The Boston Red Sox won’t ask slugger David Ortiz to steal bases this season. That would be unfair.
Expecting the University of Maine men’s hockey team to make a noteworthy postseason run is equally unfair.
Making the Hockey East Tournament would be an achievement.
It seems odd, doesn’t it?
After watching this program transformed from a bottom-feeder to a two-time national champ and 11-time Frozen Four participant, including four over the past seven years, finishing in the top eight in a 10-team league seems like the most minimal of achievements.
But they were picked to finish ninth in Hockey East, where they finished last year, and they are the nation’s fifth youngest team.
Maine is 4-0-2 against teams behind them in the standings and 1-8 against those ahead of them.
The Bears’ current eight-game winless streak (0-6-2) has magnified their weaknesses.
Maine has scored just eight even-strength goals during the skid while giving up 23.
Goaltending has gone from exceptional to troubling.
Freshman Scott Darling, the team’s most valuable player entering the Christmas break, has a 3.77 goals-against average and a dreary .859 save percentage during the slide.
He has lost his confidence.
During the first half, he was minimizing his movement and using his 6-foot-5 frame to full advantage. Now he is dropping into the butterfly position too early and moving too much. He needs to square himself to the shooters like he did earlier.
Darling will be another in a long line of exceptional goaltenders at Maine once he relaxes, regains his confidence and economizes his movement.
He’s a hard worker.
Junior Dave Wilson has improved and played well against Boston College on Sunday but he has never won a road game.
Offensively, the top line of sophomore Tanner House between freshmen Gustav Nyquist and Brian Flynn has 23 of Maine’s 55 goals. The defensemen have 12 more leaving just 20 from the other 12 forwards.
Nyquist and Flynn have teamed up for 17 goals in 47 games between them while the rest of the forwards have 56 goals in 560 career games.
But you can’t blame them.
They work hard but have limited offensive capabilities and speed and Hockey East is an unforgiving league.
Three poor recruiting years in terms of attracting talented forwards, along with two early defections (Teddy Purcell and Andrew Sweetland), have left them offensively-challenged.
Help is on the way offensively and in the speed department and the returnees should be improved.
However, don’t expect all of the current sophomores and juniors to return because the coaching staff will weed out the ones who don’t figure in their plans. They won’t revoke scholarships but those roster spots will be taken by recruits or recruited walk-ons.
Recruiting will get even more challenging because they are struggling and attendance is down 10 percent.
Maine has to take a simplistic approach the rest of the way.
They must play sound team defense and finish all of their checks to force opponents into hasty decisions and mistakes.
They must outwork teams.
They have to do a better job getting low, rebound-producing shots on net. They get too many blocked. They have to attack the net with urgency.
They also need the dynamic Nyquist to snap out of his mini-slump (4 assists in 8 games).
The seven regular defensemen are among their top 12 players so they should consider moving one up front. Five are among the top 11 scorers.