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UMaine Hockey 23 - 24: The Barr Crawl to Glory!!!

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Drew S. said:
My biggest worry right now is how they are holding up physically. They’ve both taken a lot of big hits this year and over time those have to take a toll.

I think it’s hard for us to know what they are thinking. Obviously all of us would love to be in their shoes but it’s hard to know how Maine compares to life in NB or BC for them. One thing we have to worry about now that we didn’t have to in the past is them transferring. I don’t think they would leave for NIL but could see them leaving if they think they would be happier elsewhere.
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What possible inclination do you have that they would be “happier” somewhere else. I’m on the Facebook page which their family is pretty active on. Aunts/family have indicated that they’re loving it and the family loves being so close.

In my time on this forum, I’ve realized that whatever Drew says, the opposite is likely true. He’s been Barr’s biggest naysayer and is probably deluded enough to think that they’d be having this level of success if he wasn’t the coach.
 
umhockey91 said:
Some of you guys are such a bunch of Debbie Downers.....christ it's sickening. You're never happy!

I hope that Maine keeps winning so USCHO is forced to cover them more....it has sucked so far! Couldn't even include them in the recap of last night's games involving ranked teams. Pfft.
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Aside from Drew's blatant concern trolling about guys leaving, I think everything else people have mentioned is at least realistic, re injuries and/or fatigue. But obviously everyone is satisfied, its impossible not to be and more right now.

I've thought for a while, re Nadeaus, that we would have Bradly for 2 years and Josh for as many as 4. It's possible they move on together but I think with draft pedigree, as well as younger and bigger physically, that Brad will be out of Orono before Josh.
 
NorthMike said:
This is true have noticed the same. Also Bradley needs more strength and size yet, he is fairly easy to knock off the puck, when they hem him in anyway, and is out muscled on the boards. Id say he could be three years in total before the next step.
Imo at this point Josh is the better all around player of the two. He is shifty like Breen. Id say Josh could be here all four years or at least three due to his size. Can only imagine how awesome he would be in three or four years playing college hockey.

I dont know why they would transfer, I have no worries about that as long as coach stays on.
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For the record, I don’t think they want to transfer or think they should want to transfer, it’s more that they have an option that players in the past haven’t. Hopefully they will stick around for a few more years after this one.
 
BlackBearFan19 said:
What possible inclination do you have that they would be “happier” somewhere else. I’m on the Facebook page which their family is pretty active on. Aunts/family have indicated that they’re loving it and the family loves being so close.
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No doubt about their family liking them playing in Orono. My point about Josh is he appears to be the better player right now and we have seen many undrafted guys leave early over the years whether they were ready or not. But I agree about enjoying them while they are here, sure are fun to watch. As is the whole team really, like night and day from the Red teams. Just seeing them pass to a spot on a breakout and actually having someone get the puck makes me smile : )
 
We see the Nads for at least 3 years. They have lots of talent but are smallish and can use the physical and size improvements they'd get here. Like I said earlier, I think they'll likely fall short of their aspirations (national title) this year and will come back bigger and stronger next year on a mission. Its simple...they are rock stars, they have family nearby loving it and these two are competitors on a national level. There's a reason they won back to back titles at Penicton. and have been champions all the way through their careers. You think they dont want to earn the big one ? And would give transfer a thought? Only a dope would come up with that, or Chuckie, lol.

I got a chance to watch the Bentley game this morning....came away very impressed with Bentley's team. I think if they were in HE they might be anywhere from 5th to 7th. Very solid, physical and hard working bunch.
 
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I think Bradley is here for 2 seasons, and a big maybe for a third...but Josh I would figure here for 3 seasons...maybe not. But either way it's a good thing that talent is here, other recruits see what is happening @Maine....this start is a very welcome sight...and this is a team no one will want to play in mid/late March,(imo).
 
acs64 said:
We see the Nads for at least 3 years. They have lots of talent but are smallish and can use the physical and size improvements they'd get here. Like I said earlier, I think they'll likely fall short of their aspirations (national title) this year and will come back bigger and stronger next year on a mission. Its simple...they are rock stars, they have family nearby loving it and these two are competitors on a national level. There's a reason they won back to back titles at Penicton. and have been champions all the way through their careers. You think they dont want to earn the big one ? And would give transfer a thought? Only a dope would come up with that, or Chuckie, lol.
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Wow ... until this very moment, I'd never realized that I've taken up rent-free space in your big ol' noggin, larry.

I was the first on the block - as a dyed-in-the-wool UNH guy - to admit you guys hit home run with the Barr hire, and predicted exactly where you guys are in Hockey East right now at a time when most of you guys were hoping for slight improvement to the middle of the standings, whilst the clueless media and coaches' polls had you guys playing on the road in the prelims. Just the other day, I was cautioning some of you from being unduly worried about the changes in NCAA policy. And until I read your post, I was gonna weigh in first separately how silly it is for Drew (and others?) to worry about the Nadeaus leaving for greener D-1 pastures (I'll multi-task on that here now).

Now ... should Coach Barr leave for greener pastures, all bets would be off (beyond this season). I don't see that happening anytime soon, but this is a weird time in NCAA-land, as we UNH fans have learned in the last 24 hours when hometown Durham boy and Men's Soccer head coach Marc Hubbard surprised everyone I know with a decision to uproot his family and walk away from last year's 6 year contract extension to take a job at NC State - a school which offers Hubbard very little in terms of a positive history in the sport, but apparently a bigger paycheck in this sport which (as much as its grown in the US over the last generation) is still basically a non-revenue sport.

UNH soccer coach Marc Hubbard leaving for North Carolina State | College Sports | unionleader.com

So if a guy like Hubbard (hometown boy AND UNH alum) can leave his current long-term gig (which was likely very much a similar "lifetime contract" as Captain Turtleneck had for UNH Men's Hockey) ... there's no telling if/when Coach Barr might get professionally itchy and leave Orono for greener pastures at some point. But I don't see that happening while the Nadeaus are in the picture. His alma mater (RPI) seems to have run its once-proud Men's Hockey program into the ground (again), and took/is taking a lot of heat for not hiring Coach Barr the last time around, especially since current HC Dave Smith is having a second straight losing season now after signing a 5 year extension at the end of '22. If Smith cannot turn his program around in the next year-and-a-half, his extended deal will be down to two years, prime buy-out territory, and RPI may finally come to its senses and take a legitimate run at Barr?

So I figure UMaine has a three year window of Barr/Nadeaus (including this year) to make legitimate runs at real significant hardware. Given his history with these things, I'd be foolish to bet against UMaine advancing to the Frozen Four at least once (if not more) during the window. And giving Barr teams a shot in the Frozen Four has usually turned out pretty well for the likes of Union, PC and UMass.

No bait. No trolling (I save that for the corpulent assistant coach FOR-chay). Just cold objective analysis.

Enjoy the ride (while it lasts?) ...
 
Drew S. said:
My biggest worry right now is how they are holding up physically. They’ve both taken a lot of big hits this year and over time those have to take a toll.

I think it’s hard for us to know what they are thinking. Obviously all of us would love to be in their shoes but it’s hard to know how Maine compares to life in NB or BC for them. One thing we have to worry about now that we didn’t have to in the past is them transferring. I don’t think they would leave for NIL but could see them leaving if they think they would be happier elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I know it’s probably disappointing as Maine fans and for Nadeau not to be invited to the Canada WJC camp, but it may be better in the long run for him if he does have any nagging injuries. Barr did such a good job landing them though, you’ve had such a good year

I’d be pretty surprised to see them leave for NIL money. It’d have to be a pretty overwhelming offer especially going being 3 hours from home to even 7 hours to BC or BU is pretty brutal. Barr looks like he’s doing a great job and I don’t see the kind of NIL money being thrown around in hockey to make that much of a difference. My guess is Bradley stays for 2 and Josh stays for 3-4
 
Chuck Murray said:
Wow ... until this very moment, I'd never realized that I've taken up rent-free space in your big ol' noggin, larry.

I was the first on the block - as a dyed-in-the-wool UNH guy - to admit you guys hit home run with the Barr hire, and predicted exactly where you guys are in Hockey East right now at a time when most of you guys were hoping for slight improvement to the middle of the standings, whilst the clueless media and coaches' polls had you guys playing on the road in the prelims. Just the other day, I was cautioning some of you from being unduly worried about the changes in NCAA policy. And until I read your post, I was gonna weigh in first separately how silly it is for Drew (and others?) to worry about the Nadeaus leaving for greener D-1 pastures (I'll multi-task on that here now).

Now ... should Coach Barr leave for greener pastures, all bets would be off (beyond this season). I don't see that happening anytime soon, but this is a weird time in NCAA-land, as we UNH fans have learned in the last 24 hours when hometown Durham boy and Men's Soccer head coach Marc Hubbard surprised everyone I know with a decision to uproot his family and walk away from last year's 6 year contract extension to take a job at NC State - a school which offers Hubbard very little in terms of a positive history in the sport, but apparently a bigger paycheck in this sport which (as much as its grown in the US over the last generation) is still basically a non-revenue sport.

UNH soccer coach Marc Hubbard leaving for North Carolina State | College Sports | unionleader.com

So if a guy like Hubbard (hometown boy AND UNH alum) can leave his current long-term gig (which was likely very much a similar "lifetime contract" as Captain Turtleneck had for UNH Men's Hockey) ... there's no telling if/when Coach Barr might get professionally itchy and leave Orono for greener pastures at some point. But I don't see that happening while the Nadeaus are in the picture. His alma mater (RPI) seems to have run its once-proud Men's Hockey program into the ground (again), and took/is taking a lot of heat for not hiring Coach Barr the last time around, especially since current HC Dave Smith is having a second straight losing season now after signing a 5 year extension at the end of '22. If Smith cannot turn his program around in the next year-and-a-half, his extended deal will be down to two years, prime buy-out territory, and RPI may finally come to its senses and take a legitimate run at Barr?

So I figure UMaine has a three year window of Barr/Nadeaus (including this year) to make legitimate runs at real significant hardware. Given his history with these things, I'd be foolish to bet against UMaine advancing to the Frozen Four at least once (if not more) during the window. And giving Barr teams a shot in the Frozen Four has usually turned out pretty well for the likes of Union, PC and UMass.

No bait. No trolling (I save that for the corpulent assistant coach FOR-chay). Just cold objective analysis.

Enjoy the ride (while it lasts?) ...
Click to expand...

Pat yourself on the back (again) why dontchya Chuck. You dont think we realized the kind of potential success we were in store for? As a group we were necessarily reserved about how good we had the potential to be.....duh, that should be obvious. And your not in my head friend...I'd expect just such a similar thing eventually coming from you....your past history being as it, lol. On the bright side Chuck at least I didnt knight you with dope status (yet ;-))
 
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Not sure he was being recruited by Barr but.....Westbrook native Carter Amico...a 6-5 defenseman with the U-17 NDTP and coached by UMaine alum Greg Moore commits to BU. Bummer.
 
acs64 said:
Pat yourself on the back (again) why dontchya Chuck. You dont think we realized the kind of potential success we were in store for? As a group we were necessarily reserved about how good we had the potential to be.....duh, that should be obvious. And your not in my head friend...I'd expect just such a similar thing eventually coming from you....your past history being as it, lol. On the bright side Chuck at least I didnt knight you with dope status (yet ;-))
Click to expand...

Where would us poor, backwoods hicks be without our savior St. Chuckles??
 
umhockey91 said:
Not sure he was being recruited by Barr but.....Westbrook native Carter Amico...a 6-5 defenseman with the U-17 NDTP and coached by UMaine alum Greg Moore commits to BU. Bummer.
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Not surprising a southern Maine kid would go to a Boston school, westbrook is northern mass after all..
 
acs64 said:
Pat yourself on the back (again) why dontchya Chuck. You dont think we realized the kind of potential success we were in store for? As a group we were necessarily reserved about how good we had the potential to be.....duh, that should be obvious. And your not in my head friend...I'd expect just such a similar thing eventually coming from you....your past history being as it, lol. On the bright side Chuck at least I didnt knight you with dope status (yet ;-))
Click to expand...

Just reminding you some things have changed, my Downeast Floridian snowbird bud. Twenty-plus years along, Barr seems to be following the same road towards long-standing success as The Human Lightning Rod did back in the day, but without the theatrics and controversy of the late (great) Walshy. I can understand why some of you long-timers and/or old-timers have reservations about WIS frequenting your pages here, and I'm still not beyond taking a friendly barb or three at deserving targets - on either side of the Border Battle, as it turns out - not to mention the less-friendly barbs that get directed at the idiot in charge of the abomination in Storrs.

Just some friendly advice ... I don't bite, I'm here in peace 99.9% of the time, and if there's gonna be a change of approach, I'm guessing you folks are all wise and savvy enough to sniff out if/when that's coming. This is not some ten-year plan where I act one way, and then yank the carpet out from under the trusting ones in the ultimate "gotcha" ploy, which it feels like you and some others are guarding yourselves against.

Simple truth is, Hockey East and college hockey in general are both better places when UMaine and UNH are a "thing".

But if you must be long-term paranoid about my appearances here, I suppose this can be food for thought ... ;-)
 
10 demerits Chuck for overstating the obvious and overusing precious bandwidth. On our side of the border you are only allowed 100 words. Please be succinct in the future as you are a habitual offender, otherwise we will see to it that MS7 does get an extension in his contract ( oh wait thats now a good thing I suppose) <----59 words, see how it easy? Now back to sunning myself.
 
acs64 said:
10 demerits Chuck for overstating the obvious and overusing precious bandwidth. On our side of the border you are only allowed 100 words. Please be succinct in the future as you are a habitual offender, otherwise we will see to it that MS7 does get an extension in his contract ( oh wait thats now a good thing I suppose) <----59 words, see how it easy? Now back to sunning myself.
Click to expand...

LOL

How's that for succinct, mon ami?
 
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