After any other disappointing season for the University of Maine men’s hockey team, failing to attain the Hockey East semifinals for the 7th 12 months in a row, many enthusiasts are looking for someone accountable. Head teacher Red Gendron is one such target. Gendron lately finished his sixth season in Orono and has compiled a lackluster 82-115-25 file (zero.426), along with a 4-12 mark in league playoff games. Gendron and athletic director Ken Ralph also point to growing old facilities, low education salaries, and trouble convincing gamers to play in Orono as motives why the program has suffered. Bangor Daily News readers also had their own opinions about the hockey application, the training team of workers, and more. Here are a number of the top feedback left with the aid of our readers, edited lightly for readability.
Add to that, the area: who desires to live and play for a mediocre teacher on a distant campus that has little to offer in the offseason? @uncle_clifford, through Disqus: Oh, in which to start. BC, BU, NU, PC, UMass, and UML all have better packages and centers. Sure, enhance Alfond, especially start the quest, or a brand new train with fresh thoughts, and no longer be complacent with the career assistant you currently have. He’s had more than sufficient time. The glory years for Maine hockey are long past, and until they want to remain inappropriate, they need to adapt and prevent making excuses for their horrific choices.
@billy G, through Disqus: Having examined the tale, it is apparent Red is here for 2 greater years. This was the 12 months of expectations that did no longer materialize. The year when most of the scorers did not equal the preceding year’s output. Failed inside the first round of the Hockey East playoffs. Failed to make the NCAA event once more. These were all reasonable expectations for this team, and no longer one got here to bypass. I think a telling point came within the very last game in the Hockey East playoffs. Maine turned into in the back of 2-1 and going on the power play with 5 min final. This was a win-or-go-home sport and a vital factor in the sport. It is unbelievable that the goaltender turned into not being pulled for the extra skater, but that did not manifest. It surely looked as though the sport had been conceded at that point.
This changed into purely a training decision, an opportunity lost, and in the end, a season-finishing decision. The strength play failed once more, and the sport and season have been lost. BU and BC had mediocre seasons, but both have been greater successful inside the HE match than Maine. BC eliminated 2 a lot better teams and played for the championship. BU advanced to the second round and lost a close game to the eventual champ. These teams advanced because of training, not because of better personnel. In reality, you could argue that Maine had better employees. You can blame centers all you want; triumphing is going to carry better recruits, no longer new/rehabbed centers. Coaching is the key element in triumphing!!
Zach Woodward, via Facebook: Lower price tag prices, fill the Alfond once more, so that it will assist recruiting. He’s now not working with the gamers that previous coaches had. The accurate old days are long gone, no Walsh/Standbrook to draw the quality expertise. But we do have Alfond, which was part of the enchantment when it turned into a full residence. What pinnacle-quit expertise will commit to UMO and an empty rink while there are vastly greater attractive alternatives in Massachusetts?
@BlackBearNutCase, through Disqus: You want an Amy Vachon kind of education. Younger with new ideas … more relatable to the more youthful athlete, and guess what? She’s triumphing. Also, the athletic department appears to have out grievance. You had a series of mediocre ADs and made an address to Learfield that I query: the Learfield Blackbeard now, not UMaine BB. And we don’t have the presence of a number of the donors and door infantrymen … they have been around at some point in the prevailing years of hockey software that took a massive obligation to sell all [of Maine] and athletics. For example, you knew the head instructor became for hockey coach; however, you may not know who became the AD. The university itself has driven away some of the longtime, powerful boosters who gave basically all their free time to the UMaine sports, whether or not it be football, hockey, basketball, and so forth. And Walsh knew a way to exploit that as he turned into a frontrunner among leaders. The athletic branch is in the silo inside a cocoon of the University of Maine administration.
I significantly doubt that the Chancellor, right down to the campus president right here in Orono, truly cares whether the Athletics are successful or not. So there’s been for numerous years a lack of leadership both at the campus level, the president, and the Chancellor’s level for the machine. On the ADs degree, AND numerous nicely healed, big-time donors like the Alfond to Mahaney are no longer with us. Have no solutions but a smooth residence. @somewhrinmaine, through Disqus: So now it’s miles, the infrastructure that made the team do poorly. What excuse will they come up with next? Face it, you have got not nothing to provide the obtainable expertise. Time to close the program down and put the cash in the direction of schooling.
@Norc1954, through Disqus: You get what you pay for. It is embarrassing that Maine pays its coaches so little, but what do you expect from a state that is last in what it pays its governor and close to the bottom for judges?
And you do want the “wow” component for brand new recruits. Better centers might assist. And can’t do an awful lot approximately the location and climate, though Bangor compares favorably with places like Grand Forks, North Dakota. What approximately flying in Paul Kariya, Garth Snow, and others to meet with recruits? Anyway, this text and the comments underneath it’ll do not anything to help the situation. All a rookie desires to do is Google this and sayonara.
@jtsailjt, in response to @Norc1954’s remark above, through Disqus: An earnings of over $two hundred 000 provides a totally comfortable lifestyle within the Bangor area. It’s higher than the maximum attorneys or widespread practice doctors make around here. We ought to have had Montgomery for those same profits and become a splendid university hockey education, so I don’t agree that lack of benefits is the purpose of our subpar coaching. Better locker rooms and weight room would possibly assist in enticing a few recruits, but so might a loud and packed Alfond.
I’m no longer confident that Kariya and Snow or any of the extraordinary alums from that era would make a significant influence on recruits. Those names suggest something to us vintage enthusiasts, but these days’ recruits weren’t even vintage enough to watch hockey while those players were within the headlines.
We just want to rent a younger, lively, charismatic educator with connections to young players. In interviews, Red regularly sounds like he might have dozed off in mid-sentence. Our hockey program desires a boost of power, and Red sincerely doesn’t have any to spare.
Paige Fournier, through Facebook: It’s not Red’s or every other teacher’s fault. The players ought to be more aggressive on the subject of playing with the toughest teams in the college league. That being said, look on the bright side. We defeated Massachusetts as soon as. UMaine will go to the Frozen Four once more and get the gamers to assist the team in getting there. @McPeter, through Disqus: I suspect if Red isn’t successful next 12 months with at least a look in Boston for the Hockey East semis, then he’ll probably be bought out of his very last year. I trust the earlier poster that they need a younger magnetic head to teach. Former UMaine player Kevin Swallow, who has accomplished a high level of success as head trainer at D-III Univ. Of New England comes to mind.
I was at the Regional in Providence this past weekend, and it just isn’t identical without UMaine or even UNH involved. I attended the pregame Friars celebration at the Union Station Brewery on Saturday. If UMaine turned into the Regional, the crowd at Union Station could be twice the amount that the Friars fanatics delivered. How I pass over those days! @Steven Chaff, through Disqus: Facts. UMaine admin. Should be ashamed. Shawn Walsh 399-215-forty four Tim Whitehead 250-171-fifty four Red Gendron 82–a hundred and fifteen–25
