Tim Whitehead has been behind the opposing bench for 10 years, five as an assistant and five more as a head coach. He was at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell for all 10 of those years after leaving the University of Maine, where he spent the 1990-91 season as an assistant coach.

Now it is Whitehead’s turn to return to the Black Bears bench as the interim head coach. He replaces the late Shawn Walsh, who died of kidney cancer 11 days ago. Walsh spent the last 17 years directing the fortunes of the Bears.

Whitehead will lead his Black Bears into an important exhibition tuneup tonight at 7 against the University of Moncton (New Brunswick) from the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association at Alfond Arena.

“Because I was here for that one year, it won’t be that weird,” said the 40-year-old Whitehead. “I’m at peace with this job. I’m here and I’ve got a job to do. It’s exciting.”

Whitehead’s primary focus tonight will be assessing his personnel as they prepare for their Icebreaker Tournament opener next Friday against Bowling Green.

“The Moncton game will give me a chance to see who plays well together and how we play as a team. Obviously, we’d like to get off to a good start,” said Whitehead, who will also be looking to see who his best special-teams players might be.

He said his team has had a productive week after suffering the loss of Walsh the previous week.

“We were able to get things done systems-wise this week. I liked the attitudes of the players and the work ethic was real good,” said Whitehead.

Whitehead said the primary area of concern will be along the blue line where only senior captain Peter Metcalf and junior Cliff Loya have more than one year of experience. Francis Nault was a regular as a freshman last year.

Junior Tommy Reimann will be making the move from forward to defense and the Bears will probably have two freshman defensemen in Friday’s lineup: Paul Lynch and Troy Barnes.

“That’s the area we need to spend the most time on,” said Whitehead, who expects his forwards to step up their defensive play to help the young defense corps.

He intends to keep center Marty Kariya and left wing Michael Schutte together as they were two-thirds of Maine’s most productive line at the end of last season. The third member of the line, Matthias Trattnig, graduated.

Freshman John Ronan, who has been one of the pleasant surprises in camp, according to Whitehead, will inherit Trattnig’s spot.

“That’s the only definite line so far,” said Whitehead.

The Maine coach said he will be looking for things such as which players “can round out their games” through steady improvement, who will provide a physical presence, and who has added significant strength or a step of speed to their games.