UMaine 25-26: Marques My Word: Back to the Big Time

[Orono1993]

I vote against seeing Lowell in the playoffs.

4-0 after 2 OT games would be diabolical

 

[Orono1993]

It isn’t a terrible team, it just isn’t above average either. Which is kind of disappointing given how Maine was the last couple years. It is a rebuild year, and I’ll still cheer them on just the same.

They aren't getting better though, which is strange

 

[Orono1993]

@Sparkee or anyone else who plays close attention; does Poirier historically go on cold streaks like this?? What six games with 1 point? Saving grace- makes it more likely that Carolina keeps him here. Scholle and Russell are ok but seriously where tf are the other top 9 forwards

 

[Orono1993]

All that can really be said is that this team is weird af. And goaltending is a total disaster. Wouldn’t be surprised if somehow they get hot at the right time and win to the frozen four and wouldn’t be surprised if they end their season in the HE semis. Also I don’t like the tight lipped nonsense about Josh nadeau. No reason for it but the whole thing is sketch and scary imo

 

[Orono1993]

I thought the 2nd and 3rd goals were soft and Boija should have been pulled. It appears to be a lack of focus thing where he’s zoning out and not in position on a face off. This type of stuff.

I was happy with the way that James, Peluso, and Pichette played this weekend. They gave the team a good lift. Now, on other teams ice you would think they would have it rough because Lowell can put their top line out there against them. Only once did they seem to get pinned in their own end for a long stretch. Other than that it appeared as though they consistently outplayed the Lowell lines they were up against.

I’m happy they got two wins on the road. It was kind of sloppy tonight and overall not sure Maine demonstrated they are better than a middle of the pack hockey east team in a down year for hockey east. At this point it would be a successful season if they play tough down the stretch and even host the quarterfinals. That is likely the ceiling with this team.

The goaltending needs to get more consistent. The defense needs to stop turning the puck over. The upperclass forwards need to score regularly. The entire team needs to be more disciplined and not take stupid penalties. The effort level runs hot and cold and needs to be full 60 minutes. The coaching could be better as it was pretty obvious Boija gave up some softies and wasn’t on. Not sure what made them decide to not let Rousseau have any more games in a rotation. Also it appears Barr is favoring puck moving mistake prone defensemen over solid ones. Not sure why Motew hasn’t been given more time, he seems well suited for a defensive defensemen role. There is just a lot of things to work on and not enough time to improve all of it.

It isn’t a terrible team, it just isn’t above average either. Which is kind of disappointing given how Maine was the last couple years. It is a rebuild year, and I’ll still cheer them on just the same.

Strangest things for me (descending based on strangeness):

1. How much Barr LOVES playing Peterson (and Usereau too). I mean I like them a lot and their development potential. But Barr is a guy who opts out of getting backup goalies experience because “every game matters” (see Ostman, spring ‘24 and 3 goals against on 15 shots after not playing for months or even senior night I think)
2. Boija disaster
3. Poirier scoring drought
4. The persistence of the Scholle center experiment
5. Fowler getting slighted as a captain or assistant/associate
6. No forward progress remotely re: discipline, consistency, or cohesion
7. Pichette significantly outproducing Komarov
8. JN hush hush situation

 

[cinnamoroll]

@Sparkee or anyone else who plays close attention; does Poirier historically go on cold streaks like this?? What six games with 1 point? Saving grace- makes it more likely that Carolina keeps him here. Scholle and Russell are ok but seriously where tf are the other top 9 forwards

beyond goal scorers being notoriously streaky in general, the evidence from his QMJHL career supports it. big difference is usually he is playing more games over a few weeks than just 2 weekend games, so he has more opportunity to try and bust out of it in a higher scoring environment. but you don't just forget how to score. i'd think the canes would probably support another year of college regardless, but who knows.

 

[walrus]

Losing a point against Lowell sucks but one is better than 3. Nice to see James get some minutes and produce good results, that face off win to Usereau was classic. 6th in HE with games in hand. BU in 4th with losing record, Didn't bother looking at NPI as wins against cellar teams ain't helping that. Tell me how they lost to UNH who hasn't done shit since. For whatever reason I don't think Barr can get thru to this group.

 

[amkirby10]

Goofing around with the NPI machine on the CHN website. Change either one of the Colgate or Vermont losses, not even both, to a win, and Maine is 16th in NPI. Change them both and they're 14th. Add in just one, again not both, of the UNH losses, and Maine would be 9th, firmly in the picture. Get greedy and change all four to wins and they're #6.

Not trying to play the "what if, shoulda coulda woulda" game, but rather trying to illustrate the extent of the opportunities they've let slip away with all these winnable games they threw away with losses. All of which were at home, to boot. Frustrating to think about.

 

[Sparkee]

@Sparkee or anyone else who plays close attention; does Poirier historically go on cold streaks like this?? What six games with 1 point? Saving grace- makes it more likely that Carolina keeps him here. Scholle and Russell are ok but seriously where tf are the other top 9 forwards

I recall this happening to Bradley Nadeau his freshman year as well. If you watched Lowell’s penalty kill they had a forward out cheating on Poirier on the power play. More or less forcing the puck movement to the right side of the ice. They struggled to get him free for his patented one timer from the left face off dot. It went on all weekend and seemingly no adjustments were made to rotate Poirier around. Bazin had seen Maine before at Alfond, so can imagine enough film is out there for coaches to scheme against him.

At the same time it should only bother someone if he isn’t making an impact of the game. He was, essentially that draws a defender out on our power play, so it should have lead to more scoring chances for others. Additionally he had a very nice back check on a breakaway that likely saved a goal after Holt got burnt by this Lowell guy that intercepted a puck 6 feet off the ice up high and went in all alone on Boija… Poirier chased him down and saved it from being a goal. He had a few other good backchecks. A smaller and subtle thing was when a Lowell guy that the net front kept stabbing at Boija whe he had glove covering a puck in the crease… Poirier went in there like a little bulldog and moved him out with lots of little cross checks when he was on top of the guy. That willingness to protect his own goalie is nice to see as a lot of finesse forwards just watch and couldn’t be bothered to get dirty.

So while I find it odd that in a weekend where Maine scored 8 goals Poirier didn’t have a point… I’m not sure I would say he was invisible. He still played well on both ends of the ice sheet.

Also, the fact that Maine gave up a point last night is more about the goaltending being up and down. With a 3-1 lead and Boija having 4 periods this weekend of shutout hockey under his belt you don’t expect 2 straight soft goals. Yet it happened. That let Lowell gain momentum and get back into the game. I would worry more about that And the defense in a game where Maine had to score 6 goals to win in OT.

 

[tylerzx2002]

Goofing around with the NPI machine on the CHN website. Change either one of the Colgate or Vermont losses, not even both, to a win, and Maine is 16th in NPI. Change them both and they're 14th. Add in just one, again not both, of the UNH losses, and Maine would be 9th, firmly in the picture. Get greedy and change all four to wins and they're #6.

Not trying to play the "what if, shoulda coulda woulda" game, but rather trying to illustrate the extent of the opportunities they've let slip away with all these winnable games they threw away with losses. All of which were at home, to boot. Frustrating to think about.

Not that I'm completely disregarding the NPI but this team should be far more focused on repeating as Hockey East champs to have a viable shot to make the NCAA tourney at this point. With all the opportunities this team has squandered like you pointed out, it feels like a complete pipe dream to think they will get in as at-large team.

 

[tylerzx2002]

I recall this happening to Bradley Nadeau his freshman year as well. If you watched Lowell’s penalty kill they had a forward out cheating on Poirier on the power play. More or less forcing the puck movement to the right side of the ice. They struggled to get him free for his patented one timer from the left face off dot. It went on all weekend and seemingly no adjustments were made to rotate Poirier around. Bazin had seen Maine before at Alfond, so can imagine enough film is out there for coaches to scheme against him.

At the same time it should only bother someone if he isn’t making an impact of the game. He was, essentially that draws a defender out on our power play, so it should have lead to more scoring chances for others. Additionally he had a very nice back check on a breakaway that likely saved a goal after Holt got burnt by this Lowell guy that intercepted a puck 6 feet off the ice up high and went in all alone on Boija… Poirier chased him down and saved it from being a goal. He had a few other good backchecks. A smaller and subtle thing was when a Lowell guy that the net front kept stabbing at Boija whe he had glove covering a puck in the crease… Poirier went in there like a little bulldog and moved him out with lots of little cross checks when he was on top of the guy. That willingness to protect his own goalie is nice to see as a lot of finesse forwards just watch and couldn’t be bothered to get dirty.

So while I find it odd that in a weekend where Maine scored 8 goals Poirier didn’t have a point… I’m not sure I would say he was invisible. He still played well on both ends of the ice sheet.

Also, the fact that Maine gave up a point last night is more about the goaltending being up and down. With a 3-1 lead and Boija having 4 periods this weekend of shutout hockey under his belt you don’t expect 2 straight soft goals. Yet it happened. That let Lowell gain momentum and get back into the game. I would worry more about that And the defense in a game where Maine had to score 6 goals to win in OT.

It could be level of teams Maine has played since the calendar flipped but JP is only averaging 2 SOG/gm, and 3 of those games he's had either 1 or 0 SOG. That's a big drop off compared to the 4.44 SOG/gm he averaged in the 18 games before the break. Poirier went off for 2 goals and 1 assist in the last game against UML in Portland, so Bazin trying to make him a non-factor was good coaching. Being on the road and not having last change to free him up is also giving these coaches a chance to hyper-focus on him with their best defensive looks too. Like you mentioned above he is still contributing in other areas, so less reason for concern from me. If he was mercurial and just floating around that'd be a different story...

 

[BlackBearFan19]

To me it’s less about this teams record and more about how they’ve looked doing it. They’re 6-2-1 since the UNH sweep on home ice with the losses being to what seems to be a great PC team (they’ve swept Maine BC and BU the past 3 weekends.) However, I don’t think they’ve really looked good in any of those games outside of the Denver weekend.

They’ve let this season slip away from what should have been a slam dunk tourney bid with the schedule they had.