I'm not overly sold that it is. I keep harping back to the funding/investment in the program- we live in a hypercapitalist society and expecting results beyond investment is a fallacy. Mike McMahon recently answered a question in his newsletter about Hockey East funding, and he tiered it out as follows:

HIGHEST LEVEL: BC, Providence, UConn, BU
MIDDLE LEVEL: Maine, Northeastern, Lowell, UMass
LOWEST LEVEL: Merrimack, UVM, UNH

Which does make sense on the one hand, those high investment programs are in the ACC, Big East, or a major city with no other baskets to put eggs into. On the other hand, Maine has always cared more about hockey than Providence and especially UConn. If we are at the point where the money gulf is so large that Providence can spend, in one year, enough to pay a basketball roster $12M, pay their basketball coach a $10M buyout, AND put together the best hockey roster in the conference including first round NHL draft picks, we may be stuck.

None of that is to absolve the micro level issues like consistency, and wondering why two straight All-American level goaltenders finished their careers benched due to their own poor performance and not being run down by some freshman stud. But "we invest the fifth most money in the conference and we finished fifth in the conference and 20th in the nation" isn't an absurd result.
Click to expand...

This may be a stupid question and take, but in what way is money an issue? Maine would’ve pulled in McQueen, Boisvert, and McKenna, if they were offered the same ballpark?

Talent and depth wasn’t really the issue this yr. Has anyone involved in recruitment or player development alluded to an unmet need or a problem being funding? If there were unlimited funds what would be done differently? I thought that most people thought (1) Maine has the coach it wants (2) extremely nice facilities and (3) not a huge need for one-and-done-paycheck-chasing-players. I also don’t really know the program for being that hard to fundraise for
 
Congrats to Merrimack a number 8 seed!! First ever HE Championship! Lundgren was outstanding and the defense was tenacious in front of him! That was a unified team that came together under Scott Borek. He wasn't on the ice but he deserves a ton of credit for developing this team.
 
Yes I do want to add my congrats to the Mack. That was an unbelievable game and performance by Lundgren. Its great to see you guys get a shot at the NCAA's finally, anything can happen once you're in.
 
It’s massively impressive that Borek was able to get Merrimack into the NCAA’s with two completely different groups of players and he recruited all of them. Also, that he was able to overcome the passing of their assistant coach who played at UNH.
 
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