LEWISTON – At 6:30 Tuesday evening, there was hardly a whisper to be heard in the parking lot in front of the Colisee. Two speakers and a microphone stood by the center doors to the ticket windows, and a radio blasted classic rock to a dozen cars and a few passing teens.
Billie Jean Chaput was one of the first people to arrive. Clad in her signed No. 91 Olivier Legault jersey, Chaput had a spot in front of the speakers, right out front.
“Those three months really dragged,” said Chaput. “It’s time for them to be back.”
“Them” are the Lewiston Maineiacs, and Tuesday night, about 200 fans crowded around the bottom of the Colisee’s front steps and watched as, one by one, emcee Ernie Gagne introduced the 56 players in town for the team’s 2005 training camp.
“The last 90 days, I’ve been counting down every day,” said Mike Caron, 34, of Lewiston. “I’ll go out on jobs and people will stop me and we’ll talk about the team, and we kept saying it would be here soon enough. Here it is.”
All of the players from last year’s team who returned received decidedly louder applause than the newcomers, but two players in particular – one who was cut early last year and one who isn’t going to play for the Maineiacs this season – drew the loudest applause: Shane Peterson and Alexandre Picard.
Peterson, a 6-foot-9-inch defenseman who weighed 200 pounds soaking wet last year, returned to camp this year at 239 pounds.
Picard, meanwhile, was second on the team in points last season by one, and will likely play with the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL this season. Picard is in town to run through practices with the team. At 20, he is still eligible to play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and the Maineiacs still hold his rights.
“This maybe is my last time being introduced here in Lewiston,” said Picard. “In Sherbrooke, they never did anything like this. I think we are the only team to do something like this before camp, and there are a lot of people here, which is a good thing for the team, and for the fans.”
For Ryan Murphy, an 18-year-old prospective team member (not related to the player by the same name who played last year for the Maineiacs), the turnout was surprising.
“Coming from a Canadian town, I am not used to having an American town be so overwhelmed with hockey,” said Murphy. “They really support the team, and even the players that are not on the team yet.”
“It’s definitely something different,” agreed Karl Prefontaine, also a newcomer to training camp.
Four players from last year’s team were absent. Chad Denny was in Whistler, British Columbia for the Canadian World Junior tryout camp, while Jonathan Bernier and Stefan Chaput were on their way back from Slovakia after helping Team Canada win the gold medal at the World Under-17 Championship last weekend. Jonathan Paiement was reportedly at the New York Rangers’ camp, and should be in camp by Wednesday or Thursday.
Practices start this morning at 7, with the goaltenders, and the rest of the players will take shifts from 9 to noon. The team’s first intrasquad game is at 7 tonight.
Comments are no longer available on this story