Complete meltdown in progress. This really demonstrates how long it’s been since UNH has played in a “big” game (yes, I categorize this as a big game), and how much they need to learn about competing in them. First real punch in the face of the season, be interesting to see how they respond.
Totally agree ... but it'll be some time before there's another "big game" on the schedule, so the boys and their coaches will have a fair amount of time to deal with the result, come to terms with what was lacking, what adjustments need to be made etc., and then put that stuff into play.
There was some speculation after the exhibition game why UMaine seemed to put more emphasis on getting the W than UNH, as reflected by UMaine's starting goalie Ostman playing the whole game, while Souza split duties between his two guys. Ironically, I see that UMaine played their back-up tonight - no idea if there was an injury/illness involved, or just Barr pulling a surprising switch - but after UNH snagged a pair of wins* late last Winter at home, UMaine has at least now laid down a marker that this year, at least on their ice, they've held serve. Whether that will carry over to doing something later in the season at The Whitt remains to be seen, but this year's UMaine team has no reason to think they can't do the trick. And that amps up the pressure on MS7 to not only return to "Champs of November" form for the last few non-league games on either side of the break, but to make sure his guys are ready to return the favor once UMaine rolls into Durham.
Just like Walshy established an early edge in his games against Umile, and pretty much never let it go (save perhaps for the original "White Out The Whitt" weekend) ... Barr will want to do the same against Souza. Especially if it turns out that Souza somehow turns the ship around from his current predicament and is around for awhile. Likewise, Souza
HAS to know that he cannot let his career be defined by the same issues his predecessor encountered. Unless he can establish UNH's ability to go toe-to-toe with UMaine on something approaching level terms (and ideally even better) ... what was the reason he was hired to begin with?? If he's here for another generation of UNH being the plucky underdog and/or lovable losers they were when they peaked in the Umile Era ...
is that all we wanted from Umile's successor? I hope AD Rich is aware of this, and weighs this properly when making her next big decision.
It's early in the game - both in the little picture and big picture - to be coming to any definitive conclusions yet. But if, like me (being "all in" as declared less than a week ago) you were looking for reassurances that UNH was not going to be "same ol' UNH" ...
tonight was disappointing, and does nothing to dispel my previous thought that UNH should have moved for Coach Barr when they had the chance to do so. And if over the next few months, it turns out UNH's short-term answer to Barr can't answer back, then why tolerate a slightly higher level of mediocrity in place of potential excellence when it comes to who leads UNH into the long term?
