Maine Offseason 2020: We Stay Home But Swayman Leaves

[walrus]

Now back to your regular scheduled programming
"
We are not always providing the resources necessary to be successful. It’s easy to point a finger at one person and say they are the problem. Just turning over a position doesn’t always help if your fundamentals are not solid. We’ve asked coach Gendron to be preparing the team for next year. We want to be able to compete,” says Ralph, “We’re also not going to make excuses. We needed to be better than 3-11-2. I don’t want to downplay that. We want to win in hockey "

Sounds like the AD is throwing maine hockey into the Stillwater

 

[NorthMike]

Bdn
“We expect Coach Gendron to do everything necessary to prepare our team to compete next year,” UMaine athletic director Ken Ralph said on Wednesday. “There is no [contract] extension at this time.”

“UMaine Athletics will not be commenting publicly about personnel issues until we have items finalized,” Ralph said.

 

[Drew S.]

Bdn
“We expect Coach Gendron to do everything necessary to prepare our team to compete next year,” UMaine athletic director Ken Ralph said on Wednesday. “There is no [contract] extension at this time.”

“UMaine Athletics will not be commenting publicly about personnel issues until we have items finalized,” Ralph said.

You won’t see a more embarrassing statement than that.

 

[amkirby10]

The quotes out of the ADs office are definitely wishy-washy and not encouraging. However, in some other news, Eduards Tralmaks has signed a contract with the Boston Bruins organization. He is expected to debut in Providence sometime next week.

 

[rw1733]

UMass Lowell defeats BC 6-5 in two overtimes.

 

[AMC]

Now back to your regular scheduled programming
"
We are not always providing the resources necessary to be successful. It’s easy to point a finger at one person and say they are the problem. Just turning over a position doesn’t always help if your fundamentals are not solid. We’ve asked coach Gendron to be preparing the team for next year. We want to be able to compete,” says Ralph, “We’re also not going to make excuses. We needed to be better than 3-11-2. I don’t want to downplay that. We want to win in hockey "

Sounds like the AD is throwing maine hockey into the Stillwater

You all laugh when I say Maine should drop to Division II. This athletic department couldn't even handle that.

 

[umhockey91]

UMass Lowell defeats BC 6-5 in two overtimes.

Good.

 

[Fishman'81]

The article is in the Newsletter. Can't seem to link it. Here it is. Ryan McLaughlin Sports Chowda reply.

Fire Whitehead.

Fire Blodgett.

Fire Woodward.

Those are simple but hot takes University of Maine sports fans frequently bombarded comment sections with in the early part of the 2010's.

Fast-forward to March of 2021. New leadership is again needed in the UMaine men's hockey program.

So I ask Black Bear Nation, why are we making excuses for Red Gendron?

Fans can't be OK with losses continuing to pile up, the Black Bears struggling to score goals, and no appearances in the Hockey East semifinals or NCAA Tournament since 2012.

Athletic administrator Ken Ralph isn't saying too much about the coaching situation, but the BDN's Larry Mahoney reported last week Gendron's future is in doubt while WVII reported that a source expects Gendron to be back behind the UMaine bench in the fall.

Woodward and Blodgett deserved the criticism from fans as they endured one losing season after another guiding the UMaine men's and women's hoop teams, respectively. Richard Barron, who now coaches the men's team, ignited the rebuild of the women's hoop program now under the guidance of Amy Vachon.

We all know about Whitehead. He had the unfortunate luck of replacing the late, legendary Shawn Walsh. You could argue Whitehead's 2002 and 2004 UMaine teams could've won national championships if not for bad calls in the respective title games.

As the NCAA Tournament run stopped, fans grew weary of Whitehead's "nice guy" attitude even though he was a good X's and O's coach who brought in some talented players including Spencer Abbott, Brian Flynn, Devin Shore and Scott Darling.

Even as Whitehead's 2012 team made a run to the NCAA Tournament, he continued to deal with unfair criticism from fans. He was bounced a year later following a first-round exit from the Hockey East playoffs, and in stepped Gendron.

Every year as the losses mounted, it was always "wait until he gets his recruits. The best Gendron recruit was Jeremy Swayman, and it wasn't even close. You take Swayman off the 2019-20 team, and that Black Bear team is probably an 8th or 9th place team.

Gendron is a good man who always called me back within 5 minutes whenever I needed something from him. He always made it a point to talk to fans prior to home games and to be present at community events. But it's time for UMaine fans to stop making excuses for him and to think about the future.

Excuses only buy you more and more losses and that's not what UMaine fans want, especially as needed upgrades come to Alfond Arena in the coming years.

Yup. All there really is to say at this point.

 

[Fishman'81]

You all laugh when I say Maine should drop to Division II. This athletic department couldn't even handle that.

D-2 barely exists. Teats on a ping-pong ball, as far as hockey goes...

D-3 would work for Maine right now, though.

 

[Fishman'81]

I get recognized all over Maine, you never forget a pretty face

And how is Goldie Hawn a B list actress? I can tell Chuck wasn't going thru puberty when Laugh In was on.

Chuckles was probably trolling his neighborhood back when he only had two tin cans connected by a wire.

He's only here via schadenfreude, as per usual. If UHN hadn't been eliminated already, he'd be beating his old wizened chest on their thread.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Chuckles was probably trolling his neighborhood back when he only had two tin cans connected by a wire.

He's only here via schadenfreude, as per usual. If UHN hadn't been eliminated already, he'd be beating his old wizened chest on their thread.

Not trolling. Commiserating. I think most of the adults on the forum can tell the difference ...

 

[Fishman'81]

Not trolling. Commiserating. I think most of the adults on the forum can tell the difference ...

Oh my goodness, I'm injured!

Chuck, you have a long history of this s***.

Please.

 

[walrus]

Chuckles was probably trolling his neighborhood back when he only had two tin cans connected by a wire.

He's only here via schadenfreude, as per usual. If UHN hadn't been eliminated already, he'd be beating his old wizened chest on their thread.

Do yourself a favor put Chuck on ignore and you won't get your feelings hurt every time he posts.

 

[umhockey91]

Ken Ralph is gonna hate committing one way or the other by June 30th knowing that the info will be publicly available through the freedom of information act for public universities.

 

[Sean Pickett]

Someone needs to do an analysis of institutions who decided to hire a staff made up primarily of former players and how they have done over the years.

I've just completed phase one of researching and compiling the cumulative coaching records for every head coach of all 61 current (plus 11 defunct) DI programs since WWII. I only included coaches who coached for two or more full seasons at a school consecutively. There were a total of 316 coaches who filled 382 positions over that time. Of those 316 coaches 108 did so at their alma mater and 55 of have or had a winning record (William Turner, who I counted once, did two separate stints at AIC, both which were above 0.500). Of the current programs, there are 22 coaches at their alma mater with 13 having winning cumulative records.

Current Coaches
at alma mater: 13 of 22, 0.590 percent successful
others: 19 of 39, 0.487 percent successful
All Coaches
at alma mater: 55 of 108, 0.509 percent successful
others: 102 of 208, 0.490 percent successful

Sean

 

[walrus]

Ken Ralph is gonna hate committing one way or the other by June 30th knowing that the info will be publicly available through the freedom of information act for public universities.

If he is going to wait until June to let Red go, Maine hockey might as well go D3. Of course if he keeps Red they might as well go D3 also. Shit or get off the pot, make an announcement either way, NOW . If Red gets a one year deal, whatever but it needs to be official so recruits can do what they will.

 

[Wayuphere]

String along Red, discreet feeler to Monty.
wishful, I know...

 

[NorthMike]

Reds the ace in the hole, well not an ace.
Their doing a pursuit of targeted coach(s), quietly. If a deal cant be made they go with Red. Do another run at coaches next year when things are more normal.
Id say Red is good with a chance at another year if need be.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Last two posts, spot on, and would definitely explain the delay at this point.

Wally's last post is also a good take on the current impact on recruiting.

 

[Drew S.]

If he is going to wait until June to let Red go, Maine hockey might as well go D3. Of course if he keeps Red they might as well go D3 also. **** or get off the pot, make an announcement either way, NOW . If Red gets a one year deal, whatever but it needs to be official so recruits can do what they will.

Bang on. This whole thing is an embarrassment and if I was one of the players I wouldn’t be thrilled with his comments. Maine was in a completely different spot than all the other teams thanks to the incompetence of the school and governor which should be acknowledged by the AD.