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

[Orono1993]

I hate to say this, but is Barr and co actually not good at developing players? Harrison Scott had a 29% jump and w an ice time bump, but besides that and I guess Holt, has anyone really produced more from one yr to the next? Def lots of regression

 

[walrus]

I wonder if Asst coaching changes has been an issue?

 

[tony potter]

That is a bit of a stretch. He went to the net and tapped in one of the many juicy rebounds Muselik left. Let’s not say he was the best offensive player last night. I felt Marques was. I also liked how Gerrior played.

The thing that bugs me is we played a goalie that left SO many rebounds there in front and Maine still struggled to score. Guys like Freel should be the king of those rebounds. Guys like Scott, Komarov, Fowler, Pichette all should be driving net hard looking to pounce on those. Because those ones aren’t out there for their playmaking set ups, using creativity. They aren’t out there for pure sniping and high skill snap wristers. So you all talk about recruits aren’t good enough. Why is it you all don’t point to your upperclassmen and expect more? I think it is just lazy to say it is recruiting because you don’t want to put the effort into thinking… like it is tough to do.

For me, the juniors and seniors are letting this team down. I actually think we need more of what this freshman class brings not the other way around. If your top players are freshman it should tell a normal person the top classes aren’t holding their own.

But not this fan base. No we have to blame recruiting and discuss rebuilding through recruiting.

The answer is more like this class and hope our juniors are better as seniors. And our sophomores are better as juniors.

The answer is another solid recruiting class and maybe transfer portal replacement of some current juniors and sophomores that will be seniors and juniors next year.

Oh yeah, and get Rousseau some time so he can have a legit chance at top duties next year. Boija’s glove side has regressed and isn’t where it needs to be for a D1 starting goalie. Spotting the other team a goal or two each game now. It’s like when Ostman went bad.

 

[tony potter]

yeah but coach was proud of thier effort all weekend... seriously you never even won a game...

 

[ticapnews]

yeah but coach was proud of thier effort all weekend... seriously you never even won a game...

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

 

[Sparkee]

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

It was below average. Ending was predictable. Not one you want to watch again.

 

[Sparkee]

I wonder if Asst coaching changes has been an issue?

Let’s use some reasoning to determine. First, Soltys contributions primarily was on recruiting and bringing in pieces. He was not the only ice heavy day-to-day coach. O’Connor is similar in that his primary duty is on recruiting and not on day-to-day on ice training. And one would argue his recruiting hasn’t even shown up yet at Maine. So right there we have narrowed your hypothesis to did Maine’s problems come from the trade between Fortier and Bennett.

Fortier was by all accounts a jolly guy that had a joking nature with the players. A solid player’s coach that was a tad out of shape but did coach the offensive power play unit and the forwards on the ice. However, he really didn’t have any NCAA division 1 coaching experience. His experience came from coaching in juniors where he bounced around a lot and had limited success. Never a long stand as a head coach for any length of time.

Bennett on the other hand has as much NCAA D1 coaching experience as you can get and still be an assistant coach. He has a NCAA championship as a head coach on his resume over his 13 years as head coach of Union. He won the Coach Of The Year award for all of NCAA hockey once as well. He was part of and trained in a solid coaching fraternity under Nate Leahman. He is a former all American and Hobey Baker finalist as a player. He had a 10 year minor professional career.

In my mind, there should be no way you can consider it anything less than an upgrade in going from Fortier to Bennett. Now, I liked Fortier and thought he was a fun guy to listen to on coach’s shows. And I’m sure the boys loved him. But there is no comparison between the two in terms of accolades and experiences. I think the impact of Bennett on the program will take time. But it should pay dividends in developing these incoming young guys.

I would say it’s more appropriate to revisit this conversation in a few years once we get to see how player development looks like for players he has had a chance to work with for multiple seasons. Right now the upperclassmen are not producing and are the issue. Those players have had multiple seasons under Fortier and only one under Bennett. So to me, their lack of development is more on Fortier and Barr than on Bennett and Barr.

So, no… I don’t think this has anything to do with the assistant coaching change. If anything, the change will likely bring positive change over time.

So to summarize… it isn’t recruiting, it isn’t spending money on the new arena, it isn’t the change from Fortier to Bennett.

You will run out of hairbrained things to blame this on.

Keep it simple… it is weak upperclassmen combined with substandard goaltending. We can blame Barr for not developing those upperclassmen and that is fair. We can blame Barr for insisting on riding Boija even though he has weak glove side and poor fundamental skating and positioning. We can blame Boija for regressing. We can blame Barr for not getting Rousseau more time in net. We can blame Barr for not putting in at home defensemen in favor of puck lugging offensive types that turn the puck over and can’t clear their own zone when release valve is needed. We can blame lack of discipline in taking dumb penalties at the wrong time. We can blame a general lack of heart and resilience needed at the end of games to either close games out, or come back and tie. Instead we seem to just hang on barely or fold like cheap tent. We can blame lack of solid leadership from captains to instill this killer mentality.

Those are what you should be questioning, not these hairbrained things like recruiting, too much money spent on arena, got a new and better assistant that could be the problem, etc…

Why can’t you seem to focus on the glaring weaknesses? It is like the boat is sinking and we are taking on water and there are multiple holes the water is pouring in through. And you will say “see if we had a better engine we could have gotten home before sinking”.

 

[ticapnews]

I blame Canada.

 

[UncleRay]

Cheaters.