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Maine Off Season 2011

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Re: Maine Off Season 2011

acs64 said:
Hmmm, musta been Walshys twin brother then who made it a point to ask me about a defensemen who wuz playing for Winslow High School at the time who had "near D1" potential.....seemed unusal to me at the time that he would even know about this kid, and even moreso that he would ask my opinion about him.
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I've heard from many people from the Walsh era that Shawn simply did not like kids from Maine.
 
Re: Maine Off Season 2011

acs64 said:
Hmmm, musta been Walshys twin brother then who made it a point to ask me about a defensemen who wuz playing for Winslow High School at the time who had "near D1" potential.....seemed unusal to me at the time that he would even know about this kid, and even moreso that he would ask my opinion about him.
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That's another thing that's changed since then - the complete acceptance of mediocrity by the Maine Principals Assoc. with respect to H.S. hockey. Now everybody is in class a, and they've watered down the competition by dividing the strong programs into different divisions. Remember when the better teams could schedule exhibitions against out-of-state teams and not get run out of the building? Yeah, those days are over, too.
 
Re: Maine Off Season 2011

Onion Man said:
I've heard from many people from the Walsh era that Shawn simply did not like kids from Maine.
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Not true. Though Weino was a special talent from NYA, you couldnt stop him from lavishing praise on this kid. The thing about Maine kids in general is that given the lower level of competition in the state compared to Mass and fewer kids to pick from, they werent as developed skill wise as out of state players. Thats just to be expected. Walshy wouldnt lower the level of skill on his teams simply to allow local kids to play their state university. Nothing wrong with that.
 
Re: Maine Off Season 2011

walrus said:
He didn't seem to like Barry Clukey
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My kid grewup playing against Clukey. He was a complete and utter head case with some talent. An absolute ticking time bomb on the ice. I had heard wierd family.
 
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Re: Maine Off Season 2011

Time to go :D I got chores to do....just happy to have ecat on ignore-infinity !! :D
 
Re: Maine Off Season 2011

carltonbarrett said:
Not suggesting that everyone wants to live in a concrete jungle like BU or NU, but a lot of recruits have stated that part of the allure of BC is the area in general. Lets face it, there's a million and one things to do in Boston, whether it's sporting events, concerts, museums, fine dining, shopping, Harvard Square, the North End, various conventions, etc, etc and even for a school like UNH, Boston is an easy day trip away. Been to Orono/Bangor many times, and unless you are an outdoorsman type, just not a lot going on off campus up that way.
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Before you write something like that, try to remember yourself and your biggest desires as a high school junior when you were trying to decide where to attend college. Were fine dining (large pizza with lots of pepperoni!) or shopping (using what for money?) or Harvard Square (what's that?) or museums (YGBSM!) or the North End (depends if her south end is cute too), or conventions(???) even in the same conversation as trying to get hot chicks (not a huge problem for most of these athletes no matter where they go to school) or the thrill of beating everybody in sight at hockey and maybe someday getting a chance to play in the NHL. THAT's what 17 year old hockey players think is important. You, as a 40 or 50 year old, might choose school in Boston for the exposure to cultural events, but kids don't think that way, especially serious hockey playing kids. The reality is that they have very little free time to do anything but go to school, study, work out, and play hockey and they want to WIN and get better at their sport, and right now Jerry York gives them the best chance to do that. Those other things are pretty much just distractions by comparison. If Maine had a coach like York who got the most out of his players and regularly was in the NCAA's, we wouldn't have any trouble getting our share of top players, no matter how limited the fine dining (actually, if you know where to go, it's not bad at all) is up here.
 
Re: Maine Off Season 2011

walrus said:
He didn't seem to like Barry Clukey
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Barry Clukey...
the answer to one of my favorite college hockey trivia questions... and the subject of a great "head case" anecdote...
who was the first Hockey East player to take a shoot out shot to break a tie?
Barry...

and the funny story...
At Northeastern, Walshy turns in his list of players who are gonna shoot, in order, he calls Barry over and tells him to go high blocker side on this goalie[or where to shoot, I cannot remember where]... barry tells Shawn to his face "I'm not taking ***** shooting advice from a GOALIE"

and that was about the end of Barry at Maine
 
Re: Maine Off Season 2011

MEbear said:
Before you write something like that, try to remember yourself and your biggest desires as a high school junior when you were trying to decide where to attend college. Were fine dining (large pizza with lots of pepperoni!) or shopping (using what for money?) or Harvard Square (what's that?) or museums (YGBSM!) or the North End (depends if her south end is cute too), or conventions(???) even in the same conversation as trying to get hot chicks (not a huge problem for most of these athletes no matter where they go to school) or the thrill of beating everybody in sight at hockey and maybe someday getting a chance to play in the NHL. THAT's what 17 year old hockey players think is important. You, as a 40 or 50 year old, might choose school in Boston for the exposure to cultural events, but kids don't think that way, especially serious hockey playing kids. The reality is that they have very little free time to do anything but go to school, study, work out, and play hockey and they want to WIN and get better at their sport, and right now Jerry York gives them the best chance to do that. Those other things are pretty much just distractions by comparison. If Maine had a coach like York who got the most out of his players and regularly was in the NCAA's, we wouldn't have any trouble getting our share of top players, no matter how limited the fine dining (actually, if you know where to go, it's not bad at all) is up here.
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yeah, but Grand Forks has all those things...

bottom line is that teh boys want to play for a specific coach in order to progress to the next level.

they all say why they went to this school or that, but it is all about who the coach is.
 
Re: Maine Off Season 2011

MEbear said:
Before you write something like that, try to remember yourself and your biggest desires as a high school junior when you were trying to decide where to attend college. Were fine dining (large pizza with lots of pepperoni!) or shopping (using what for money?) or Harvard Square (what's that?) or museums (YGBSM!) or the North End (depends if her south end is cute too), or conventions(???) even in the same conversation as trying to get hot chicks (not a huge problem for most of these athletes no matter where they go to school) or the thrill of beating everybody in sight at hockey and maybe someday getting a chance to play in the NHL. THAT's what 17 year old hockey players think is important. You, as a 40 or 50 year old, might choose school in Boston for the exposure to cultural events, but kids don't think that way, especially serious hockey playing kids. The reality is that they have very little free time to do anything but go to school, study, work out, and play hockey and they want to WIN and get better at their sport, and right now Jerry York gives them the best chance to do that. Those other things are pretty much just distractions by comparison. If Maine had a coach like York who got the most out of his players and regularly was in the NCAA's, we wouldn't have any trouble getting our share of top players, no matter how limited the fine dining (actually, if you know where to go, it's not bad at all) is up here.
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I hear what you're saying, but the players do go to Sox, Bruins games, etc, they do go clubbing and they do go into the big city for a good time. So while it may not be the biggest draw, I do think it attracts a lot of players.
 
Re: Maine Off Season 2011

amherstblackbear said:
Right. And how many teams are recruiting the BCHL these days?

Whatever the future of Maine hockey is, it's best to leave Walsh out of the discussion. The 80s aren't coming back. The question is whether it's reasonable even to aspire to more than what Maine has right now (given that program shakeups don't come with guarantees).

I kind of think it's at least worth a shot. What's the worst that could happen? Maine could keep missing the NCAAs, occasionally miss the HEA tournament, or flame out like this year? I think you see my point. :)
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Right. you make a change, and end up exactly where we are now. You stick with the staus quo, and end up exactly where we are now.

I vote for making the change. You never know, things might happen.

You would think that of anyone who might notice a goalie's weaknesses, it would be a former goalie.
 
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Re: Maine Off Season 2011

Onion Man said:
I'm not so sure about that. Walsh was never won who really looked at in-state kids
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he also did not take a lot of time looking at Mermaids or unicorns.

do you have ANY idea what the quality of hockey is in Maine compared to states where hockey is actually played?
I was at the alfond about 6 years ago watching Maine practice right before a game between select squirts. My kid played on our town's third best team, never mind a regional select team....
I was thinking abount sending him to Maine hockey camp, but I wanted to make sure that he would have fun and that the quality of skaters was close to him... I asked who the kids were who went to Maine camp... the parents told me that it was select players from around Maine--junior black bears... I was a little worried until I saw them play... I knew that my kid would walk around any of them, so i sent him to the camp... and besides one kid from Brewer, my kid was head and shoulders better than all of them.

Maine youth hockey season is half the length of others', and back when Walsh was there, there were about 6 programs in the whole state... of course he was not going to recruit out of Maine... but it was talent ONLY, not personality.
 
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