I saw Robert Woodbury’s mention of the news out of Orono and just wanted to offer some thoughts. It is rare that a college hockey coach passes away while still coaching. It has happened at Maine now twice in the last 20 years, as it was almost 20 years ago in 2001 that Shawn Walsh passed. I know what a difficult time it was up there 20 years ago when Shawn passed and it is the same again now. I feel fortunate to have known both men to some extent during their time on Earth, which in both cases was far, far too short. Maybe even more difficult now given that we knew what was happening with Shawn and that it would be sooner rather than later that he would go. In contrast Red’s passing on Friday was sudden, unexpected and shocking. He was only 63.

Red was in many ways a larger than life personality. Like me he was a New Hampshire native, though he was from up north in Berlin (he could tell those who knew Berlin if they pronounced it correctly — “BER-lin”, not like the one in Germany). It was a hockey powerhouse in the days Red grew up there. As the town’s logging and other businesses have fallen off over the years, the town has seen an exodus in population and so on, but Red always had a fondness for his hometown and home state.

He won Stanley Cups and NCAA titles, but he was the most humble and down to earth person you could meet. A real throwback to the days of old and old time hockey, with his stories and the like. Yet he was also at the forefront of the evolution of the game. When he was a teacher just out of college, he taught history, and it was one of his longtime interests — when we would meet up with him to record pregame interviews we would often touch on some subject related to history, including the game of hockey. Once Merrimack was playing Maine just after the ESPN 30-for-30 documentary aired on the Soviet players who were the pioneers coming over to play in the NHL. He was an assistant coach with the Devils and won a Stanley Cup with them, and he was close with Slava Fetisov while also knowing the other Russian players. We spent some time in the interview talking about that and the interview ran long, but we didn’t care, we made time for it on our broadcast because it was good stuff. Red followed the changes in the game closely as it evolved over the years and used it in his own coaching, and he loved to talk about the ways in which the Soviet and European styles wound up meshing with the North American game and how it made the game better. Every interview you learned something new. It’s hard to think about how that won’t happen anymore now.

More than anything was just how he was a kind person who sincerely cared about everyone he came in contact with. His players have already said so much about this. My colleague & friend Mike McMahon has written and tweeted about Red taking Mike’s son and father on a tour of Alfond unbeknownst to Mike as he wrapped up his writing for the night, and always asking how they were whenever he saw him. That was my experience too. I mentioned something about my family at some point early on when starting to interview Red and after that he always asked how they were doing and would chuckle at whatever amusing story I had to tell that time. He made you feel like a lifelong friend, even those of us who only would see him a couple times a year (Hockey East Media Day, regular season, maybe a playoff meeting).

One time a couple years after Red started at Maine, maybe the third year, we were up there for two games and I went up to his office alone to record a few minutes with him without my radio partner John Leahy, who usually would go but was fixing some issue with the equipment that night — Red asked about John and I explained why he was not there and that he probably would be tomorrow, and we recorded our interview. The next night John and I went up and as we walked into Red’s office, he jumped up and started going off on John. “What’s wrong with you? You couldn’t be bothered to come up and see me? What the heck?” If you know Red you know the language he used was far more colorful than that. :) John looked stunned for a second, until Red broke out into a huge grin, put out his hand to shake John’s and said, “How are you doing, partner!” I had no idea that was coming and neither of course did John — he really busted his chops. :)

I can only imagine how difficult and shocking it is for people who were much closer to Red than we were. Even just seeing him occasionally, you felt like you were close to him. My heart breaks for his family and close friends, and the entire Maine hockey family. I’m very sad that with the pandemic and the crazy schedule in Hockey East, we didn’t get to see Red this year, the Maine at Merrimack series in December was canceled just beforehand and the teams never wound up meeting. I hope he is at peace and the same for his family and friends. He was one of a kind and will be missed, very, very much. :(

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Mike Machnik
College Hockey News
Merrimack Radio Network