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Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

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Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

BearNecessity said:
will someone tell carltonbarrett to go put on his burgundy and gold footie pajamas and write something on a BC blog. And leave us poor wretches alone. We don't need everything to be compared to the vaunted BC...
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Its what gives carlton a woody.:D
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

Kyle Beattie will see some ice time this weekend after sustaining a couple of concussions.
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

Anyone else see this at CHN?

It’s time for Maine fans to accept their program’s reality

One of the most famous soundbites in Boston sports history is Rick Pitino’s famous decree that Larry Bird was, in fact, not walking through some door. For Maine, it’s time to realize that the success Shawn Walsh, rest in peace, experienced represented a high that few programs will ever experience. Walsh took Maine to seven Frozen Fours in his 16 seaons in Orono and won a pair of national championships. Since Tim Whitehead took over in 2001-02, Maine has played in four Frozen Fours and two national championship games. Last year, the Black Bears returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time in four season, and many thought it signaled the rebirth of the club as national power once again. However, 2012-13 hasn’t supported that. Through nine games, Maine is 1-9-0, and it’s unlikely that things will get much better this year.8

Many focused on the losses of Spencer Abbott and Brian Flynn. However, other departures have left Maine uncommonly thin at certain roles or within specialties that stand out badly with every loss. The graduation of Will O’Neil left Maine without an established No. 1 defenseman and a calming presence on the power play. Matt Mangene was among the best puck movers in college hockey a season ago and a fantastic scoring complement to the Black Bears’ vaunted top line. Beyond that, Ryan Hegarty’s graduation took away from a defensively dominant second pairing along with Mark Nemec. Whitehead hoped the scoring lost would be replaced by Mark Anthoine, Kyle Beattie and some others who had strong seasons a year ago, while some gifted freshmen rounded into form. Moreover, Whitehead believe goaltender Dan Sullivan’s junior season would prove the year he became a top-flight Division I goaltender.

Almost none of that has happened at this point. Only Connor Leen has multiple goals. Joey Diamond’s discipline issues have popped up again. In nine games, Maine has scored 10 goals and allowed 30. The power play has been woeful, with Maine converting on one of its 43 opportunities (2.3 percent). Meanwhile neither Sullivan nor Martin Ouellette has performed well in goal. Freshman Matt Morris picked up Maine’s lone win.

The reality for Maine fans is their program is no longer on par with the premier programs in Hockey East, and it isn’t anyone’s fault. Maine is still a desirable place to play, and there will be championship contending seasons. But there will be the bust years too. Inevitably, calls for Whitehead’s job are already heard ringing from Maine, but it’s time for acceptance in Orono.
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AMC said:
Anyone else see this at CHN?
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It's easy to write one of those articles but I think they're a little off target. Maine has had good teams the last three years even though only one made the tourney. As far as this year goes, I see three major problems for the team.

1. Injuries. Four of our top 10 forwards have missed a lot of time. This speaks for itself.

2. The older dmen have been awful. I think Pryor and Cornell have been horrible this year. O'connor at times has looked bad as well. I think this has been more of a problem than replacing oneil and hegarty. I actually think Rutt and Hutton have done a decent job of that.

3. Missing a couple talisman up front. I don't think the issue with scoring is not having any talent, it's not having those one or two guys who really can make it happen. I think this will take care of itself with Shore, Lomberg, and Leen developing into those type guys to varying degrees. Morgan and Byron have a lot of promise next year too. I would expect Byron to take over one of the points in the PP straightaway.

For me, a lot of what I listed above should improve as the season goes on. I know a lot of people would say the goaltending but I think D has been the bigger issue.
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

What a joke that article is. Inaccurate and simply dumb. What deuche writes crap like that ?
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

Meloni's a dope. They used to say the same crap about the line of coaches they had at Merrimack before Dennehy, oh they can't win location, school size, etc. I guess they forgot that yarn about how the right coach can do it anywhere they were writing about him 2 years ago.

Funny how the Celtics did get back to prominence when they got rid of Pitino and got a good GM/coach. So even Meloni's analogy makes NO SENSE.
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

BoSox3066 said:
.........Funny how the Celtics did get back to prominence when they got rid of Pitino and got a good GM/coach. So even Meloni's analogy makes NO SENSE.
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Have you seen the Celtics play recently? :D
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

BoSox3066 said:
Meloni's a dope. They used to say the same crap about the line of coaches they had at Merrimack before Dennehy, oh they can't win location, school size, etc. I guess they forgot that yarn about how the right coach can do it anywhere they were writing about him 2 years ago.

Funny how the Celtics did get back to prominence when they got rid of Pitino and got a good GM/coach. So even Meloni's analogy makes NO SENSE.
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serious question.... how good is Merrimack now and moving forward without DaCosta and Cannatta? Was that just a flash in the pan?
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

WildShawn said:
Was that just a flash in the pan?
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Yes. But the Merrimack of old is probably gone for good. With Dennehy around, even without any stars like Cannata/DaCosta, they will be a tough team for everyone to play with their reliance on a stable of 20-25 year olds.
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

WildShawn said:
serious question.... how good is Merrimack now and moving forward without DaCosta and Cannatta? Was that just a flash in the pan?
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No. They're building a solid foundation year after year. Sure, they'll have some down years but will be consistently challenging the top of HE for some time to come. They'll have exceptional years when they get the right mix of players on board, but all in all will be midlle to top tier HE.
 
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Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

WildShawn said:
serious question.... how good is Merrimack now and moving forward without DaCosta and Cannatta? Was that just a flash in the pan?
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Maybe....Point is guys like Meloni change their arguments all the time to fit whatever they think their new hot sports take is. One days its these teams can never contend, the next day its woah look at this coach who can contend there. Doesn't make sense.
 
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Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

AMC said:
Anyone else see this at CHN?
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The Bottom Line is that MAINE HOCKEY FANS know whats up and that this article is nonsense...put in a NEW Coach with a goal to make the Program his and follow that with hard work/passion and in no time this Program will cahnge for the BETTER...the above article is just a days work and something if you ask him about next month he'll have a hard time to remember....so with that said Maine Hockey will be back when TW is shown the door OUT.
 
Re: Maine 2012 - The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly??

GoBlackBears said:
1-0 Maine PP Goal Hutton
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even when things go well, they go poorly... was listening (apparently with a delay of a few minutes) hear "hutton shoots..." and the stream cuts out
 
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