Re: UMaine, 2011-2012 season thread, does anyone care anymore?
My two cents.
A coach has to do three things well:
Recruit
Get the players in great physical and mental condition.
Get the players to play hard.
Tim?
Recruiting? I would say we have three players, Abbott, Flynn and Mangene, that could play for BU or BC. Perhaps a few of the freshman? I haven't seen enough of them. Perhaps some of you think Diamond could? I'm not sure, but the bottom line is that we are at a sizable talent deficit.
Conditioning: I watch most of the games on tv or the internet; to me, we always look worn down by the third period. In addition, I think we are mentally soft. For instance, if we get down in the third period, we usually do not fight like mad; we usually cave and hang our goalie out to dry - like tonight. I cannot comment on the practices, as I have not attended any of them.
Playing hard: Though we have moments, we generally do not have, as the phrase goes, a lot of jam to our game. We are not nasty or a particularly difficult team to play against. We take a fair number of penalties, but I don't think anyone dreads playing us.
In the end, where does that leave us?
Right where we are. A middling team and, worse, a middling program.
That is why games like tonight's contest are brutal but perhaps necessary. We always want the team to win, but maybe enough bad losses will jolt the A/D, some big donors, and enough fans and alumni to push for a change.