December 13, 2023 • 27 mins
Maine head coach Ben Barr joins hosts Jim Connelly (@jimmyconnelly) and Ed Trefzger (@EdTrefzger) to talk this year's Black Bears, building a culture and work ethic, recruiting, today's players, and areas for improvement.
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Usccho dot com. Welcome to USCCHOSpotlight for Wednesday, December thirteenth, twenty
twenty three. I'm Ed Trefsker alongsideJim Connolly. In May of twenty twenty
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one, when Ben Barr was hiredat Maine, there was no doubt that
it would take a year or twoto turn things around, but there was
also no doubt that there would bea big turnaround. And joining us now
on USCCHO Spotlight the head coach ofthe main Black Bears. That's Ben Barr.
Ben. Very good start to thisseason for your team, four straight
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wins at this point coming into today. What do you like at this point?
Obviously there's a lot to like,but what are some of the things
you're seeing from this team that arecertainly stand out? There's self driven,
which is really nice. You know, the teams that have had success that
I've you know, been around atother schools of all kind of had that
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where you're not you're not poking andprodding guys to work hard, and that's
you know, and we started toget to that point towards the end of
last year and I and I thinkthat's carried carried on through the start of
the year here. Uh, andthat's the credit to the you know leaders
on our team, you know,David Brazil, Lindon Breen and puss On
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and like Diamond Ale that draw theseguys that have been here for the whole
time our staff has been here.And uh, you know, so I
think that's the the one thing that'sreally been for us is like, you
know, we really haven't had alot of bad practices or bad efforts at
a game. We haven't obviously wonevery game, but like it hasn't been
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because the guys didn't work hard.And that's a that's a nice feeling to
have, you know as a coachthat you know that you're going to get
a good effort for the most part, and and and then you let the
cards fallow where they may. Youknow, we're gonna get to a couple
of great freshmen you have on yourteam, but you just threw a few
names out there, and guys likeLyndon Breen and Donovan Uhl, Ben Poison
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Tho, these are some pretty highend players probably had opportunities to maybe not
be back in the lineup for Mainethis year. They chose to stay and
as as seniors and a grad studentfor for poison. These are guys that
are really having some impact, notjust as leaders, but on the score
sheet as well. How nice isit to have a team that seemed dedicated
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to coming back. It's it's reallynice. You know. It speaks to
the character of those of those playersand those people, and it also speaks
to the you know, to theconnection that they have with this place and
that that goes like, you know, way of for any of us were
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here, you know what happens herewhen you know and it's always been like
this, going back to the youknow, the Sean wallshears, but they
have a connection with people that havebeen watching them every day. It's it's
like five thousand people that all knoweach other every time there's a game up
here. And it really is uniqueto anywhere that I've been. I've been
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at quite a few schools. I'msure there are other programs where it's it's
similar to that, but it's ahard thing to find. And I and
I think that really speaks to theyou know, the passion for what happens
up here. And I think theyknew that we had a chance to be
better this year, and that's youknow, the fact that they wanted to
be a part of that, andyou know, it is pretty cool.
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For sure. There are so manyhigh end freshmen in Hockey East this year
that maybe guys like Josh Nato andBradley Nato maybe got lost in the the
the the big pile of unbelievable talentedfreshmen, but not lost in your lineup
leeding your team and scoring each oneof them ten goals twenty two points for
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Josh, twenty one for Bradley.Tell me about these brothers and what it's
been like to coach such talented players. Yeah, it's it's really unique.
I've coached brothers before in other placesthat you know, but when you have
two of them that are, youknow, dynamic, and then you put
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them together and they've been even thoughthey're they're obviously not twins, but they've
played a lot together over the yearsin you know, whether youth hockey or
in Penticton for a couple of years. You know, we get we get
credit for the score at the endof the game on the scoreboard as coaches,
and but I'd be d be alie to say that we have anything
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to do with anything that those twoguys and Linden Breen do together on the
ice, you know, they justsome of the stuff they do is just
it is really incredible. But Ithink what makes them really really, you
know, really special is how hardthey work. They're on the ice all
the time. They never want tocome off the ice. They practice like
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in practice are games. It's likea game every day they're on the ice,
and and you know, and obviouslythey're skilled and talented and really good
hockey players, but it all startswith the kind of people they are.
And obviously Lyndon in the middle ofthose guys has been really good as well.
But they yeah, I mean theydo some things together. Individually they're
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very good, but then you putthem together and it's it's pretty special.
You start to touch upon it whenI asked you about the upper classmen.
But obviously Orno is a pretty specialplace with a very deep tradition going back
to the eighties and nineties and whatSean Walsh accomplished there. I remember as
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a student of the unbelievable crowds thatteams would face and how difficult it was
to play up there. But Ialso remember, you know, as a
broadcaster going up there and seeing twentytwo, twenty three hundred in Alphon,
and it was just so different.It seems to be back and you can
dispel the room or I've heard therumor that you're sold out for the rest
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of the season. I see thestudents still hanging over the goaltender from the
balcony in Alphon. I just what'sit like to see that building come back
to life after some down years inthat program. Yeah, it's I don't
know if that rumor is sure ornot. I couldn't tell you, so
I have to go after ticket office, but it's I think we've had like
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four or five sellouts in a row, which is just it's hard to describe.
But when you walk out there forthe games, it's just it's a
whole different feeling and you just can'tyou can't find that many places in the
Naki in general, well a,let alone college hockey. It's just people
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are so connected to the communities,so connected to it, and they and
they you know it's for I don't. I think it's it's the social gathering
part of the of the state,especially the northern part of the state where
we are, and you know,like they it's just uh, It's hard
to describe, but how you know, humbling it is when you walk out
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there and they just and our playersfeel it, the other team feels that.
You know. It's it's just it'san amazing place to play and it's
amazing place to coach, and youknow, we have to make sure that
we keep you know, fostering thatthat connection with you know, and that's
that starts with us taking care ofbusiness on the ice and putting a good
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product out there. But it's thusackand thin. I mean that goes back,
you know, decades, and youknow, even the first couple of
years where we were fighting it alittle bit up here, like the support
was still there like it has beenthis year. But towards the end of
last year, you could see theycould feel it again and it's it's a
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truly special place to be. Thenwhen we started out, you mentioned about
the players being self driven, andit got me thinking back a little bit
following your interviews and some of thepress clippings in your first season where you
were emphasizing how the team really neededto work hard, and I think you
said something like playing like it's yourlast game. How how has it been
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to develop that culture and kind ofinstill that over these past two and a
half seasons and get to where youare now. I mean, for me,
I've been super fortunate as an assistantto see that happen a few you
know, at a few schools thatso you know that was having that experience
was really invaluable to me. Andthen you know, knowing how important getting
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the right people and and that andthat's not just the players, that's also
the staff, you know, Jasonfor j Elfie, Me, show Eric
Soltie, Nick Fonsi, Cody Faziolthat our strengthening coach like those people and
I can say this because I wasa long time assistant, are more important
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than I am. And uh,you know, like as a head coach,
you get a lot of the creditor the blame for the things that
happen, and rightly so, butthose are the one Those are the people
that are doing things all day everyday, watching the video and doing the
extra skill sessions, you know,and I you know, I've been in
those shoes and so the so havingthe right people in the locker room as
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far as the players and their workethic, that that takes time. I
think we're finally pretty close to that, and then having the right staff and
letting them do their thing. They'reall very competent people, more competent than
me in a lot of areas.Obviously, Elfie does a great job with
their goalies, and pedally kill Jasonhas their power play and he's you know,
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our player development coaches is awesome,and Soults is on the road and
so those people are you know,just vital to what we do, you
know, and especially up here wherewe are. We're not We're not going
to be the everything shiny recruiting powerhousethat you know, you see some of
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the schools that have all the youknow, a lot of resources or you
know, in big cities or whatever. We have to prove that we can
make our players you know, betterevery day and and win championships. And
if we do that, that's why, that's why people players will come to
the University of Maine. And havingthe right people not just in the not
just the players, but the staffis is really really important to that.
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More with Maine head coach Ben Barrin a moment, we're back with Maine
head coach Ben Barr. I wantedto ask you about recruiting. In your
days and his assistant, you developeda reputation as being a very good recruiter,
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and now you're working with the staffdoing the recruiting and scouting. You
mentioned recruiting domain as opposed to someof the shinier teams in your league.
What kind of extra effort, whatkind of extra packaging for lack of a
better term, do you have toput together to really sell the quality of
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your program to a potential recruit.I don't think my thoughts on that stuff
kind of changed, especially during COVID, where you know, for that whole
year you couldn't really you couldn't goon the road, right, so we
were playing. Everyone was still kindof in their own bubble or whatever,
and we were around our players andthat was the year we won the national
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championship at Umathal. In recruiting,in my opinion, in recruiting, the
most important pece of it is thatthe players know that they're getting better and
they can win. I mean,that's all the rest of it. You
know, it's nice to have shinystuff. We're going to have shiny things
up here. We're going to haveyou know, we're in the midst of
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a big renovation started this past yearwith our scoreboards and stuff. It's going
to continue for the next couple ofyears. We're going to have all that
stuff. But the end of theday, that doesn't matter. What matters
is that the players believe they're gettingbetter and they're being pushed and challenged fairly
because they're the ones that recruit.We're not the ones that I know,
we get the you get the reputationof being a good recruiter or whatever as
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an assistant, and that for meleads to you know, other opportunities and
whatever. But really the most importantpart is that, you know, are
we making our players better? Andso you know, for us, especially
up here, we have to dothat because it's not we're not in Boston
or you know, in Minneapolis orDetroit. There's some big city where people
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are coming in and out of.So we don't have people just floating through
me and visiting on their you know, a randomly see a game. So
they have to, hey, what'sgoing on up there at the university?
Mean, like, they're their teamsgetting better, their players are getting better.
The atmosphere obviously you can see,you know when you see the videos
that you know, it's second tonone as far as a you know,
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an atmosphere on game day, that'sour best recruiting. You know that that's
that's going to be our best recruiting. And then everyone knows everybody in the
hockey world and they're going to calltalk to one of our players that maybe
they played with or whatever. What'sit like up there, and hopefully that's
what's going to sell the University ofMean And you know, I think that's
that's what we really have to focuson in that again goes back to having
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good people in the locker room anda and a staff that that really can
develop our players. And I thinkthat's so far that's been a strength of
ours. Kind of a general question, thinking back to your playing days about
twenty years ago and the players thatyou're seeing now, what are some of
the differences, What are some ofthe similarities, whether it's skill or attitude
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or whatever around the game. Ithink it's just that every the information is
just so and it's not just inhockey, it's in everything. Information is
so readily available. I mean,as soon as our game is over,
our guys can go back to theirdorm and basically watch all their shifts from
that game, you know, likewhen we were twenty years ago or before
we were playing, like the coacheshad to get the vhs, you know,
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double stacked things, and that wouldtake for it would take hours and
hours and hours to get that kindof foot content to the players. And
so everything they do every time theytouch the puck is we're going to see.
They're going to see. And youknow, how do you the days
of you know, you can't hidein anything you do anymore as a player,
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or just in anything in life.Really, I mean everything's on video
or social media or whatever, soit's you know, so it's really everything's
under a microscope so much more thanit was, you know, twenty years
ago. And I think there's alot of good about that as far as
developing players and you know, butit's a fine line like how much information
is too much information? And youknow you have to let them, you
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know, figure some of the stuffout on their own. And so you're
always trying to figure out like howmuch video is good, how much time
on the ice, how much skilldevelopment. But it really allows you to
you know, you you can pickapart anybody's game so easily now because you
know, and you know, soyou know, if you do that and
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say, okay, well we needto work on this, you know,
you need to work on this specificskill. Let's get a plan for you
to work on this specific skill,because you don't do that stuff in practice.
You know, you do that stuffin extra ice skills, ice,
that kind of you know, inpractice, a lot of times you're working
on you know what whatever it isfor check, you know, power play,
penalty kill, you know. Soit's you're not getting in individual skill
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per se in practice. So youhave to find ways to get better outside
of practice, which is again youknow, Jason Forte does that with our
team here now, and you knowhe's he's sending guys, hey, we
need to you need to learn howto shoot and stride. You need to
learn how to you know, youredges, your edgework, your skiing.
He has to get better in thisarea whatever it is. And they they
love that. The players love that, which is so much different than it
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was when we played. It wasjust like go out, work hard.
Here's the good players, here's theguys like you know, like me that
hopefully you get in the lineup andyou can go and hit some guys,
and you know, that was it. Now it's like everybody, everybody wants
to be everything and how do youhow do you manage that? You know,
Ben, You're now at the breakhere after almost a halfway point in
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the season. I guess when youlook at it, we've talked about a
lot of the good things. Whereare some of the places you still maybe
feel you need to get better asa team. The last three games specifically,
we were we were and it wasn'tpretty for us. I mean,
we found a way to to win, you know. I thought it started
kind of with the Yukon game acouple of weeknds ago. You know,
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they played really well against the scorewas nowhere indicative near indicative of what happened
in the game, you know,and then we were just kind of you
know, trend Water against Union andBentley this, you know, this past
weekend. So I think I thinksome of the detail in our game is
is it has has dropped a littlebit in the last a couple of weeks,
and I think part of that iswe haven't had it. We haven't
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had much practice time. It's almostbeen like pro hockey. I think we
played four games and eight or ninedays and two of those games around the
road, you know, and duringfinals weeks, so it was it was
just kind of like trying to hangon a little bit, and you know,
watching the games back, we werenot very detailed. You know,
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we found a way to score enoughgoals to win, but we have to
especially with the young team, andyou know, for the most part,
a lot of our guys are freshmenand side boards that are playing big roles
for us, and we have toget back to just a little things away
from the pock and get better atespecially against tighter as the year goes on,
and second half is always tighter thanthe first half. Every game week,
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there's not going to be a lotof ice out there for us just
to go up and down and gettwo on ones and three on twos.
So we have to be able towin the tight checking, you know,
grinding type games, and I don'tI don't think we were great at that
the last few few games. Onelast one before we let you go.
When you come back, you'll headto the Ledgered Bank Classic, one of
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the shortest bus ride you could makeit in the course of a year.
From more or No heading to DartmouthDartmouth College. Do you like those in
season tournaments? You know, perssome coaches say that they prepare you for
the postseason, but some coaches alsosay they you know, sometimes they feel
like a waste. How do youfeel about them? We had one,
We had our own NRPI back inthe day. It was the holiday term.
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Sometimes it was that Thanksgiving, sometimeslike Christmas. Right, It was
always kind of fun. It wasdifferent. You know, you had three
teams there, and a lot oftimes there are people that on those other
teams that were you know, youknow, your new players and people you
know, players you played with ondifferent teams growing up or whatever. So
that was kind of neat to youdon't really know what you're getting that,
especially the first week after the break. You know, our guys are coming
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back, you know a little bitearlier this year, so to hopefully last
year. After the break. Wewere playing pretty well going into the break,
and after it looked like we'd neverplayed hockey before when we got back.
I think our break was too long. So yeah, I mean,
they're they're games, and they're importantgames. You know, we play r.
A. T is a really goodteam the first game and then we'll
see the second the second game,depending what happens, but those games are
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really important for you know, atthe end of the year, and uh
so we can't afford to have anoff night or two, and so,
you know, I we just viewthem as another game and it's another game
against a really good team. Andhow do we how do we hand after
being off for ten eleven days orwhatever it is when they go when the
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guys go home, And that's achallenge because that's you know, college hockey,
I think is the only the onlylevel you know that I don't know
if there's other junior leagues or proleagues where you get that kind of break
where you know, teams are youknow, guys are going home and they're
really on their own for you know, sometimes a week or two and it's
like, okay, you know everyonesome that's fine for some people and some
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guys that's finding ice and that kindof stuff is a challenge. So that's
uh, you're always just kind ofyou know, crossing your fingers a little
bit. Well, you are inthe middle of a short break about twenty
days here for the Black Bears,but the holidays do come in there.
So we wish you the happiest toholidays and to you your family, everybody
up in our good old or NoMaine and uh keep up to good work.
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We enjoy watching the team from afar. Thanks Jim, I appreciate it.
Thanks that happy all. I seeyou guys as well. That's main
Black Bears head coach Ben Barr.Jim. Ben started out right away talking
about how this year's team has beenself driven, and when he got to
Maine he was really talking a lotabout having to get players to start working
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hard. He has built a culturethere and he seems to be on the
same timeline that UMass was when hewas brought in as an assistant coach there.
Their third season is when they reallystarted to catch some fire. And
that's what's happening right now in Maine. Yeah, you know, I mean,
this is a coach in Ben Barwho has an assistant had success everywhere
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he went, and he went toa number of different programs, but you
know, you know, calving outwith the obviously the national championship at UMass
right before he ended up in Orno, he knew what he wanted to do
with this program. But you canknow as a coach exactly how you want
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to handle the situation, but youstill need the buy in, and he
got the buy in pretty quickly fromplayers. And you know, there were
some good moments in season one,I think for him, and that probably
is something that you know, canbecome a little bit contagious within a locker
room. And then season two thingsreally started to improve. You know,
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one of the best, one ofthe better seasons Maine it had. Of
course, you know, one oftheir best seasons in recent years was the
one that was canceled out by COVIDthe playoffs, the postseason. They never
got a chance uh to play thatpostseason with Red Gendron, the late Redgendron
as their coach. But now herethey are, and they're in a situation
where they've they've tasted some good thingsand now I think the believability is there.
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And it seems certainly that the selfmotivation, which boy, is that
an important thing any coach. Youcan't bottle that up and sell it.
Coaches don't always succeed in bringing thatto a locker room. It's hard to
get there sometimes, you know,locker rooms need the coach to lead them
through motivation. And I'd much ratheras a head coach be one that has
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a team that just motivates itself,and then I'm there for support and a
head coach that always has to getthere and give that raw ras speech to
get them go, because they ifyou're in that situation, eventually that speech
gets tuned out itself and you don'tend up with that same success as a
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self motivated team. So it wasthe first thing he said to us,
and I thought that that was areally important part of what he pointed to
as being a success for this year'steam. That vacancy after the passing of
Red Gendron was unexpected. Back inMay of twenty twenty one. I think
back thirty years Tim White had takenover a program from Sean Walsh in a
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situation where a legend had passed awayand whitehead never I think got treated fairly
and respected for what he did accomplishwith Maine. A little bit different situation
with Ben Barr. People still lookback thirty years ago as if that was
the last time Maine was any good. So in one sense, he is
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seen as somebody coming in to restoresome former glory. Maybe a little difference
there, but to have the fanscome back and fill al Fond Arena and
sell out in Portland right before,right before the break really kind of gives
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you a sense that the fans inMaine sense that something special is happening there.
There's no doubt and there you know, they are a culture of fans
that they were waiting for this.I've been fortunate to probably be up to
Maine in my thirty two years inthis business. I've probably been up there
at least ten twelve, maybe evenmore times. And the frustration when they
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weren't good. I called a fewgames or you VM radio up there a
number of years ago, and Iremember, you know, Main gave up
three goals one night in the earlygoings of a game and the eight fans
right in front of us in thein the stands up and left. They
were just disgusted by the team andthey left. That is that shows a
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level of frustration and the level ofhigh expectation that is up there. And
I agree with what you said aboutTim Whitehead never getting that fair or Shae,
because don't forget he was, youknow, less than a minute away
from his own national championship with thisteam. They they want glory up there,
and you know, you asked thequestion about how difficult it can be
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to recruit up there, and Iliked what Ben Barr said. You know,
you can, you know, havea lot of pretty shiny things and
all of that stuff, but it'sthe word of mouth between the players generation
after generation that tell other players togo there, and that's what he needs
to and it seems like he's gettingthat. You know you're getting. I
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mean to have two of the bestfreshmen in the country both choose your program
the same season, highly touted,and now immediately have success in that program.
That's something that is very sellable tothe next class, in the next
class after that. That's the typeof kind of a train of recruits that
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you want because they come there forthe right reason. You know, they're
not worried about we're in or andO and we're you know, three hours
away from any major city. They'reworried more about I want to win,
and this is the place I canwin. But We'll be watching Maine with
a lot of interest. They've beenfun to watch so far this season.
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One of the great stories in collegehockey in twenty three and twenty four for
Jim Conwey, I'm ed trefscre We'llcatch you next time on USCCHO Spotlight
Usccho dot com. Welcome to USCCHOSpotlight for Wednesday, December thirteenth, twenty
twenty three. I'm Ed Trefsker alongsideJim Connolly. In May of twenty twenty
(00:25):
one, when Ben Barr was hiredat Maine, there was no doubt that
it would take a year or twoto turn things around, but there was
also no doubt that there would bea big turnaround. And joining us now
on USCCHO Spotlight the head coach ofthe main Black Bears. That's Ben Barr.
Ben. Very good start to thisseason for your team, four straight
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wins at this point coming into today. What do you like at this point?
Obviously there's a lot to like,but what are some of the things
you're seeing from this team that arecertainly stand out? There's self driven,
which is really nice. You know, the teams that have had success that
I've you know, been around atother schools of all kind of had that
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where you're not you're not poking andprodding guys to work hard, and that's
you know, and we started toget to that point towards the end of
last year and I and I thinkthat's carried carried on through the start of
the year here. Uh, andthat's the credit to the you know leaders
on our team, you know,David Brazil, Lindon Breen and puss On
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and like Diamond Ale that draw theseguys that have been here for the whole
time our staff has been here.And uh, you know, so I
think that's the the one thing that'sreally been for us is like, you
know, we really haven't had alot of bad practices or bad efforts at
a game. We haven't obviously wonevery game, but like it hasn't been
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because the guys didn't work hard.And that's a that's a nice feeling to
have, you know as a coachthat you know that you're going to get
a good effort for the most part, and and and then you let the
cards fallow where they may. Youknow, we're gonna get to a couple
of great freshmen you have on yourteam, but you just threw a few
names out there, and guys likeLyndon Breen and Donovan Uhl, Ben Poison
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Tho, these are some pretty highend players probably had opportunities to maybe not
be back in the lineup for Mainethis year. They chose to stay and
as as seniors and a grad studentfor for poison. These are guys that
are really having some impact, notjust as leaders, but on the score
sheet as well. How nice isit to have a team that seemed dedicated
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to coming back. It's it's reallynice. You know. It speaks to
the character of those of those playersand those people, and it also speaks
to the you know, to theconnection that they have with this place and
that that goes like, you know, way of for any of us were
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here, you know what happens herewhen you know and it's always been like
this, going back to the youknow, the Sean wallshears, but they
have a connection with people that havebeen watching them every day. It's it's
like five thousand people that all knoweach other every time there's a game up
here. And it really is uniqueto anywhere that I've been. I've been
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at quite a few schools. I'msure there are other programs where it's it's
similar to that, but it's ahard thing to find. And I and
I think that really speaks to theyou know, the passion for what happens
up here. And I think theyknew that we had a chance to be
better this year, and that's youknow, the fact that they wanted to
be a part of that, andyou know, it is pretty cool.
(03:43):
For sure. There are so manyhigh end freshmen in Hockey East this year
that maybe guys like Josh Nato andBradley Nato maybe got lost in the the
the the big pile of unbelievable talentedfreshmen, but not lost in your lineup
leeding your team and scoring each oneof them ten goals twenty two points for
(04:06):
Josh, twenty one for Bradley.Tell me about these brothers and what it's
been like to coach such talented players. Yeah, it's it's really unique.
I've coached brothers before in other placesthat you know, but when you have
two of them that are, youknow, dynamic, and then you put
(04:28):
them together and they've been even thoughthey're they're obviously not twins, but they've
played a lot together over the yearsin you know, whether youth hockey or
in Penticton for a couple of years. You know, we get we get
credit for the score at the endof the game on the scoreboard as coaches,
and but I'd be d be alie to say that we have anything
(04:50):
to do with anything that those twoguys and Linden Breen do together on the
ice, you know, they justsome of the stuff they do is just
it is really incredible. But Ithink what makes them really really, you
know, really special is how hardthey work. They're on the ice all
the time. They never want tocome off the ice. They practice like
(05:10):
in practice are games. It's likea game every day they're on the ice,
and and you know, and obviouslythey're skilled and talented and really good
hockey players, but it all startswith the kind of people they are.
And obviously Lyndon in the middle ofthose guys has been really good as well.
But they yeah, I mean theydo some things together. Individually they're
(05:31):
very good, but then you putthem together and it's it's pretty special.
You start to touch upon it whenI asked you about the upper classmen.
But obviously Orno is a pretty specialplace with a very deep tradition going back
to the eighties and nineties and whatSean Walsh accomplished there. I remember as
(05:53):
a student of the unbelievable crowds thatteams would face and how difficult it was
to play up there. But Ialso remember, you know, as a
broadcaster going up there and seeing twentytwo, twenty three hundred in Alphon,
and it was just so different.It seems to be back and you can
dispel the room or I've heard therumor that you're sold out for the rest
(06:14):
of the season. I see thestudents still hanging over the goaltender from the
balcony in Alphon. I just what'sit like to see that building come back
to life after some down years inthat program. Yeah, it's I don't
know if that rumor is sure ornot. I couldn't tell you, so
I have to go after ticket office, but it's I think we've had like
(06:38):
four or five sellouts in a row, which is just it's hard to describe.
But when you walk out there forthe games, it's just it's a
whole different feeling and you just can'tyou can't find that many places in the
Naki in general, well a,let alone college hockey. It's just people
(07:00):
are so connected to the communities,so connected to it, and they and
they you know it's for I don't. I think it's it's the social gathering
part of the of the state,especially the northern part of the state where
we are, and you know,like they it's just uh, It's hard
to describe, but how you know, humbling it is when you walk out
(07:24):
there and they just and our playersfeel it, the other team feels that.
You know. It's it's just it'san amazing place to play and it's
amazing place to coach, and youknow, we have to make sure that
we keep you know, fostering thatthat connection with you know, and that's
that starts with us taking care ofbusiness on the ice and putting a good
(07:46):
product out there. But it's thusackand thin. I mean that goes back,
you know, decades, and youknow, even the first couple of
years where we were fighting it alittle bit up here, like the support
was still there like it has beenthis year. But towards the end of
last year, you could see theycould feel it again and it's it's a
(08:07):
truly special place to be. Thenwhen we started out, you mentioned about
the players being self driven, andit got me thinking back a little bit
following your interviews and some of thepress clippings in your first season where you
were emphasizing how the team really neededto work hard, and I think you
said something like playing like it's yourlast game. How how has it been
(08:30):
to develop that culture and kind ofinstill that over these past two and a
half seasons and get to where youare now. I mean, for me,
I've been super fortunate as an assistantto see that happen a few you
know, at a few schools thatso you know that was having that experience
was really invaluable to me. Andthen you know, knowing how important getting
(08:58):
the right people and and that andthat's not just the players, that's also
the staff, you know, Jasonfor j Elfie, Me, show Eric
Soltie, Nick Fonsi, Cody Faziolthat our strengthening coach like those people and
I can say this because I wasa long time assistant, are more important
(09:18):
than I am. And uh,you know, like as a head coach,
you get a lot of the creditor the blame for the things that
happen, and rightly so, butthose are the one Those are the people
that are doing things all day everyday, watching the video and doing the
extra skill sessions, you know,and I you know, I've been in
those shoes and so the so havingthe right people in the locker room as
(09:39):
far as the players and their workethic, that that takes time. I
think we're finally pretty close to that, and then having the right staff and
letting them do their thing. They'reall very competent people, more competent than
me in a lot of areas.Obviously, Elfie does a great job with
their goalies, and pedally kill Jasonhas their power play and he's you know,
(10:00):
our player development coaches is awesome,and Soults is on the road and
so those people are you know,just vital to what we do, you
know, and especially up here wherewe are. We're not We're not going
to be the everything shiny recruiting powerhousethat you know, you see some of
(10:20):
the schools that have all the youknow, a lot of resources or you
know, in big cities or whatever. We have to prove that we can
make our players you know, betterevery day and and win championships. And
if we do that, that's why, that's why people players will come to
the University of Maine. And havingthe right people not just in the not
just the players, but the staffis is really really important to that.
(10:43):
More with Maine head coach Ben Barrin a moment, we're back with Maine
head coach Ben Barr. I wantedto ask you about recruiting. In your
days and his assistant, you developeda reputation as being a very good recruiter,
(11:07):
and now you're working with the staffdoing the recruiting and scouting. You
mentioned recruiting domain as opposed to someof the shinier teams in your league.
What kind of extra effort, whatkind of extra packaging for lack of a
better term, do you have toput together to really sell the quality of
(11:30):
your program to a potential recruit.I don't think my thoughts on that stuff
kind of changed, especially during COVID, where you know, for that whole
year you couldn't really you couldn't goon the road, right, so we
were playing. Everyone was still kindof in their own bubble or whatever,
and we were around our players andthat was the year we won the national
(11:52):
championship at Umathal. In recruiting,in my opinion, in recruiting, the
most important pece of it is thatthe players know that they're getting better and
they can win. I mean,that's all the rest of it. You
know, it's nice to have shinystuff. We're going to have shiny things
up here. We're going to haveyou know, we're in the midst of
(12:13):
a big renovation started this past yearwith our scoreboards and stuff. It's going
to continue for the next couple ofyears. We're going to have all that
stuff. But the end of theday, that doesn't matter. What matters
is that the players believe they're gettingbetter and they're being pushed and challenged fairly
because they're the ones that recruit.We're not the ones that I know,
we get the you get the reputationof being a good recruiter or whatever as
(12:37):
an assistant, and that for meleads to you know, other opportunities and
whatever. But really the most importantpart is that, you know, are
we making our players better? Andso you know, for us, especially
up here, we have to dothat because it's not we're not in Boston
or you know, in Minneapolis orDetroit. There's some big city where people
(12:58):
are coming in and out of.So we don't have people just floating through
me and visiting on their you know, a randomly see a game. So
they have to, hey, what'sgoing on up there at the university?
Mean, like, they're their teamsgetting better, their players are getting better.
The atmosphere obviously you can see,you know when you see the videos
that you know, it's second tonone as far as a you know,
(13:18):
an atmosphere on game day, that'sour best recruiting. You know that that's
that's going to be our best recruiting. And then everyone knows everybody in the
hockey world and they're going to calltalk to one of our players that maybe
they played with or whatever. What'sit like up there, and hopefully that's
what's going to sell the University ofMean And you know, I think that's
that's what we really have to focuson in that again goes back to having
(13:43):
good people in the locker room anda and a staff that that really can
develop our players. And I thinkthat's so far that's been a strength of
ours. Kind of a general question, thinking back to your playing days about
twenty years ago and the players thatyou're seeing now, what are some of
the differences, What are some ofthe similarities, whether it's skill or attitude
(14:07):
or whatever around the game. Ithink it's just that every the information is
just so and it's not just inhockey, it's in everything. Information is
so readily available. I mean,as soon as our game is over,
our guys can go back to theirdorm and basically watch all their shifts from
that game, you know, likewhen we were twenty years ago or before
we were playing, like the coacheshad to get the vhs, you know,
(14:30):
double stacked things, and that wouldtake for it would take hours and
hours and hours to get that kindof foot content to the players. And
so everything they do every time theytouch the puck is we're going to see.
They're going to see. And youknow, how do you the days
of you know, you can't hidein anything you do anymore as a player,
(14:54):
or just in anything in life.Really, I mean everything's on video
or social media or whatever, soit's you know, so it's really everything's
under a microscope so much more thanit was, you know, twenty years
ago. And I think there's alot of good about that as far as
developing players and you know, butit's a fine line like how much information
is too much information? And youknow you have to let them, you
(15:16):
know, figure some of the stuffout on their own. And so you're
always trying to figure out like howmuch video is good, how much time
on the ice, how much skilldevelopment. But it really allows you to
you know, you you can pickapart anybody's game so easily now because you
know, and you know, soyou know, if you do that and
(15:39):
say, okay, well we needto work on this, you know,
you need to work on this specificskill. Let's get a plan for you
to work on this specific skill,because you don't do that stuff in practice.
You know, you do that stuffin extra ice skills, ice,
that kind of you know, inpractice, a lot of times you're working
on you know what whatever it isfor check, you know, power play,
penalty kill, you know. Soit's you're not getting in individual skill
(16:00):
per se in practice. So youhave to find ways to get better outside
of practice, which is again youknow, Jason Forte does that with our
team here now, and you knowhe's he's sending guys, hey, we
need to you need to learn howto shoot and stride. You need to
learn how to you know, youredges, your edgework, your skiing.
He has to get better in thisarea whatever it is. And they they
love that. The players love that, which is so much different than it
(16:22):
was when we played. It wasjust like go out, work hard.
Here's the good players, here's theguys like you know, like me that
hopefully you get in the lineup andyou can go and hit some guys,
and you know, that was it. Now it's like everybody, everybody wants
to be everything and how do youhow do you manage that? You know,
Ben, You're now at the breakhere after almost a halfway point in
(16:44):
the season. I guess when youlook at it, we've talked about a
lot of the good things. Whereare some of the places you still maybe
feel you need to get better asa team. The last three games specifically,
we were we were and it wasn'tpretty for us. I mean,
we found a way to to win, you know. I thought it started
kind of with the Yukon game acouple of weeknds ago. You know,
(17:06):
they played really well against the scorewas nowhere indicative near indicative of what happened
in the game, you know,and then we were just kind of you
know, trend Water against Union andBentley this, you know, this past
weekend. So I think I thinksome of the detail in our game is
is it has has dropped a littlebit in the last a couple of weeks,
and I think part of that iswe haven't had it. We haven't
(17:30):
had much practice time. It's almostbeen like pro hockey. I think we
played four games and eight or ninedays and two of those games around the
road, you know, and duringfinals weeks, so it was it was
just kind of like trying to hangon a little bit, and you know,
watching the games back, we werenot very detailed. You know,
(17:51):
we found a way to score enoughgoals to win, but we have to
especially with the young team, andyou know, for the most part,
a lot of our guys are freshmenand side boards that are playing big roles
for us, and we have toget back to just a little things away
from the pock and get better atespecially against tighter as the year goes on,
and second half is always tighter thanthe first half. Every game week,
(18:11):
there's not going to be a lotof ice out there for us just
to go up and down and gettwo on ones and three on twos.
So we have to be able towin the tight checking, you know,
grinding type games, and I don'tI don't think we were great at that
the last few few games. Onelast one before we let you go.
When you come back, you'll headto the Ledgered Bank Classic, one of
(18:33):
the shortest bus ride you could makeit in the course of a year.
From more or No heading to DartmouthDartmouth College. Do you like those in
season tournaments? You know, perssome coaches say that they prepare you for
the postseason, but some coaches alsosay they you know, sometimes they feel
like a waste. How do youfeel about them? We had one,
We had our own NRPI back inthe day. It was the holiday term.
(18:55):
Sometimes it was that Thanksgiving, sometimeslike Christmas. Right, It was
always kind of fun. It wasdifferent. You know, you had three
teams there, and a lot oftimes there are people that on those other
teams that were you know, youknow, your new players and people you
know, players you played with ondifferent teams growing up or whatever. So
that was kind of neat to youdon't really know what you're getting that,
especially the first week after the break. You know, our guys are coming
(19:17):
back, you know a little bitearlier this year, so to hopefully last
year. After the break. Wewere playing pretty well going into the break,
and after it looked like we'd neverplayed hockey before when we got back.
I think our break was too long. So yeah, I mean,
they're they're games, and they're importantgames. You know, we play r.
A. T is a really goodteam the first game and then we'll
see the second the second game,depending what happens, but those games are
(19:41):
really important for you know, atthe end of the year, and uh
so we can't afford to have anoff night or two, and so,
you know, I we just viewthem as another game and it's another game
against a really good team. Andhow do we how do we hand after
being off for ten eleven days orwhatever it is when they go when the
(20:03):
guys go home, And that's achallenge because that's you know, college hockey,
I think is the only the onlylevel you know that I don't know
if there's other junior leagues or proleagues where you get that kind of break
where you know, teams are youknow, guys are going home and they're
really on their own for you know, sometimes a week or two and it's
like, okay, you know everyonesome that's fine for some people and some
(20:25):
guys that's finding ice and that kindof stuff is a challenge. So that's
uh, you're always just kind ofyou know, crossing your fingers a little
bit. Well, you are inthe middle of a short break about twenty
days here for the Black Bears,but the holidays do come in there.
So we wish you the happiest toholidays and to you your family, everybody
up in our good old or NoMaine and uh keep up to good work.
(20:47):
We enjoy watching the team from afar. Thanks Jim, I appreciate it.
Thanks that happy all. I seeyou guys as well. That's main
Black Bears head coach Ben Barr.Jim. Ben started out right away talking
about how this year's team has beenself driven, and when he got to
Maine he was really talking a lotabout having to get players to start working
(21:11):
hard. He has built a culturethere and he seems to be on the
same timeline that UMass was when hewas brought in as an assistant coach there.
Their third season is when they reallystarted to catch some fire. And
that's what's happening right now in Maine. Yeah, you know, I mean,
this is a coach in Ben Barwho has an assistant had success everywhere
(21:33):
he went, and he went toa number of different programs, but you
know, you know, calving outwith the obviously the national championship at UMass
right before he ended up in Orno, he knew what he wanted to do
with this program. But you canknow as a coach exactly how you want
(21:53):
to handle the situation, but youstill need the buy in, and he
got the buy in pretty quickly fromplayers. And you know, there were
some good moments in season one,I think for him, and that probably
is something that you know, canbecome a little bit contagious within a locker
room. And then season two thingsreally started to improve. You know,
(22:17):
one of the best, one ofthe better seasons Maine it had. Of
course, you know, one oftheir best seasons in recent years was the
one that was canceled out by COVIDthe playoffs, the postseason. They never
got a chance uh to play thatpostseason with Red Gendron, the late Redgendron
as their coach. But now herethey are, and they're in a situation
where they've they've tasted some good thingsand now I think the believability is there.
(22:41):
And it seems certainly that the selfmotivation, which boy, is that
an important thing any coach. Youcan't bottle that up and sell it.
Coaches don't always succeed in bringing thatto a locker room. It's hard to
get there sometimes, you know,locker rooms need the coach to lead them
through motivation. And I'd much ratheras a head coach be one that has
(23:04):
a team that just motivates itself,and then I'm there for support and a
head coach that always has to getthere and give that raw ras speech to
get them go, because they ifyou're in that situation, eventually that speech
gets tuned out itself and you don'tend up with that same success as a
(23:25):
self motivated team. So it wasthe first thing he said to us,
and I thought that that was areally important part of what he pointed to
as being a success for this year'steam. That vacancy after the passing of
Red Gendron was unexpected. Back inMay of twenty twenty one. I think
back thirty years Tim White had takenover a program from Sean Walsh in a
(23:49):
situation where a legend had passed awayand whitehead never I think got treated fairly
and respected for what he did accomplishwith Maine. A little bit different situation
with Ben Barr. People still lookback thirty years ago as if that was
the last time Maine was any good. So in one sense, he is
(24:11):
seen as somebody coming in to restoresome former glory. Maybe a little difference
there, but to have the fanscome back and fill al Fond Arena and
sell out in Portland right before,right before the break really kind of gives
(24:32):
you a sense that the fans inMaine sense that something special is happening there.
There's no doubt and there you know, they are a culture of fans
that they were waiting for this.I've been fortunate to probably be up to
Maine in my thirty two years inthis business. I've probably been up there
at least ten twelve, maybe evenmore times. And the frustration when they
(24:57):
weren't good. I called a fewgames or you VM radio up there a
number of years ago, and Iremember, you know, Main gave up
three goals one night in the earlygoings of a game and the eight fans
right in front of us in thein the stands up and left. They
were just disgusted by the team andthey left. That is that shows a
(25:18):
level of frustration and the level ofhigh expectation that is up there. And
I agree with what you said aboutTim Whitehead never getting that fair or Shae,
because don't forget he was, youknow, less than a minute away
from his own national championship with thisteam. They they want glory up there,
and you know, you asked thequestion about how difficult it can be
(25:41):
to recruit up there, and Iliked what Ben Barr said. You know,
you can, you know, havea lot of pretty shiny things and
all of that stuff, but it'sthe word of mouth between the players generation
after generation that tell other players togo there, and that's what he needs
to and it seems like he's gettingthat. You know you're getting. I
(26:02):
mean to have two of the bestfreshmen in the country both choose your program
the same season, highly touted,and now immediately have success in that program.
That's something that is very sellable tothe next class, in the next
class after that. That's the typeof kind of a train of recruits that
(26:23):
you want because they come there forthe right reason. You know, they're
not worried about we're in or andO and we're you know, three hours
away from any major city. They'reworried more about I want to win,
and this is the place I canwin. But We'll be watching Maine with
a lot of interest. They've beenfun to watch so far this season.
(26:45):
One of the great stories in collegehockey in twenty three and twenty four for
Jim Conwey, I'm ed trefscre We'llcatch you next time on USCCHO Spotlight
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