I was watching Maine v UVM on TV from my Portland hotel & could not believe the # of empty seats that were randomly across the stands half way thru the 2nd. A once electric arena was lifeless.....as a lifelong college hockey fan, who used to hate watching Maine Hockey tear there way thru Hockey East..i was almost sad to see it. Maine drew hatred from Boston fans because Walsh & co were so brash & SUCCESSFUL. We were jealous & BU & BC were terrified of mighty Maine black bears..the whole product has suffered & the brand is no longer attractive to recruits, with memories of Kariya, Roy, Pellerin & Purcell a faded past. U need a charismatic Walsh disciple who will resurrect the past culture by having Credibility & a proven history that includes success in college & pro. The pro piece will re connect the glorious past & the college piece will add some reliability to that recruiting objective. Go after Cronin (NU had GREAT recruits committed after they built that awful program up and before he left - see GAUDREAU, Haar, Karlson, Bitetto, Oleksiak, Reid, Theissen, MacLeod, Newton...all HE al stars), Montgomery (he coached at RPI & is a success in Dubuque...though never head coach in College), Lehman (see Union & PC), even Pellerin (Bridgeport - AHL) who has never coached college but is a Walsh guy & Maine legend. All these guys and more (Capuano, Corkum, Gendron, Reilly, Matt Thomas, heck even Crowder) are products of the glorious past & can sell history (Maine Hockey in the glory days). I watched cronin turn NU around in 3 years. NU was making BU & BC nervous because they were winning AND they were out recruiting them for a few players, which NEVER happened before. Monty recruited well at RPI and has been terrific in USHL. I'd beg Abbot to call those 2 guys now..heck u might get Cronin now....since the Maple Leafs are locked out. LOL.