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The Barr Has Been Raised at UMaine

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Drew S. said:
An ‘absolutely horrible performance’ is like porn, you know it when you see it. Talking about this obviously upsets other Maine fans so there is no sense in me elaborating. I’ve found this year discouraging and in my opinion Maine has played way below the level they’re capable of. Hopefully with a different group of players we see a better effort level.
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There were always going to be games like this, Drew. Returning players mostly brought in by the former coach, forced to play a new system that's foreign to them, and starting pretty much from scratch, all the while knowing most of them only have a year or two to put up with this before they move on. And none with any realistic high-level pro ambitions to keep them on the straight and narrow. As I've pointed out multiple times before, this is exactly what happened in Barr's first year at UMass, so we've all seen this movie before. A combination of undertalented AND undermotivated players in the mix is never gonna end well competitively. It takes a Lombardi-level motivator to turn a bunch of also-rans into future Hall of Famers, and those guys virtually had no viable options back then. If a few more kids leave for paying jobs in the 'Coast between now and next Fall, UMaine's improvement might arrive more quickly. And if not ... you gotta be patient.
 
Chuck Murray said:
There were always going to be games like this, Drew. Returning players mostly brought in by the former coach, forced to play a new system that's foreign to them, and starting pretty much from scratch, all the while knowing most of them only have a year or two to put up with this before they move on. And none with any realistic high-level pro ambitions to keep them on the straight and narrow. As I've pointed out multiple times before, this is exactly what happened in Barr's first year at UMass, so we've all seen this movie before. A combination of undertalented AND undermotivated players in the mix is never gonna end well competitively. It takes a Lombardi-level motivator to turn a bunch of also-rans into future Hall of Famers, and those guys virtually had no viable options back then. If a few more kids leave for paying jobs in the 'Coast between now and next Fall, UMaine's improvement might arrive more quickly. And if not ... you gotta be patient.
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The Umass comparison just doesn’t work. They had been rock bottom for three or four straight years, didn’t have much talent, and had AWFUL goaltending. Maine is a couple years removed from being an NCAA team and even last year with everything that went against them managed to finish eighth. The much bigger thing is that Umass had Cale Makar lined up and Maine doesn’t have anyone close to that.
 
umhockey91 said:
I've found the last decade plus discouraging.....but now we have hope. Sometimes hope is all you have to hang on to. I like the direction that Barr & Co. are going in recruiting wise. I think that we will finally start seeing some decent D-men and forwards that can actually put the puck in the net(!!!). The crop of committed recruits from the BCHL look impressive.
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I hear you on wishing we could go back in time. I think for me the toughest years we’re back in 2008 and 2009 when Maine went from being in the frozen four to finishing second bottom and third bottom.

All of College hockey and hockey east has changed so much for the worse in the last 20 years that even if Maine is good again I’m not sure it will ever be enjoyable as it was at one time. There is way too much parity and there just isn’t the excitement and inteeet there used to be. Look at how empty the garden has been for the bean pot and hockey east championships in recent times.

I think the expectations for Barr are a little unreasonable. I honestly would be thrilled if he could get Maine consistently up to 4th thru 7th in the league. You mention the talent coming in, but is Josh Nadeau any better than Adam Dawe? Is Trudeau any better than JSS? Hopefully they will be but if they’re not I wouldn’t be shocked. Barr definitely has some good dmen lined up but I’m not sold he has enough talent up front.
 
Drew S. said:
I hear you on wishing we could go back in time. I think for me the toughest years we’re back in 2008 and 2009 when Maine went from being in the frozen four to finishing second bottom and third bottom.

All of College hockey and hockey east has changed so much for the worse in the last 20 years that even if Maine is good again I’m not sure it will ever be enjoyable as it was at one time. There is way too much parity and there just isn’t the excitement and inteeet there used to be. Look at how empty the garden has been for the bean pot and hockey east championships in recent times.

I think the expectations for Barr are a little unreasonable. I honestly would be thrilled if he could get Maine consistently up to 4th thru 7th in the league. You mention the talent coming in, but is Josh Nadeau any better than Adam Dawe? Is Trudeau any better than JSS? Hopefully they will be but if they’re not I wouldn’t be shocked. Barr definitely has some good dmen lined up but I’m not sold he has enough talent up front.
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Dawe and JSS have combined for 11 points. Those two guys have proved unwilling to change their play style and seem to have lost their game. I hope they find it cause they were really fun to watch their sophomore year. I have zero doubt that Trudeau and Nadeau will provide more output. I expect Pabich and Kiecker-Olsen to be improvements from them at least output wise. The recruiting class coming in next year is probably the deepest in a decade and we should be excited about it.

As for last years team being “eighth” and the previous year being a tournament team, last year was a fluke eighth due to the power index and the year before that team wins 10 games without swayman. Things were not going well before, no matter how much we loved Red. Everyone wanted it to work out with him and it didn’t. Ragging on and rooting for the new guy to fail is no way to memorialize Red. Truly I think this team is an improvement from last year, regardless of the record. They’re not letting up 50+ shots a night. They’re tough to watch offensively but help is on the way, I can assure you, watch some highlights of the Penticton vees, every goal scored has a Maine commit involved.
 
Maine hasn’t been to the Garden in ten years no body is buying your insanity that they havent been rock bottom for 3-4 years like Umass was. Pass the bong dude
 
Drew S. said:
The Umass comparison just doesn’t work. They had been rock bottom for three or four straight years, didn’t have much talent, and had AWFUL goaltending. Maine is a couple years removed from being an NCAA team and even last year with everything that went against them managed to finish eighth. The much bigger thing is that Umass had Cale Makar lined up and Maine doesn’t have anyone close to that.
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A "couple" of years..?

Aside from the brief and semi-miraculous Swayman Era, Maine has sucked donkey dick ever since Red took over.

Pass me what you're smoking, grasshopper.
 
Just found "Remembering Coach Shawn Walsh" on Youtube, and by accident.

You all have likely known about it for a while, but go see it if you haven't.

It was a first for me, and boy oh boy did it bring back some wonderful memories.
 
Matthew Theissen is absent from the lines sheet, which only lists two goaltenders. Androlewicz gets the start.
 
All you who criticize maines game videos, lowells is even more fuzzy on my tv. Low d tv from a rich school.
 
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Tough outing for Androlewicz. None of the goals particularly impressive on Lowell's part, and the skaters weren't playing that badly at all. Have to wonder if Ostman leads them out of the tunnel for the second.
 
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