LEWISTON – Maybe what the Lewiston Maineiacs need after losing so many games is a matchup against cellar-dwelling Rimouski, last year’s stalwart, to boost their morale.
Then again, maybe not.
“Record doesn’t mean anything,” said Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin. “Junior hockey is all about emotion. If you don’t show up, you don’t have a chance to win. There’s no question that they are in a rebuilding phase, but that doesn’t mean anything. The game is not played on paper.”
Faceoff tonight at the Colisee is at 7 p.m.
Lewiston has won six games this season to Rimouski’s four, but the Oceanic have not taken any of their games into overtime, and have 15 losses coming into today’s games.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” said Jodoin. “They want to win, they want to make the playoffs. Even St. John’s this weekend, they beat Gatineau twice, so it doesn’t mean anything.”
In the two most recent Lewiston games, a 6-5 shootout loss to Moncton and a 4-2 road loss to Shawinigan, Jodoin and his staff came up with a new line scheme that seems to be paying off. Marc-Andre Daneau has joined Mathieu Aubin and Marc-Andre Cliche on the top line, while Stefan Chaput and Stefano Giliati are set up with Eric Castonguay. In practice Monday, Derek bailey skated with Pier-Luc Champagne and Jonathan Paquet while Maxime Mathieu sat out with flu-like symptoms, and Rob McCarthy and Jakub Bundil joined Olivier Legault on the fourth combination.
“I want to get something from every line,” said Jodoin. “Not only one line. If you rely only on one line, you are in trouble. I want Chaput’s line producing, I want Champagne’s line producing. I try to put a grinder and scorers on each line and try to divide it. If you keep the same three types of players on the same line, forget it. So far, the second line has been playing better and the third line has been playing better.”
Rimouski doesn’t bring much to the Colisee in the way of offense. Jean-Michel Bolduc leads the team with 17 points. No one has more than seven goals for the Oceanic this season, and they are last in the league in goals scored.
With 57, Lewiston is not much better in the goal-scoring department, but on defense the Maineiacs have allowed just 64 (fourth best in the league), while Rimouski has allowed the most through 19 games (96 goals against).
Monday’s practice was long and tough, and Jodoin had little apology for the players following the skate.
“Your practice, your execution in everything,” said Jodoin. “If you don’t practice well, you don’t execute well, it’s impossible to transfer from the practice to games. You have to be able to transfer everything from the practices to the games if you want to be good, and some of the guys are not doing that right now. It’s not being negative, it’s the reality of the facts. The simple things have to be done well during practice to be done well during the games.”
Jodoin afterward admitted that the team had been playing well – sort of.
“Playing well is not enough,” said Jodoin. “What will make the difference is playing better.”
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