LEWISTON – The navy blue warm-up suit felt a little funny as Maxime Robert hung around his team’s locker room at the Colisee on Friday afternoon after practice.

There on the bench, he stood facing the Maineiacs’ locker room. Above it a sign read “Welcome home, Maineiacs,” and the new flashing red sign in the opposite corner gave the ice, and Robert’s face, a reddish glow.

Behind him, another sign told the real story.

“Welcome back, Maxime Robert.”

The sign was actually bigger than the one devoted to the entire Maineiacs’ team, and was on the opposite end of the ice.

“The clothes I have, they are all Maineiacs things,” said Robert. “I have hats and shirts and jackets and jerseys, and I can’t wear them anymore. This is the only thing I have from this team, and I got it two days ago.”

During this year’s preseason, Robert was let go, cast aside by the Maineiacs after two seasons with the organization (one in Sherbrooke and one in Lewiston).

“I know it is part of the game,” said Robert about the move that landed him in Bathurst as the top face-off man for the Titan. “I loved my time here in Lewiston, and I loved the fans. The people were great, and the team was great.”

As he turned at the mention of his personalized sign, he blushed and laughed.

“It is great that people here still remember me and care,” Robert said. “Hopefully I can score a goal tonight.”

While Robert was not a goal-producing machine last season, he will probably be best remembered for his first goal of the season, the first ever scored by a Lewiston player on home ice, which came unassisted on a short-handed breakaway against Drummondville.

“I do remember that,” said Robert. “Hopefully I can do it again.”

As the game started, Robert’s focus was back on hockey, and during the game he continued his consistent faceoff play, winning 11 of 16 draws he took.

“It was hard out there,” said Robert after the game. “I have so many friends on the Lewiston team. I was only here for a year, but I met so many good people. On the ice tonight, I had to stop myself a couple of times from thinking the white shirts were my team. It was tough.”

Robert will return one more time this season, on Dec. 14.