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University of Maine 2024–2025: Freel-ing good

blackbears9 said:
I agree that they should opt in, but I don't think it's black and white. I imagine the only thing giving coaches/athletic departments pause is the roster limit. I think it needs to be upped to 28 players, 26 players means that 4 injuries and you're playing without an extra skater. This is the most talented Maine team in over a decade and they managed it with 18 scholarships. Hopefully the roster limit gets raised, and Maine is able to use revenue sharing to bring in a couple high end recruits.
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I think you can manage with 26 which is what BU had this year. During loss to Yale during world juniors every remaining roster player dressed
There was a big dropoff in bottom two but with scholarship expansion might be less so
 
walrus said:
WEEI radio had an article on College hockey, talked about every team from HE that was in tourney except Maine.
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It is the “college hockey round up” article written on the 30th, right?

Well, they did a “college hockey round up” also on the 28th where they mentioned Maine lost to Penn State.

www.audacy.com

College hockey roundup: BC survives scare, 4 Hockey East teams advance

No. 1 overall seed Boston College survived a scare from Bentley, breaking a tie late in regulation to advance to the second round of the NCAA men’s hockey tournament. Three other Hockey East teams are moving on as well.
www.audacy.com www.audacy.com

So they were simply updating folks on what happened after they posted the article from the 28th. So that would include the outcomes of the teams in hockey East playing on or after 29th, which was BU, UMass, UConn, and BC. Notice how they didn’t cover Providence in the article on the 30th? That’s because Providence didn’t play after the round up article they posted on the 28th.
 
blackbears9 said:
I agree that they should opt in, but I don't think it's black and white. I imagine the only thing giving coaches/athletic departments pause is the roster limit. I think it needs to be upped to 28 players, 26 players means that 4 injuries and you're playing without an extra skater. This is the most talented Maine team in over a decade and they managed it with 18 scholarships. Hopefully the roster limit gets raised, and Maine is able to use revenue sharing to bring in a couple high end recruits.
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They managed it when all the other teams also have an 18 scholarship limit.

I don’t care to go to 18 for Maine while every other school goes to 26 just to see if Maine can still be a tournament team despite being at a disadvantage.

The extra 8 scholarships should provide you with much better depth because you won’t have to go down the list and to find(and settle) on a player willing to take the partial scholarship. On a 28 man roster like 10 get full rides, and 16 get half rides and 2 don’t get any scholarship money. So that means you replace 16 half scholarship players with 16 full scholarship players. Those upgraded players are now available due to major junior now being available.

The 26 scholarship option has less risk of putting your team at a big disadvantage.
 
The delay in Maine publishing any decision is due to the NCAA pushing back the deadline. The March 1 deadline was presuming the settlement would actually be finalized, but it has not been. There are still some appeals (South Dakota just succesfully had their appeal moved from federal to South Dakota state court, which could prolong things). There is also ongoing discussion about some of the downstream effects. And, frankly, a lot of the big southern schools are looking at the current federal government and thinking this may be an opportunity to get an anti-trust exemption through Congress and the White House.

Long story short, sky still falling, chickens still running around with heads cut off.
 
I wonder about Niemo staying? He and Antonacci scored in the third period to tie UMass in the final game of the regular season. I don't recall seeing him on the ice after that. Was he injured or did I miss him? Niemo had a slow start but saw more ice time late in the season.
 
Runsub5 said:
I wonder about Niemo staying? He and Antonacci scored in the third period to tie UMass in the final game of the regular season. I don't recall seeing him on the ice after that. Was he injured or did I miss him? Niemo had a slow start but saw more ice time late in the season.
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I think he was dressed as the extra skater for those games.

Kinda looked like Barr liked him more as a shootout specialist down the stretch, since he has good hands and can score, but didn't trust him to log defensive minutes over guys like Scholle or Pichette. Can't say I disagree with it because those two both rate out much better defensively than Niemo.
 
One of the more intriguing prospects to enter the portal so far is Will Felicio who played for Michigan. He got low time on ice yet had a fairly high CHIP rating, which suggests he was greatly underutilized. Or simply put, deserved more ice time given what he was accomplishing when he was on the ice. I am not sure Maine is into the transfer market for more defensemen, but I thought that last year and the picked up defenseman Frank Djuresevic whom ended up 2nd in CHIP rating on Maine behind only Boija. So could Felicio be another great addition to the Maine D core. I feel like Maine is really building an elite d core, and needs more fire power up front. But it seems like Barr loves offensive and highly mobile defense more than any other type of player. Will be interesting to see where Felicio goes. He is likely going to be a highly sought after transfer.
 
Sparkee said:
One of the more intriguing prospects to enter the portal so far is Will Felicio who played for Michigan. He got low time on ice yet had a fairly high CHIP rating, which suggests he was greatly underutilized. Or simply put, deserved more ice time given what he was accomplishing when he was on the ice. I am not sure Maine is into the transfer market for more defensemen, but I thought that last year and the picked up defenseman Frank Djuresevic whom ended up 2nd in CHIP rating on Maine behind only Boija. So could Felicio be another great addition to the Maine D core. I feel like Maine is really building an elite d core, and needs more fire power up front. But it seems like Barr loves offensive and highly mobile defense more than any other type of player. Will be interesting to see where Felicio goes. He is likely going to be a highly sought after transfer.
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Could be an interesting pickup but probably already knows where he is transfering to already. There also wouldn't be roster space for him unless Maine keeps only 2 of Nobes, Antonnacci, Morse, Dalton or Arnott or have 9D which I don't believe would happen.

Also finally starting to see some transfers commit to programs in the portal like Sacha Boisvert to BU and Jayden Perron to Michigan.
 
Ineverquit said:
Could be an interesting pickup but probably already knows where he is transfering to already. There also wouldn't be roster space for him unless Maine keeps only 2 of Nobes, Antonnacci, Morse, Dalton or Arnott or have 9D which I don't believe would happen.

Also finally starting to see some transfers commit to programs in the portal like Sacha Boisvert to BU and Jayden Perron to Michigan.
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I agree, you would only bring him in if you planned on keeping only one of the players you mentioned… which would be shrewd. Nobes and Antonacci both played well down the stretch. For that reason, it is unlikely Maine will pull defensemen from portal unless a Holt or Djuresevic goes pro.
 
Merrimack just picked up a 39 point scoring freshman from Niagara, scored 100 his final year in the OJHL, 4th round pick for Calgary.

I assume Maine would have kicked the tires? Barr and staff aren't afraid to mine the AHA. Maybe a signal that those on the docket are a bit better than that?
 
Good BDN article today.
Encouraging words about the program from ex bears; jason weinrich, hirsch, metcalf, brendan walsh.
Yes, hard work is a critical under pinning to maine being successful.
Some selected quotes from Larrys article.

“It’s all part of the process,” said Hirsch. “I would have loved to have seen them get to the Frozen Four this year but it wasn’t meant to be.”

“The future is so bright,” added Hirsch. “I’m excited for next year.”

And Walsh is “supremely confident” Barr has an ideal model and a vision for success through recruiting quality players and developing them.

Walsh also noted that the $45 million in renovations to Alfond Arena and the support of the school, community and state will be valuable assets to the continued growth of the program.

“They know what they have to do and where they are,” said Walsh.

“They know what they have to do and where they are,” said Walsh.

Weinrich, who followed brother Eric to UMaine, said a lot of the turnaround has to do with the culture Barr has brought to the program.

“All the kids seem to be buying in. I noticed that even when they won just seven games his first year,” Weinrich said. “I remember how hard the kids worked.”

Weinrich said that the execution from that first team under Barr was good even when it wasn’t winning games.

“You could tell there was something different,” observed Weinrich.

“What you’ve seen is Ben Barr getting his teams to play the right way with passion and pace,” said Walsh, “There is accountability.”

Walsh said Barr “has been able to find and identify special players and develop them.”

The Black Bears had only one NHL draft pick on their team but that’s where player development came into play, said Walsh.

“What Maine has done really well, and I’ll use [Cronin’s] analogy, is find high number cards like an 8, 9 or 10 and flip them into face cards,” Walsh said. “Ben has done an amazing job maximizing his talent pool.”

Hirsch agreed with Walsh’s assessment about Barr and his staff bringing in players who fit their mold and culture.

He used a line spoken by actor Kurt Russell from the 2004 movie “Miracle” about the 1980 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team.
“I’m not looking for the best players, I’m looking for the right ones.”

Metcalf said Barr “brought a different mentality and expectations” along with “a different set of players and a winning chemistry” to UMaine.

“You don’t need stars or first round draft picks to win,” Metcalf said. “You have to have everyone rowing in the same direction, some luck and a good goaltender and that’s what they’ve had.”

Weinrich felt this season’s team was “very deep,” didn’t have any weaknesses and worked “extremely hard as a unit,” crediting the coaches and the culture they’ve brought to Orono.

“It goes back to their preparedness and culture. They go into every game thinking they’re going to win,” said Weinrich.

“Their work ethic was second to none. With where they have come in four years and the way they competed all year, the program is in incredible shape,” said Weinrich.

Weinrich has noticed.
“They could all get up and down the ice, they could all handle the puck and generate offense and they were all incredibly sound defensively,” said Weinrich. “A big thing in college hockey is your ability to break the puck out of your [defensive] zone and they have been exceptional at that, especially in the Hockey East tournament.”


The former Black Bears said it is important to recognize that winning the Hockey East tournament is a special accomplishment.
“It’s huge. They hadn’t done it in 21 years,” said Metcalf.
“That says a ton,” said Hirsch.
Walsh emphasized the volume of teams that Hockey East sent to the NCAA tournament this year, which tied an all-time record, and likened the league’s strength to the way the Southeastern Conference has dominated college football.
“Hockey East is the SEC of college hockey,” said Walsh. “They put six teams in the tournament.”
 
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