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UMaine '26-'27: The Bridge On the River Stillwater

And the lighting is a choice. It's a filter of some sort. Midway through the third my screen pixelated and suddenly the dark grey picture was bright! I could see clearly! It was as bright as my picture from the Cornell game. But then the screen reset and went back to the darkness...
Same experience. It was like they put sunglasses over the camera lens.
 
And the lighting is a choice. It's a filter of some sort. Midway through the third my screen pixelated and suddenly the dark grey picture was bright! I could see clearly! It was as bright as my picture from the Cornell game. But then the screen reset and went back to the darkness...
They are new at this. They've only been televising games from Alfond for 40 years.
 
No hands- 1 goal on 47 shots- but brass balls all night long.

I will say this: Maine is fun to watch, win lose or draw. No quit in them.

(And watch out for UMass down the road.)
 
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And the lighting is a choice. It's a filter of some sort. Midway through the third my screen pixelated and suddenly the dark grey picture was bright! I could see clearly! It was as bright as my picture from the Cornell game. But then the screen reset and went back to the darkness...

Mine was bright all game. Looked great.
 
I will say this: Maine is fun to watch, win lose or draw. No quit in them.

(And watch out for UMass down the road.)
The constant dump chase and pass it up the boards puts me to sleep.

Umass looks solid, good skaters, good ice awareness, hustle and enough talented puck guys to be an offensive threat.
 
47 shots looks great but there were way too many empty calorie shots. Eskit ate up everything and played great. Maine didn't really challenge him with traffic enough which was part of the issue. Need more guys crashing the crease.

Its so hard to figure out what this team is right now. The analytics say they're good at creating/preventing chances but getting very unlucky. Their play style of being one of the most dump heavy teams in the nation isn't really getting it done at 5x5 despite the line shuffling, so not sure if they just keep at it and results will eventually come?

Thought the big line (20-41-33) had the most consistent shifts all game. They look like the only line that seems to excel in this system, which isn't a surprise given the size of that trio. Glad Barr has kept them together.
 
I don't see anyone on this team with much creativity with the puck. You need guys who can dangle. You need a Josh nadeau or a breen as a minimum. Currenr group of guys are north/south and that is about it. Yeah it would be great to have a team loaded with nhl talent, but without it at least someone who can create something out of nothing. Not seeing it in this group. We need to sign Monty up to work with Benny. :LOL:
 
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I think its a pattern now, you don't win when you score 1 goal or 2 goals. Maybe if Jimmy Howard or Frankie Doyle walk thru the locker room door. How long can Barr keep the locker room while disappointing losses continue to mount.? At this rate its look like we battle UHN for last place in HE.
I read Peterson has a cast on a broken wrist. One bright spot, Boija played well. I also saw one Hockey player at Michigan got a million in NIL money.
 
47 shots looks great but there were way too many empty calorie shots. Eskit ate up everything and played great. Maine didn't really challenge him with traffic enough which was part of the issue. Need more guys crashing the crease.

Its so hard to figure out what this team is right now. The analytics say they're good at creating/preventing chances but getting very unlucky. Their play style of being one of the most dump heavy teams in the nation isn't really getting it done at 5x5 despite the line shuffling, so not sure if they just keep at it and results will eventually come?

Thought the big line (20-41-33) had the most consistent shifts all game. They look like the only line that seems to excel in this system, which isn't a surprise given the size of that trio. Glad Barr has kept them together.
Three words: Pound the Rock. The results will come. Also, piggybacking off a previous comment, I get a lot of 22-23 squad vibes coming off of this team. Hard workers, but no big finisher. But with that squad, they eventually figured it out around New Year's.
 
I liked the reduction in glare off the ice. In the past the picture was always way too bright and washed out. The dynamic setting on my TV may also have something to do with it. I can see and follow the puck much more clearly with this exposure. Didn't the coach's poll have Maine ranked around 8th in HE? They have gotten it wrong for some teams over the years, but they may have it right for Maine. Still a long season ahead.
 
The analytics say that Maine is a good team and just underperforming/unlucky but at a certain point the results on the ice are all the matter. It's still early in the season but some extra goals would be nice. BU dogwalked #3 Michigan State last night so I'm feeling a tiny bit better about last Saturday at least.
 
Looks like Maine is sinking below Vermont and UNH in the pecking order. Must be all that NIL money and gorgeous facilities they are working with! 🙄
 
OTD in 1992 Maine traveled to Providence two weeks after the teams battled to a 3-3 tie at Alfond, a result Shawn Walsh deemed unacceptable. The Black Bears responded by defeating the Friars 6-2 to improve to 2-0-1 in Hockey East.
 
Thinking on last night a little more, I think it actually showed how important Peterson is to their offensive creation ability. His confidence and puck skills add a dimension to this team that they missed last night, and if he's out for an extended period that could be a big problem for Maine.

Obviously, the talk of the town right now in Black Bear Nation is offense, or the lack thereof. I did another little research project last night, and I tallied every forward Maine has had under both Ben Barr and Red Gendron, along with their stats, and sorted them by points per game. In terms of players recruited as freshmen by Barr, the top two players in terms of points per game that didn't leave Orono after one year are Thomas Freel and Sully Scholle, neither of whom are guys you would call offensive cornerstones. Obviously, there has been much better luck with transfers, with the Scott brothers and Makar all being great pickups, and Klimpke and Parks both have comparable PPG stats so far in their early tenure as Black Bears. If there was any interest in viewing the full sheet I'd be glad to post it here.

As opposed to forwards, I think everyone would agree that in the Barr era, Maine has had a very good collection of defensemen in this time. Even so far this year, looking at the D corps, it's been very good all year with the exception of one bad game about a week ago. Maine has also routinely been one of the best in the nation in recent years at limiting shot totals by the opposition, so the numbers also bear out that the D has not been the problem at any point with Ben behind the bench.

All of this is to say, that given Barr's penchant and knack for finding good defensemen and keeping them around, and the demands and structure of his system and style of play, I do believe that Maine would only need a few true game-breakers up front in order to be a regularly competitive team, both within Hockey East and nationally. It's probably not a coincidence that when we did have guys like that, such as Bradly Nadeau or Harrison Scott, we were an excellent team and one of the best in the nation. It would be preferable to recruit them as freshmen, obviously, as then you get longer to have them on your team if you can keep them, but if they can hit other moonshot homeruns on transfers like Scott and Makar, then that would suffice too.

Tl;dr I think Maine only needs a few top offensive skill players at a time to be a top tier team, since the strength of Barr's defense and system can help carry them the rest of the way.
 
Thinking on last night a little more, I think it actually showed how important Peterson is to their offensive creation ability. His confidence and puck skills add a dimension to this team that they missed last night, and if he's out for an extended period that could be a big problem for Maine.

Obviously, the talk of the town right now in Black Bear Nation is offense, or the lack thereof. I did another little research project last night, and I tallied every forward Maine has had under both Ben Barr and Red Gendron, along with their stats, and sorted them by points per game. In terms of players recruited as freshmen by Barr, the top two players in terms of points per game that didn't leave Orono after one year are Thomas Freel and Sully Scholle, neither of whom are guys you would call offensive cornerstones. Obviously, there has been much better luck with transfers, with the Scott brothers and Makar all being great pickups, and Klimpke and Parks both have comparable PPG stats so far in their early tenure as Black Bears. If there was any interest in viewing the full sheet I'd be glad to post it here.

As opposed to forwards, I think everyone would agree that in the Barr era, Maine has had a very good collection of defensemen in this time. Even so far this year, looking at the D corps, it's been very good all year with the exception of one bad game about a week ago. Maine has also routinely been one of the best in the nation in recent years at limiting shot totals by the opposition, so the numbers also bear out that the D has not been the problem at any point with Ben behind the bench.

All of this is to say, that given Barr's penchant and knack for finding good defensemen and keeping them around, and the demands and structure of his system and style of play, I do believe that Maine would only need a few true game-breakers up front in order to be a regularly competitive team, both within Hockey East and nationally. It's probably not a coincidence that when we did have guys like that, such as Bradly Nadeau or Harrison Scott, we were an excellent team and one of the best in the nation. It would be preferable to recruit them as freshmen, obviously, as then you get longer to have them on your team if you can keep them, but if they can hit other moonshot homeruns on transfers like Scott and Makar, then that would suffice too.

Tl;dr I think Maine only needs a few top offensive skill players at a time to be a top tier team, since the strength of Barr's defense and system can help carry them the rest of the way.
Would definitely like to take a look through the full data set of this.
 
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