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

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grooverider said:
Funny tidbit, Standbrook lives in Florida in the same gated community my Grandparents are in and they know him from the past. I'm not sure how good is health is nowadays, but it would be a cool conversation to have.
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Whaddya wanna know about Grant ? Him and I have drinks regularly down here. In fact thats all you do in Florida. He can drink me under the table. JK
 
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acs64 said:
Whaddya wanna know about Grant ? Him and I have drinks regularly down here. In fact thats all you do in Florida. He can drink me under the table. JK
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That's awesome. You must be around Naples? And yes that's all I do when I visit them lol and eat
 
acs64 said:
Yeah, thats the one. Hey, Timmay was the perfect coach to get the program past the death of Walsh and moving forward again. But, given that the fan base was spoiled by all the success of Walsh over the years, they wanted something similar, surely not everything , but something. Tim had some "hangover" success on Walshys coat-tails but he seemed to me anyway to be relegated to middle of the pack. I always remember the look on his face when his team performed well, as if to say "wow, this program is really good, I am very lucky to be their coach" ....which is fine I guess is you are okay with middle of the pack. Problem is the Mainiacs wanted more. He had some recruiting success, but as was mentioned, a lot of missed opportunities along the way.....So we can maybe give him a grade of C- instead of a D or F, what most I guess would bestow on Red
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Tim was a B-minus, C-plus by any reasonable metric, all things considered. I was among the last to call for his head on a pike, but I ended up doing just that.

S*** sometimes gets clearer via hindsight. My take certainly looks clearer now, after the D-plus that Maine hired to replace Tim.

Things were changing when Tim left back then. Lucia, Gwoz. et al were canned around the same time. Dynasties crumbled left and right. No one program dominates anymore... But I'm sure as hell happy with what we've seen from Ben Barr.

Someone just said that he can't recruit..? Ridiculous. The Bros have made this team a contender, and Ben has certainly improved the residual guys by a mile. May he live forever!
 
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Fishman'81 said:
Tim was a B-minus, C-plus by any reasonable metric, all things considered. I was among the last to call for his head on a pike, but I ended up doing just that.

S*** sometimes gets clearer via hindsight. My take certainly looks clearer now, after the D-plus that Maine hired to replace Tim.

Things were changing when Tim left back then. Lucia, Gwoz. et al were canned around the same time. Dynasties crumbled left and right. No one program dominates anymore... But I'm sure as hell happy with what we've seen from Ben Barr.

Someone just said that he can't recruit..? Ridiculous. The Bros have made this team a contender, and Ben has certainly improved the residual guys by a mile. May he live forever!
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Recruiting is his forte....thats how he got to where he is...is on his abilities to spot talent and now he is putting his recruiting skills into teaching players his plan...by Coaching it....he's combined then both to put Maine back in good position to succeed.
 
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Fishman'81 said:
Someone just said that he can't recruit..? Ridiculous. The Bros have made this team a contender, and Ben has certainly improved the residual guys by a mile. May he live forever!
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Ben would have this team on the rise even without the bros. They surely helped leap things up a few years.
Yes he knows how to recruit. He wants the kids that fit the culture that is being built, which is going to be a successful one.
I dont know if one of the best recruiting successes so far that Ben has had at maine might be Breazeale. A kid with nowhere to go and no one looking at him in 2021(?), now a great team leader and very quality D man comparatively in the D1 ranks.
 
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NorthMike said:
Ben would have this team on the rise even without the bros. They surely helped leap things up a few years.
Yes he knows how to recruit. He wants the kids that fit the culture that is being built, which is going to be a successful one.
I dont know if one of the best recruiting successes so far that Ben has had at maine might be Breazeale. A kid with nowhere to go and no one looking at him in 2021(?), now a great team leader and very quality D man comparatively in the D1 ranks.
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Feel like Barr's biggest strength is evaluating the blueline. That's been the area that stood out to me on all the previous title built teams and is no different with this Maine team.

Breazeale and Chabrier are gems, Holt and Arnott have shown flashes. No real weak link (although Lesakowski has tested my patience too many times).

Wonder how much of a Year Two leap we'll see from the trio of Hopkins/Lesakowski/Nobes next season...
 
9twenty said:
Your correct...he was just there as a stop-gap till SW got healthy, but SW couldn't beat his illness.
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I'd respectfully suggest that most current D-1 coaches - and even more so, those of Walshy's relatively young age in 2001 - wouldn't have spent a minute thinking about a potential succession plan, whether or not the prognosis was hopeful or grim. That he talked a former associate coach into leaving a promising NHL scouting job - one FWIW Whitehead never pursued again afterwards - into "covering" for him is pretty impressive.

Drew, I think you raised the issue of Whitehead's separation from UML, and I'm tempted to say you are correct. Contract expired, and he and that program just decided to part ways. Something which may/may not happen soon in Durham ...
 
tylerzx2002 said:
Feel like Barr's biggest strength is evaluating the blueline. That's been the area that stood out to me on all the previous title built teams and is no different with this Maine team.

Breazeale and Chabrier are gems, Holt and Arnott have shown flashes. No real weak link (although Lesakowski has tested my patience too many times).

Wonder how much of a Year Two leap we'll see from the trio of Hopkins/Lesakowski/Nobes next season...
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The improvement in the D speed, skating and sticks is great compared to pre Ben. Lesakowski has a ways to go, at times I think that he may not be back next season.
 
Looks like they opened up the balcony where the students sit for sale for these 2 games (students are on Christmas break still)..they are mostly sold out.
 
Wayuphere said:
PR like this brings in more blue chippers.
Josh is Hockey East player of the month. Bradly is Rookie of the month, and Chabrier is Defenseman of the month. Go to Hockey East site for news release.
Well done!!!
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Not only Hockey East player of the month,
now he is the National player of the month..
 
acs64 said:
Methinks team Canada could have used them in the WJC :-) Oh well. Josh was a force this past month though.
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I believe Josh would have missed the age cutoff, but with no Bedard/Fantilli/Benson/Wright Canada got cute not just bringing their best available players, which means they now get to second guess leaving guys like Bradly, Riley Heidt & Andrew Cristall all home for this tournament.
 
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