What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

Status
Not open for further replies.
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

I am pretty sure that all three goalies knew that there was the possibility they would be the odd man out. I like a rotation as much as the next person, as it is nice to have two goalies with game experience and ready to go. That being said you ride the hot hand, Sirman has not exactly set the world on fire during his limited # of career starts, and Ouellette is unproven as of yet. Sullivan has been quite good so far and I see no reason to not start him the first BC game. If he turns in a stellar performance you give him the nod on Sunday as well.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

True Blue Fan said:
I am pretty sure that all three goalies knew that there was the possibility they would be the odd man out. I like a rotation as much as the next person, as it is nice to have two goalies with game experience and ready to go. That being said you ride the hot hand, Sirman has not exactly set the world on fire during his limited # of career starts, and Ouellette is unproven as of yet. Sullivan has been quite good so far and I see no reason to not start him the first BC game. If he turns in a stellar performance you give him the nod on Sunday as well.
Click to expand...

Nah. I'm sure they all were told they'd be part of the first three-goalie rotation in history. Sully would play the first period, Ouellette the second and Sirman the third. Overtimes would be handled by Josh Seeley.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

Howitz-ah said:
Total coach-speak bluff and I'm calling him out on this one.

If this held weight, there would have been no reason not to give Shawn a rep this past weekend. If you're going to start your #1 in consecutive games, you put your best foot forward against stronger competition.

And if he does play Shawn THIS weekend...why do you not start him for a month, then throw him in a fire?

It's just bewildering how the goaltending is being handled right now.
Click to expand...

Yeah! What's the deal with starting a goalie who keeps winning!!!! Let's start a goalie who loses so we know what goalie can win!:eek:

It was so much better when we had inconsistent Darling and Wilson who most nights was good for 4 against! That way we knew who to start:confused:!

Coach please start someone else to satisfy the nutcases! Do you people actually believe what you are writing? For the last 3 years we went from horrible to awful to mediocre. Now we're good, bordering on very good and you are still complaining!

I have no clue as to what it takes to make you all happy!:(

As for me I am just going to continue to enjoy the season, I guess ignorance is bliss, since I know so much less than the rest of you!
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

BobF said:
I have no clue as to what it takes to make you all happy!:(

As for me I am just going to continue to enjoy the season, I guess ignorance is bliss, since I know so much less than the rest of you!
Click to expand...

you were happy when Jack was the coach.

and you also sometimes wear Scarlet, so I am not sure you can aunderstand why we Maine fans do and say what we do
 
Last edited:
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

acs64 said:
Oullette on friday night....itz the perfect solution. You win, wow....chance to sweep with Sully on sunday and you got yourself a kid with tons of confidence. You lose, you chalk it off to inexperience, give him a few pats on the back, and you still have sully for sunday. Timid Tim, however, wont see the bigger picture. Yet to be impressed with how he handles the goalies.....his approach seems to be find someone who's hot right now and go with it, instead of developing for the future. But I will say this in his defense.....none of us see these guys in practice all week or knows whats in each ones head, so there aint a soul here who knows what to phk their talking about...so shuttaphkup. :D
Click to expand...

I hesitate to openly question the considered views of a highly reputable (and dare I say it ... entertaining) poster who very more often then not is usually right. But since I am blindly reckless, I will go ahead anyway.
1. I do not understand these complaints about Coach Timothy Whitehead. He seems to me to be an excellent coach. There may be someone else you'd rather have, but i am not sure they are available.
2. Maine is currently rated #3 in the country. Is there any strong evidnce that their record would be better without the consistent play of Mr. Sullivan in net?
3. North Dakota would probably be #3 in the country if they had swept Maine instead of vice versa. Mr. Sullivan was in net for that sweep. He was in net for the tie against BU in their rink. That was due to "going with the hot goalie". No one seems willing to appreciate the momentum and confidence gained.
4. You suggest he should be developing his goalies. I think he IS developing at least one of his (freshman at that) goalies. Perhaps developing one goalie at a time is sound policy. Sirman's and Oullette's time will come. Pray that they take as much advantage of that moment as Mr. Sullivan has his opportunities.
5. I wonder why Maine fan's cannot be happy with their increadible fortune. And the coaching staff. I say again: Run with Mr. Sullivan as far as he takes you. When he stumbles (and humans do that), give him a break, and give that break to the next goalie in line. ENJOY your good fortune while it lasts.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

KnowItAll said:
you were happy when Jack was the coach.

and you also sometimes wear Scarlet, so I am not sure you can aunderstand why we Maine fans do and say what we do
Click to expand...

KIA 0 for 2! I was broadcasting games when jack was there and was never impressed. My senior year I broadcast some 20 games and we had 1 WIN in the ECAC! Don't ever wear Scarlet, and refuse to get personal on some things. What I know is you "nutcases" have been crying for years and now you have a winning team and you are still crying.

"Confused? You won't be after the next edition of Soap!" That's pretty much what you all are characters on Soap, and KIA you are Bert!
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

Howitz-ah said:
Thanks, but I do need a response here!....

OK, but Sullivan isn't exactly going on a Tim Thomas run of shutouts here....nor a Ben Bishop run of 1-goal/game 'shutouts'

He's been fantastic, but you can't take what I said and use the games last weekend as a counterpoint, because that's just playing Monday quarterback. The decision of who to start comes before we know for sure what the guy does. Is the assumption that if Sullivan gave up 2 goals per game the others would have given up 5? Who's to say one of the other guys doesn't come into one of those nights a pitch a shutout? Where does the conversation go if that happens? We don't even know because the conversation hasn't presented itself. I'm just saying that I haven't seen enough of this race to call it already, as definitively as Tim seems to be doing.

Ride Mr. Sullivan for as far as 2 goals/game takes him? What if we do, he takes us to January, and Mr. Sullivan blows his knee? Now, in the heat of the season, we have to rely on guys that haven't seen action in 3 months.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. This was my frustration in the NU/ME thread discussing goalies. Sullivan has kept us in the games and our offense has won them. I don't call giving up 2 goals on 17-23 shots hot. What happens when we play a team that puts over 30 sog? We tie or lose. Sully will continue to play until he loses and he won't take us to January unless he gets hot.

The only way Sully doesn't play both games is if he gives up 4 goals on Fri.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

I don't think Sullivan gets the call because Whitehead thinks he is "hot." I think he gets the call because he has looked better in practice--or, at least, neither Sirman nor Ouellette has outshown him in practice to the point where they get the not instead of him.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

dwollstadt said:
I don't think Sullivan gets the call because Whitehead thinks he is "hot." I think he gets the call because he has looked better in practice--or, at least, neither Sirman nor Ouellette has outshown him in practice to the point where they get the not instead of him.
Click to expand...
I can't say for sure but I thought he said in pregame he was going with the hot goalie. The wording could have been different. In the past he has mentioned playing a goalie due to their performance in practice. I think Sullivans composure in net has a lot to do with it.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

Hockey East Super Fan said:
3. North Dakota would probably be #3 in the country if they had swept Maine instead of vice versa. Mr. Sullivan was in net for that sweep. He was in net for the tie against BU in their rink. That was due to "going with the hot goalie". No one seems willing to appreciate the momentum and confidence gained.
Click to expand...

fwiw, sirman and and sully split the nodak series... and i get what you are saying... here are my thoughts... i was at the first north dakota game in which sirman started. i went with my best friend who has played the game for thirty years and whose twin brother was an all state goaltender in the early 90s... i can't tell you how many times he commented that sirman looked shaky or that he went down really early, etc., etc. not sure if anyone remembers how und's last goal was scored in that game... the puck was thrown at the net from the corner about a foot off of the goal line, rattled off sirman's far pad and in... the next night sully puts together another solid outing and there you go... we don't know what whitehead's thinking is, but maybe that soft goal is making him second guess sirman... who knows with ouellette? maybe he's not at 100%, maybe he's struggling in practice, maybe he's like sirman last year, not in the shape he needs to be in... we don't know...

i think the team and the coaching staff has a certain level of comfort with sully backstopping the team. and if he is playing well, you let him see how far he can take it. the other two guys are facing talented guys everyday in practice. they should be fine to come in if something were to happen to sully. it's their job to be ready if something happens to him. when sully has an off night, you give the other guys a chance the next time out. if they put together a solid outing go with a rotation from that point unless one of them steps to the fore again...
 
Last edited:
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

since i am up with a vomiting pup tonight i decided to pull together some data on how much of the load starting goalies (defined for this exercise as the goalie on each team that has played the majority of the minutes/games, regardless of perceived status as the #1) carry across d-1, here is what i came up with:

WCHA
Starting goalies played 90.92 of the 131 games played so far this season by WCHA teams. This represents 69.4% of all games.
The 1st Backup (second most games played) accounted for the remaining 40.08 games representing 30.6% of all games played by WCHA teams.

CCHA
Starting goalies played 91.42 of the 125 games played so far this season by CCHA teams. This represents 73.14% of all games.
The 1st Backup accounted for the remaining 33.58 games representing 26.86% of all games played by CCHA teams.

ECACHL
Starting goalies played 74.33 of the 95 games played so far this season by ECACHL teams. This represents 78.24% of all games.
The 1st Backup accounted for 17 games representing 17.89% of all games played by ECACHL teams.
All other goaltenders accounted for the remaining 3.67 games and 3.86%

Atlantic Hockey
Starting goalies played 78.92 of the 108 games played so far this season by ECACHL teams. This represents 73.07% of all games.
The 1st Backup accounted for 21.58 games representing 19.98% of all games played by ECACHL teams.
All other goaltenders accounted for the remaining 7.50 games and 6.94%.

Hockey East
Starting goalies have played 76.07 of the 96 games played so far this season by HE teams. This represents 79.24% of all games.
The 1st Backup accounted for 18.93 games representing 19.72% of all games played by HE teams.
All other goaltenders accounted for the remaining 1.00 game and 1.04%.

Alabama Huntsville
Starting goaltender has played 7.50 of the 12 games played so far this season by UAH. This represents 61.50% of all games.
The 1st Backup accounted for 4 games representing 33.33% of all games played.
All other goaltenders accounted for the remaining .50 games and 4.17%.

On the whole of DI, there have been a total 567 team games played this season. Of those 567 games, the starting goaltender has accounted for 419.16 games which represents 73.93% of all games played. The first backup has played a total of 135.17 games accounting for 23.84% of all games. All other goalies accounted for the remaining 12.67 games and 2.23%.

How does Maine stack up? Maine has played 10 games to date. Sullivan has played 6.15 games or 61.50% of the time. Sirman follows with 2.85 games or 28.50% of the time, and Ouellette has played in 1 game for 10%. Comparing those numbers, Sullivan, as the starter has played less on a percentage basis than the average percentage attributed to the starter in every league. Sullivan has played 12.5% less than the average of all of the other starters. 17 teams starters have carried less of a load than Sullivan has thus far, and many of those teams are not exactly tournament hopefuls. In contrast, there are 16 teams who have starters that have played 90% or more of their teams games including 7 that have played every minute of every game. Essentially 2/3 of all teams have their starting tender carrying more of the load than Sully has thus far.

I think people are panicking a bit too much over nothing. Maine is no different than any other program out there, leaning on one goalie to do the bulk of the lifting with the others picking up time here and there...
 
Re: Maine Black Bears 2010 - 2011

BobF said:
Yeah! What's the deal with starting a goalie who keeps winning!!!! Let's start a goalie who loses so we know what goalie can win!:eek:

It was so much better when we had inconsistent Darling and Wilson who most nights was good for 4 against! That way we knew who to start:confused:!

Coach please start someone else to satisfy the nutcases! Do you people actually believe what you are writing? For the last 3 years we went from horrible to awful to mediocre. Now we're good, bordering on very good and you are still complaining!

I have no clue as to what it takes to make you all happy!:(

As for me I am just going to continue to enjoy the season, I guess ignorance is bliss, since I know so much less than the rest of you!
Click to expand...
Do YOU REALLY THINK that people here want to put in Ouellette to get some playing time want him and the TEAM to LOSE...come on get a grip sometime...nobody wants to LOSE....think about it for a minute PROFESSOR. And YES it is a nice start to the season and lets hope it continues this weekend and beyond.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top