Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
This iteration of Maine "hockey" could be the worst since the arrival of Red.
And that's saying something.
And that's saying something.
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Maine Offseason 2020: We Stay Home But Swayman Leaves
- Thread starter AMC
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walrus
Wind up workin' in a gas station
Given up, no contract so Red has who cares attitude. He isn't getting another head coaching job in Orono or anywhere else. Retirement time.
He never had head coaching ability. He's right there with Semler. I will give him credit for bringing in goal tenders.
I thought Maine played really hard this weekend and the goaltending was much improved. They’ve been dealt a **** hand and did the best they could. With Tralmaks and Schmidt they might have even gotten a split. Mills needs to be held accountable for ****** Maine over so bad.
Ahh, the Gov’s fault the team sucks....New excuse I hadn’t heard before.
I guess I missed her behind the bench coaching and also working with Red on recruiting....
Why wasn’t Tralmaks and JSS skating this weekend???? Mills bench them?
NorthMike
Well-known member
Its just hockey and Mills had nothing to do with this years team capability. Its a lost season and nothing more than practice games. The players moral is in the tubes, across the ncaa. Red is snoozing and Im sure is so motivating. Heck the times ive heard him in an interview have been brutal to listen too, void of any enthusiasm, more so than last year. Not that he ever was full of enthusiasm.
And dont say its because theres no home games.
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Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
Red was never a head coach. The proof is in the pudding. All he's ever done is drawn around two million in taxpayer dollars without producing Jack S***.
He ought to be ashamed of himself. He's the worst Welfare Queen that Maine has ever endured.
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Quotes from Gendron in BDN. “We didn’t generate much after the second goal,” Gendron said.
He said his team was sloppy because of the players’ fatigue.
“When you’re tired, one of the things that goes is your decision-making,” Gendron said.
https://bangordailynews.com/2021/02...e-overcomes-ostmans-56-saves-to-blank-umaine/
He said his team was sloppy because of the players’ fatigue.
“When you’re tired, one of the things that goes is your decision-making,” Gendron said.
https://bangordailynews.com/2021/02...e-overcomes-ostmans-56-saves-to-blank-umaine/
Tough to simulate game action in practice? That's probably what he meant. Didn't have their "game legs"...if you want to buy that.
AIC coach is an incredible story. Turned an absolute laughing stock of a program into an Atlantic Hockey powerhouse. I don't think he'd take Maine job though. He was mentioned as a candidate for UVM. That guy has big things headed his way.
AIC coach is an incredible story. Turned an absolute laughing stock of a program into an Atlantic Hockey powerhouse. I don't think he'd take Maine job though. He was mentioned as a candidate for UVM. That guy has big things headed his way.
Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
Could well be that the AIC coach would have zero interest in taking over the Maine dumpster-fire in the first place.
Red has p***ed-away whatever historical currency Maine has ever had.
This program has become a total re-build. I don't see why any up-and-comer would want the gig.
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uncle_cliff
Member
Spot on. The AD should be ashamed as well for having extended the contract of Maine's version of Barney Rubble.
Maine finished in eighth Timmy's final year. No doubt he was great with Shawn's players/recruits but it went downhill afterwards. Maine is certainly no worse off with Red and I think one could reasonably argue things are improved. It seems like there is something personal between you and Red?
NorthMike
Well-known member
Prior AD and interim AD
Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
Seriously..?
Timmy wasn't Scotty Bowman (and I'm on-record saying that sort of thing hundreds of times toward the end of Whitehead's tenure) but you must be out of your mind if you don't recognize how much better TW recruited.
TW brought in NHL talent. Some of them are still there. If there's a single Red recruit who made that grade, I'm not aware of it.
If anyone knows and loves Red, it has to be you. You've been a hockey-denier for several years now.
Brady Keeper? Swayman certainly will as well.
To be honest though who cares what they do after they leave Maine? If you look at Timmy’s last eight recruiting classes between 2005 and 2012 he had one really good class and one decent class. If you have that sort of stretch you’re not going to be successful.
I don’t really know how you can claim Red is a horrible recruiter and horrible coach yet somehow Maine was qualified for the NCAA tourney last year in what turned out to be a great year for hockey east. Don’t forget that two teams that most people would have had as NCAA locks before the season finished decent and eighth in the league.
There is no doubt if Maine wants to get better they need to upgrade their forwards. Ideally every year you would be bringing in more talent than you lose. This year’s class gives me hope but it will obviously take more than that to get back to where we want to be.
I certainly don't claim to be an expert on Whitehead, or anything from before when I started going to Maine, which will be five years ago this fall. Not exactly a long body of work on my part. Therefore, you should take my analysis with a grain of salt.
From what Ive been able to gather, Whitehead's problem seemed to be rounding out his roster, or finding depth. The top tier players from the Tim era always seemed to be there, that Maine would have a dominant first line and top pair, and maybe a few other good players as well, but the bottom six forwards and bottom pair D were just always awful. Flynn, Abbott, Nyquist, Shore, Hutton, Bishop, Darling, etc, and that's just up front and in goal, not even mentioning defense which I know less about.
Red has generally been the opposite, I think. He's got a lot of OK players, but very few really stand out. Maine has seemed to be filled with a bunch of third liners and second pairing defensemen, which isn't really going to win you a ton, especially in a top conference like Hockey East.
Though Red has never really recruited any true standout stars other than Swayman, certainly none up front, I do think he brought in some solid players. Fossier was a 100 career point player, and Tralmaks probably will be too. Pearson likely would have been if he stayed for his senior season. A step down would be to guys like Dawe, Vesey, Brown, and Byron, and Byron might be closer to the top tier. All of these players were solid contributors and would have stuck on nearly any team in the nation; the problem was that at Maine, they were all expected to be the very top guys, while they were probably all better suited as second or third liners on a true contender. On the back end, obviously Keeper was the cream of the crop, having already made it to the NHL and was easily Maine's best D while he was here. Other solid guys I can think of were Hamilton, Schurhamer, Michel, and Sirota. But again, as with up front, while all those players I think could likely make the team on a national contender, would any of them be on the first pair? Probably not, *maybe* Keeper at best, but even then I doubt it. In net we had Swayman, enough said, and Ostman and Thiessen both show flashes of potential but also look very porous at times.
My overarching point on recruiting is that I think Red has done a decent job at finding collegiate level talent, its just that the players he envisions being top performers are in reality better suited as middle or bottom of the roster players on a true contender. I think there were very few players that didn't belong on a college roster, but there were even less (i.e, basically 0) that could be considered top-flight talent.
Red is far worse at the "Xs and Os, behind the bench" element of coaching in my view. His system is outdated and clunky, relies on dumping and chasing, and can't really seem to effectively set up and relies way too much on transition to generate offense. That doesn't even mention the discipline, which has been horrible as long as Ive watched the team and is a direct reflection of coaching. I think he's a very below average, at best, coach in this regard.
As far as the state of the program, Maine losing some of their historical luster was inevitable the farther away you got from the Walsh era, unless you were able to return to competing for national championships under your new coach, which they obviously have not. How much Red impacted this is up for debate, but their "shine" decreasing was nearly inevitable regardless of who the coach was just because of the element of time.
Im sorry for such a long winded post, but I figured Id offer my analysis, as there isn't much else to talk about lately with this team seeing as they hardly play and the games feel worthless anyway.
From what Ive been able to gather, Whitehead's problem seemed to be rounding out his roster, or finding depth. The top tier players from the Tim era always seemed to be there, that Maine would have a dominant first line and top pair, and maybe a few other good players as well, but the bottom six forwards and bottom pair D were just always awful. Flynn, Abbott, Nyquist, Shore, Hutton, Bishop, Darling, etc, and that's just up front and in goal, not even mentioning defense which I know less about.
Red has generally been the opposite, I think. He's got a lot of OK players, but very few really stand out. Maine has seemed to be filled with a bunch of third liners and second pairing defensemen, which isn't really going to win you a ton, especially in a top conference like Hockey East.
Though Red has never really recruited any true standout stars other than Swayman, certainly none up front, I do think he brought in some solid players. Fossier was a 100 career point player, and Tralmaks probably will be too. Pearson likely would have been if he stayed for his senior season. A step down would be to guys like Dawe, Vesey, Brown, and Byron, and Byron might be closer to the top tier. All of these players were solid contributors and would have stuck on nearly any team in the nation; the problem was that at Maine, they were all expected to be the very top guys, while they were probably all better suited as second or third liners on a true contender. On the back end, obviously Keeper was the cream of the crop, having already made it to the NHL and was easily Maine's best D while he was here. Other solid guys I can think of were Hamilton, Schurhamer, Michel, and Sirota. But again, as with up front, while all those players I think could likely make the team on a national contender, would any of them be on the first pair? Probably not, *maybe* Keeper at best, but even then I doubt it. In net we had Swayman, enough said, and Ostman and Thiessen both show flashes of potential but also look very porous at times.
My overarching point on recruiting is that I think Red has done a decent job at finding collegiate level talent, its just that the players he envisions being top performers are in reality better suited as middle or bottom of the roster players on a true contender. I think there were very few players that didn't belong on a college roster, but there were even less (i.e, basically 0) that could be considered top-flight talent.
Red is far worse at the "Xs and Os, behind the bench" element of coaching in my view. His system is outdated and clunky, relies on dumping and chasing, and can't really seem to effectively set up and relies way too much on transition to generate offense. That doesn't even mention the discipline, which has been horrible as long as Ive watched the team and is a direct reflection of coaching. I think he's a very below average, at best, coach in this regard.
As far as the state of the program, Maine losing some of their historical luster was inevitable the farther away you got from the Walsh era, unless you were able to return to competing for national championships under your new coach, which they obviously have not. How much Red impacted this is up for debate, but their "shine" decreasing was nearly inevitable regardless of who the coach was just because of the element of time.
Im sorry for such a long winded post, but I figured Id offer my analysis, as there isn't much else to talk about lately with this team seeing as they hardly play and the games feel worthless anyway.
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