Maine Black Bears 2019-20: Seeing Red

[mickeyj65]

Bright spot for me was Greenway. Effort for the team today was streaky, maybe good 50% of the time, hopefully that's the freshman coming up to speed..

[ticapnews]

Seven yesterday.
Only five today.
The defense is getting better!

[BlackI]

I don't think the team struggling out of the gate was necessarily unexpected, but the magnitude of it and how bad they've looked doing it has been kind of shocking to me.

This is true. Expected a 3-1 loss to PC and a 3-1 win over UNB. I am not sure there was anything that was good. Every aspect of Maine’s play looked lousy to me. And looked like the coach couldn’t care less. No timeouts, no emotion, no motivation, etc... just trust the process... you know take a steady stream of unnecessary penalties, play soft in front of your own goalie, pass up and out of your zone when ever you accidentally win a battle to a loose puck in the offensive zone, pass as much as possible and hesitate to shoot whenever there is a power play, etc...

[Drew S.]

The worst part for me is that next year looks significantly worse. Maybe a new coach can help, but Maine loses most of their best players after this season.

It’s hard to understand how we got here. I honestly felt Maine was headed in the right direction after the 16, 17, and 18 seasons. It was a little concerning last year Maine didn’t bring in some better forwards, but they didn’t lose much so they might not have had a lot of money.

With that being said, this year’s freshmen class just makes no sense. They’ve gotten so many good kids to commit too. Maybe someone knows the full story because it is completely baffling to me why they let the good kids decommit or defer them and bring in the not so talented ones. Maine is a good three or four years away from respectability.

[umhockey91]

This start isn't shocking, we all knew their was no Defense coming back, we all knew the Offense was going to be sparse and it appears a decent goalie is going to be wasted by lack of recruiting help for him. Red is lost and can't find his way out of it. Too bad for the program and too bad for the fans. Another wasted year

It's closing in on a wasted decade.

[rw1733]

As a season ticket holder for many years, this is the worst team I have seen. Left near the end of the 2nd period today. Couldn't stand any more.

[Scott]

I was shocked at last night's score, and I thought for a second that today's score was a typo.

I feel bad for you guys...this is very uncharacteristic, even by Red's standards. Hope that you can right the ship soon.


Edit: Watching the 1987 Hockey East Championship game BC vs Maine on NESN+ right now....what a walk down memory lane, kinda spooky seeing a young Shawn Walsh behind the bench. And I forgot how good a goalie Loring was for Maine back then.

[Fishman'81]

The worst part for me is that next year looks significantly worse. Maybe a new coach can help, but Maine loses most of their best players after this season.

It’s hard to understand how we got here. I honestly felt Maine was headed in the right direction after the 16, 17, and 18 seasons. It was a little concerning last year Maine didn’t bring in some better forwards, but they didn’t lose much so they might not have had a lot of money.

With that being said, this year’s freshmen class just makes no sense. They’ve gotten so many good kids to commit too. Maybe someone knows the full story because it is completely baffling to me why they let the good kids decommit or defer them and bring in the not so talented ones. Maine is a good three or four years away from respectability.

Drew, with all respect, this was happening from Day One of Red's reign. Maine has gotten worse during every year that Red has been at the helm.

He took-over a Timmy team that had some talent, and fell on his face that year.

Then, he recruited nobody, and kept at it.

What is continually amazing to me is that he was extended on the basis of slowly driving the program into the ground.

That, I don't get.

[umhockey91]

UMaine women's sports thriving this weekend. Field hockey 2-0 with win over #5 Northwestern. Women's ice hockey sweeps Sacred Heart. Women's basketball gets a couple of big verbal commitments from Spain.

[Ma#1ne Hky]

This has the makings of a very "UGLY" season...and not down the road but right now in front of us...UAA could come in next weekend and SWEEP Maine.

[Ma#1ne Hky]

How do you know what effort he's given? Still can't get them to quit taking penalties, still can't get a 60 minute effort out of them, just what the hell does he do?

Talks a good game. But the last couple seasons, its just all excuses and blaming. Never about him not getting the job done

You hit the NAIL WITH THE HAMMER, and right on target...everything we all see and then some...pretty sad.

[BoSox3066]

How do you know what effort he's given? Still can't get them to quit taking penalties, still can't get a 60 minute effort out of them, just what the hell does he do?

Talks a good game. But the last couple seasons, its just all excuses and blaming. Never about him not getting the job done

He sucks. I just don’t think he thinks he’s stealing money from the U as was essentially suggested.

To paraphrase the fake Mark Twain quote, he’s not a smart person putting us on, he’s an imbecile who really means it

[NorthMike]

He sucks. I just don’t think he thinks he’s stealing money from the U as was essentially suggested.

To paraphrase the fake Mark Twain quote, he’s not a smart person putting us on, he’s an imbecile who really means it

And that the past management of the athletics bought that line of garbage. Can only hope the new mgmnt is better than prior and wont spend all of his time thinking about building new facilities.

[Drew S.]

And that the past management of the athletics bought that line of garbage. Can only hope the new mgmnt is better than prior and wont spend all of his time thinking about building new facilities.

Would the current AD make a change in season? I don’t think there is any doubt he should, but it’s rare in college sports.

[J.D.]

Would the current AD make a change in season? I don’t think there is any doubt he should, but it’s rare in college sports.

Even more rare in college hockey. I highly doubt that would happen here.

[amkirby10]

Would the current AD make a change in season? I don’t think there is any doubt he should, but it’s rare in college sports.

How likely even is it that they show him the door before the end of his contract? I would imagine Red will still be behind the bench until the end of next year.

[rufus]

He sucks. I just don’t think he thinks he’s stealing money from the U as was essentially suggested.

To paraphrase the fake Mark Twain quote, he’s not a smart person putting us on, he’s an imbecile who really means it

There's a reason he was a career assistant.

[LTsatch]

There's a reason he was a career assistant.

You got him because of the ring he won at Yale, we are all finding out down here that Dan Muse was the best Assistant to be promoted out of that championship year. He is still sorely missed.

[FreddyFoyle]

My condolences to Maine fans. That was the worst, most over-matched Black Bears team I have ever witnessed play UNB. Usually the UNB-Maine games are fairly even, with Maine getting their goals with a superior power play, or off the rush with speed. Not this time. I hope this is young team that will get better. I did like the giant goaltender though.

[Drew S.]

Even more rare in college hockey. I highly doubt that would happen here.

I think Red can get away with Maine being somewhere between mediocre and bad, but not embarrassing. To be fair, last weekend was a great weekend to have a bad weekend given that none of us expected much for the Providence game and the UNB game didn’t matter. That won’t be the case moving forward.