I swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell.
Maine Hockey Love it or Leave it
He can only do so much with the way the defense has performed in front of him...well there not in front as they [d-man] allow the opposing team a free reign in front of the net and on both sides...plus he see's plenty of rubber each and every game...he's a good goaltender that after a while will tend to wilt under a poorly played defense in front of him, plus the forwards find it hard to block shots and make the passing lanes harder to get through...its on him/ > yes to a degree but look at the total team defense and you can see why they have a losing record and OH YA that guy behind the BENCH is in charge and he should be held accountable big time.....and lets hope the AD has his eye's wide open...oh I know he'll do nothing because of the high cost of a 2 year buy-out...but then maybe Gendron looks into the mirror after the season and comes to the conclusion that it's time to end the misery and RESIGN. He won't...he's on his RETIREMENT TOUR. Enough of my rant [again] … and the worst part is I don't feel any better as Maine is playing awful hockey to this point....later.
I believe it was Drew who said it before, but after watching every game this year I don't think the primary problem on this team is the defense, its the forwards. I think the defense generally does a decent job at keeping chances to the outside and limiting good break-ins by the other team; they arent so good at stopping the cross-ice one-timers and shots from the point that then create rebounds, and get beat sometimes, and allow a high raw total of shots, but I don't think they have been playing that badly, especially lately. The problem has been the forwards and their passing, which has been absolutely awful. They either have the puck clang off their sticks and roll away, or they constantly keep trying no-look passes like they did on Monday. Regardless, it creates tons of turnovers in the neutral zone and in the high slot of their own zone, and this is what kills them. And also, forwards never seem to be crashing the net to hunt for rebounds, and they constantly bunch up. It's frustrating to watch, because its fundamentals they are failing to execute, and if they fixed these simple things, I bet results would improve dramatically.
You can say that each year...they just don't get it. They are what they are...mostly 3rd/4th liners with an exception of maybe two players that should be on the 2nd line...depth players most of them, that can't finish plays....shooting wide/high and having the puck roll off there stick on breakaways.
Maine is 45th in GPG (3.05 ) and 38th in GPGA (amazingly, exactly 3.05 on that side of the ledger, too.) And to salt the wound, with a 28th SOS... Nearly a perfect storm of utter mediocrity.
This team isn't talented. It's is stocked with 3rd-4th liners, as Ma#1ne said. It's gonna take a Timmy-style purge to even be in the Natrional conversation for the next few years, and that's assuming a new regime, which is highly unlikely pursuant to Maine's insane extention of RG.
Last edited by Fishman'81; 01-24-2019 at 08:12 PM.
My question is why’d they score more last year? They had 4 dbl digit goal scoers coming back (Tralmarks Fossier Doherty Robbins) and only Doherty may hit that this year. And we’re talking 10 goals not 20, which quite honestly isnt a high bar to set.
Were they lucky with shooting last year? Is there something different in their cycling ir forecheck thats bad?
I mean Fossier was the leading goal man last year and has 1 freakin goal this close to February
. So is it the players talent? Or the crap system? Or (probably) both.
I think it's only natural that focus would be a factor. Think about it...if you played at the level of the World Jrs and then had to come back to "this," how would you react? It's very difficult for these players (even the ones that don't play in a tournament such as that) to keep their minds from straying toward thoughts of the pros. To a large extent, I feel as though all of these early departures have damaged the college game. Now, I know that sounds selfish, because many will say we have no right to "deprive" them of achieving whatever their maximum potential will allow. Nevertheless, it's frustrating because it's a no-win situation. If they're great, they won't stay long, and if they do stay, they seem to have one foot out the door so you don't get the maximum out of them.
Being a BU fan, I have noticed this exact thing in several players that returned from national or world tournaments and often appeared to be "elsewhere" in their minds. The saving grace in that case, however, was that we almost always make the post-season and these players seem to step up and become more engaged once the games get bigger. When the HE playoffs roll around, I would expect a heightened level of intensity and focus from Swayman.
While Maine is lacking talent, everyone keep an eye on #16 Cale Makar for UMass. Kid's legit and he was drafted 4th overall in 2017. Probably the best college player I've seen since Gaudreau. Hell of a skater.
If any of Maine's past series against top teams this year are any indication, I expect one game this weekend to be a blowout and the other a close loss.
Well, this will be a blowout.
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