Re: UMaine Hockey 2014-15: The Road from Alfond to Boston
I don't think Gendron would be happy with the results so far, but I don't think he'd go so far as to consider himself a failure as a head coach. There hasn't been enough time yet to rebuild the program. They aren't starting completely from scratch because Maine Hockey has a tradition and an aura about it that never went away. What was lacking towards the end of the last coaching regime was an assistant coach with charisma who could get quality recruits with character that have a drive to compete beyond their skill level and continue to improve and not give up. The margin of error is small, and I'm not saying the current players aren't competitive, but they don't have a cutthroat mentality needed to closeout and win the close games, shift after shift, period after period, game after game. Gendron can't magically produce character players when they weren't the kind of players that he selected to respond to his demands and the precision that he expects, nor can he teach talent. This is a process. The results aren't happening as fast as we hoped they would, but I still haven't lost faith in the coaching staff.
i do not put these losses on the team's will. I think they give it their all, but there ain't much all there.
UMass played rope a dope with maine last night... letting Maine keep the puck at the perimeter for 2 full periods... out shooting the opposition 28-6 or whatever it was means nothing if none of the shots are from in close or are quality shots.... or if the goalie is going to keep giving up softies shorthanded.
then once maine was gasses AGAIN, UMass comes alive..
the upsides I saw last night were that Maine tried putting the puck on net during the power plays, rather than pass pass pass...
odd things I saw... UMass shot the puck WAY after the whistle and was not called by Hansen (I think it was Scott) who called 2 misc.'s on Soares for much less eggregious late shots...
the UMass first goal was off sides... and Bernard usually errs on the side of caution and blows down legal plays... he misses a few last night... including the one at the end where Brown was NOT offsides, yet he blew the whistle...
and Voss had a bizzarre need to call 2 ticky tack calls to give Umass 2 5 on 3's each lasting over a minute??? bad bad bad
a HUGE slash on Teggler was overlooked, but a big slash on Shore was called (both behind the play).
Shore's line stood still on 2 UMass goals... someone needs to work with the forwards on D in their own end... they cannot just stand still, like the D does.
can anyone get a game tape of Union's D to see what they are doing? "writing the book on coaching" seems to only go so far, if the game does not happen around cones.
last, I think that the conditioning is suspect... Umass took it to a well-gassed Maine team, like everyone else seems to.
