State of Maine

The University of Maine has fallen on a hard season. They failed to make the Hockey East tourney for the first time probably since UMass joined the league and there were actually teams that did not make the tourney. And then news breaks today that Ben Bishop (their all-conference goaltender) will forgo his senior year and sign with the St. Louis Blues. Considering the conditions of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement this is hardly surprising and I would be even less surprised should 6 ft-7 in defenseman Simon Denis-Pepin did not follow Bishop's lead.

As it currently stands, NHL teams are pushed to sign prospects that they feel they cannot afford to lose after their junior year. With the current CBA, teams lose the rights to players they have drafted on August 16th of the summer after they graduate. The thought was that good players would stay in school for that extra year to allow themselves to sign with a team they wanted as opposed to the team that drafted them. I see this as faulty logic as I feel that most of these kids are happy just to be signed by a pro club and don't really care which one it is. They aren't all Eric Lindros, you know?

Maine, however, faces a serious uphill battle for next year. I have no doubt that they will have some talented freshman coming in next year as they always do but they are getting gutted this year. After losing promising young forward Teddy Purcel last year (not to mention the seniors who graduated) people expected a down year and they had one. But I don't think anyone thought it would be this bad. To make matters worse, now they lose Bishop who started all 34 games for the Black Bears this season and played all but 80 minutes. In addition, they lose 7 seniors, including 6 of their top 8 point scorers. If Denis-Pepin were to leave, that would make 7 of 8. Their highest returning point scorer will be Andrew Sweetland who as a freshman finished with 17 points. Not bad for a freshman but when you consider Joe Whitney currently has double that in just assists, this does not create a lot of buzz for next year.

Some might equate this to BC losing 10 seniors and Patrick Eaves after the 2004-05 season. The next season we went to the NCAA finals. There is a big difference here. They technically lost their starting goaltender in Kaltiainen but Schneider was already taking over as a freshman and started the two NCAA games that season. His only loss on the year was the final game to North Dakota where he was victimized by way too many breakaways. They were set in goal for the next season.

In additional, they had three seniors coming back in Collins, S. Gionta, and Harrold that were a central core to that team. Harrold was a bedrock defenseman that they knew they could depend on to provide quality leadership the next year. Gionta and Collins were both high energy guys with NCAA experience. In addition, they had Boyle and Rooney coming back as juniors off of 20 point seasons. There was clear direction on offense, defense, and goaltending for the next season. Maine is lacking in that department, especially if Denis-Pepin were to depart.

Tim Whitehead is not a bad coach. He made last season's Maine team into something much better than they were on paper but Bishop was a big part of their run last year when he was healthy. He will now have to rely on unproven sophomore Dave Wilson or whatever incoming freshman he may have. I would not count them out because sometimes all it takes is the right group of freshman and you can make a run, but he will have his work cut out for him next season.

I have sung the praises of the Orono faithful and their religious support for their hockey team. Let's hope they can keep it up through what looks to be another lean year next year for the Black Bears.