By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – The players won’t care until the season is over, and the coach thinks having a season at this point would have been “stupid.”

If there was any question whether the players and coaches of the QMJHL were paying attention to the NHL labor situation, that, too was answered Wednesday night, as news of the canceled season had already reached everyone involved.

“My agent called me last week and told me there wasn’t a big chance of an NHL this year,” said Maineiacs’ forward Alexandre Picard. “I knew that for about a week. It’s OK for now. I will worry about that after the season.”

Picard was drafted last June by the Columbus Blue Jackets eighth overall.

This year’s expected No. 1 pick, Sidney Crosby, played opposite Picard on Wednesday. Normally, with those two playing this far South, scouts would have crowded the empty space at the Colisee.

Wednesday, there were just two.

“I’m disappointed for sure,” said Crosby following the game. “Right now, I am unsure of what is going to happen.”

The 17-year-old phenom scored his 51st and 52nd goals of the season in his 52nd game Wednesday, and he said that this season with the Oceanic, and the team’s current 18-game unbeaten streak, are more important.

“I haven’t heard at all anything about a draft,” said Crosby. “All I can do is have the best season possible here (in Rimouski) and hope for the best. There are all kinds of options open to me after this is done, not just the NHL,” said Crosby. “After the season is over, we will wait and see what happens. My main focus right now is with this team.”

For Maineiacs’ coach Clem Jodoin, who spent several years as an assistant coach in the NHL, the news of a canceled season may well be welcome.

“Now the players know who is in charge,” said Jodoin. “It would have been stupid. Once the owners have control, things will be better.”

Jodoin explained that since 1994, when the NHL and the NHLPA last butted heads in a labor dispute, 23 NHL teams have changed owners.

“If we want to keep the league healthy, we need the same owners to stay, and we have to have owners that can control the game.”

Jodoin does not think that the lockout will cancel the upcoming draft, for which several Maineiacs players are eligible.

“Yes, there will be a draft, and yes there will be a season next year,” said Jodoin. “I think now that the players have come back to the table, this can work. Right now, 70 to 80 percent of the teams lose money. That is wrong. If the league wants to stay together, (the owners) have to stick together, and it has to be available to everyone. It is depressing to play to empty seats, and without fans, there is no league.”