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Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

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Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Patience my *ss! The "patience" thing has been preached for a decade now. Programs large and small don't take years upon years to turn things around.

Come on guys and gals......let's fill up "the Old Girl" and make it rock like it's 1999! Best college hockey atmosphere in the world!!!! Anyone got a barf bag?:rolleyes:
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Go Blue! But this is wearing thin. 0-8? On pace to set fewest goals scored record? Our next star recruit, Baron Thompson: 12 games, 31 PIM, 4 SOG, 1 suspension, ZERO points. Lets get a few over-agers, a few Europeans, and get this turned around.

In Red We Trust!
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

I just don't care anymore. I was seriously considering giving up my tickets for this season. The last few years I split them with someone, and they didn't want to this year. My wife was leaning towards keeping the tickets, so we did. I just don't care enough to want to drive from Bar Harbor to Orono to watch some really bad hockey. Compared to many of you, I'm a short timer: I've had my tickets since I finished grad school in 2004.
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

I just don't care anymore. I was seriously considering giving up my tickets for this season. The last few years I split them with someone, and they didn't want to this year. My wife was leaning towards keeping the tickets, so we did. I just don't care enough to want to drive from Bar Harbor to Orono to watch some really bad hockey. Compared to many of you, I'm a short timer: I've had my tickets since I finished grad school in 2004.

Don't worry, you could have had season tickets since the early 1980's, but if you don't renew you won't even get a phone call from the ticket office or athletic marketing.
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Patience? Going to take more than that. I see little improvement in any of the players and thats what gets me. Its the same thing Timmay had going, a team full of grinders.

Right. Name one player on this team who's better now than when he was a freshman. Merchant, maybe, and that's it.
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Patience my *ss! The "patience" thing has been preached for a decade now. Programs large and small don't take years upon years to turn things around.

Yeah. Bazin took Blaise McDonald's team, with Blaise McDonald's recruits, who won only five games the year before, and won 24 and made the NCAA tourney. Lowell? C'mon, it can't be harder to convince good players to come to Maine than it is to go to Union, or Quinnie, or Lowell ferchrissakes.

Well,maybe it is now, since those teams are good, but it couldn't have been 6-8 years ago. And yet, somehow they did it, and they made themselves into good teams. What's our excuse?
 
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Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Yeah. Bazin took Blaise McDonald's team, with Blaise McDonald's recruits, who won only five games the year before, and won 24 and made the NCAA tourney. Lowell? C'mon, it can't be harder to convince good players to come to Maine than it is to go to Union, or Quinnie, or Lowell ferchrissakes.

In fairness the team that won 5 games was all sophmores and freshman, the next team was full of juniors and sophmores because Blaise liked to have a winning team at least once every 4 years.
 
In fairness the team that won 5 games was all sophmores and freshman, the next team was full of juniors and sophmores because Blaise liked to have a winning team at least once every 4 years.

I floated that theory in 2003 and you should have seen the dirty looks I got from other fans. And I just threw it out there as an off-idea that you build a program by establishing for success every 4 years and then use that as the starting point... This is before under my previous understanding of sports mechanics. See below. Now, at the time I just threw it out there. I never fully believed it... But I also said that Blaise could have "evened" the classes in a couple of years if he felt it was important.

---

psychology is an intensely underrated factor in hockey. You got players doing cohesive work in 40-50 second sprint-like shifts. Where the want and desire to push the puck without clear reward is paramount.

Shawn Walsh was once in a life time as I believe Bazin is in this case. Winning in hockey is getting enough players with talent playing in a system where is trust.

I firmly believe that outside of generational talent everything else is too close. At this level it's all mentality. It's crazy to think and that's why getting a good coach is hard... You'll have to plow through assistant hires until you strike gold and that might take 10-20 years. The only other option is backing up the brinks truck.
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Yeah. Bazin took Blaise McDonald's team, with Blaise McDonald's recruits, who won only five games the year before, and won 24 and made the NCAA tourney. Lowell? C'mon, it can't be harder to convince good players to come to Maine than it is to go to Union, or Quinnie, or Lowell ferchrissakes.

Well,maybe it is now, since those teams are good, but it couldn't have been 6-8 years ago. And yet, somehow they did it, and they made themselves into good teams. What's our excuse?
Clearly it's a coaching issue. Because over the last 6-8 years, the last 2 excluded, there have been some talented kids on the team. You don't make it to the NHL without talent. Those players weren't utilized correctly. I'm sick of hearing that they didn't fit into the system bull chit. Then change the friggin system to maximize your talent. That's what a good coach would do. But as Maine has continued to suck more and more the less talent you attract. And here we are.
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Decades from now when the history of Maine hockey is written, I'm really starting to believe the Walsh years will be the outlier. He probably deserves more credit than he got.
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Shawn Walsh had a mentality that few people could match. His detractors will of course label him a "win-at-all costs" cheater......but the fact remains that he was an aggressive, magnetic, fully vested individual who lived and breathed hockey.....and he was the consummate promoter of his product who didn't depend on cutesy slogans like "Old Girl" to get people to come out and support his teams. Fans knew that he was in it to win......and win he did. It would be interesting to see how he would have handled the true internet age, social media and today's proliferation of new monied programs like Penn State, Arizona State, etc.
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

Decades from now when the history of Maine hockey is written, I'm really starting to believe the Walsh years will be the outlier. He probably deserves more credit than he got.

definitely the outlier. The entire University system is on its deathbed. Too large for an old (and getting older) state, underfunded by the state, and resources are spread too thin resulting in sub-par facilities. It's impossible to stop the death spiral when all you do is cut from each of the 7 campuses; they need to draw students from away to make up for declining numbers of Maine students and that requires adequate funding. They need to close two campuses, and the remaining small campuses need to focus on a niche area (and probably downsize). Put more money into UMaine so it can compete with other New England flagship universities.

This problem extends beyond UMS. Maine has a problem with spreading resources too thin. Really, any money spent on economic development outside of three metro areas is a waste. Maine needs to go big in Portland, Lewison, and Bangor. With the University system, Maine needs to go big in Orono.
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

The Women's and Men's basketball teams have a lot of potential when it comes to being perennial contenders for NCAA playoffs.

The Women are gearing up for another great season and return 97% of their point production from last season, and it appears as though the class coming in next year has a lot of potential as well.

Bob Walsh is a man with a vision, but the foundation for his vision is a passionate obsession with basketball that is quite similar to the drive Shawn Walsh had for hockey when he came to Maine.

Of course field hockey at Maine this fall was outstanding too, and Maine was snubbed by the NCAA by not being given an at large bid.

Football is having an off year, but Maine has quite a few NFL players that are receiving national attention from time to time, and oftentimes it's mentioned how they came from Maine —like Perillo on Sunday with GreenBay.

It's disheartening the kind of start the hockey team has had, because they really should have something more to show for their effort at the icebreaker tournament after winning both shootouts. For a team that supposedly can't score, beating both North Dakota and Michigan State in shootouts is quite the accomplishment.

I was at Sunday's hockey game. Not the way to start your first countable home game. Not sure what's taking so long with turning the program around, but right now I feel more optimistic about the basketball teams.

I'm glad the athletic department is streaming games online for free this year.
 
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Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

The entire State does everything half assed. Why would hockey be any different?
 
Re: Maine Hockey: Summer 2015 on the Stillwater

The entire State does everything half assed. Why would hockey be any different?

Yep. That's why both my kids have said they will never come back to Maine after college. And that's why after my youngest graduates high school in 3 more yrs I'm gone too. Vacationland is such an appropriate name for Maine because that's the only thing it's good for.
 
Yep. That's why both my kids have said they will never come back to Maine after college. And that's why after my youngest graduates high school in 3 more yrs I'm gone too. Vacationland is such an appropriate name for Maine because that's the only thing it's good for.

But you would be surprised how many people want to come back to vacationland after having spent time "out there". Traffic and overall congestion is getting to be obnoxious beyond the border. As long as there are few high paying jobs in Maine though I guess the flat landers will stay put.

Now back to Maine Hockey, key word ....patience
 
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