The Lewiston Maineiacs made some mistakes, and want to put those behind them.

That’s the message the team’s majority owner Mark Just is trying to convey this week after the Maineiacs announced they would return to Lewiston “for the foreseeable future” following months of relocation speculation.

“We’ve made some mistakes, we’re going to try to correct those mistakes, and we’re going to try to pay attention to some things going on, more than I realized there were before,” Just said Wednesday. “That’s really where our focus is.”

The Maineiacs announced back in January their intention to relocate the franchise to Boisbriand, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal. The ownership group there offered Just a deal he couldn’t refuse.

“It was a no-brainer for any businessman to make, with a purchase price that was outstanding, and a five-year plan I’d be involved with it and profits all the way through, and a new building and a new this and a new that,” Just admitted. “No one could turn anything like that down. That’s why it was attractive, and I don’t feel the need to defend that. It was a no-brainer.”

After Boisbriand fell through, Just said, he listened to many other offers, but ultimately decided staying put was his best option.

“Looking at everything else – and we did look at other things – what we had going here made more sense than going other places,” Just said. “Coming back here had more upside than any other place we’d considered.”

The first thing Just felt he needed to do was make a change at the top of the organization’s pecking order. The team’s president and governor, Matt McKnight, tendered his resignation this week.

“I found out a lot of things I wasn’t aware of, to be honest with you,” Just said. “Now that I am aware of a lot of things, I’m putting people in place, (head coach) Don (MacAdam) in particular, to deal with these things and make it a ‘we’ situation rather than, I guess, one that wasn’t. This is a community team, and I always viewed it that way, but evidently a lot of people didn’t. When I was informed on a lot of things, I understood why people were feeling that way. I think those are things that can be adjusted. Our intentions are good, and they always have been good. I just think there was some miscommunication, some things were done incorrectly.”

Just said that he fully expected MacAdam to remain on with the team beyond this season, and in an expanded role.

“Don is going to be in charge of the operation there,” Just said. “Don is going to be in charge of the situation there, and I think he’ll do a great job.”

Job No. 1, both MacAdam and Just agree, will be to repair relationships within the community at large.

“We’ll put our best foot forward, we’ll wipe the slate clean like we would for a player when he has a bad game and look at him the next game,” Just said. “We’re going to look at what we’ve done wrong, in our eyes, and we’re going to listen to what people say. We’re not going to do what everyone says, of course, but we’ll be listening.”

“We have to make this a viable business,” MacAdam said. “We’re going to need the support of the fans and the business community, and when we get that support, we’re very confident that can happen. It needs to be a community effort. We need to reach out to the community, and I know we can do a better job at that.”

The thought likely still lingers in the back of local hockey enthusiasts’ minds, however, that this return to Lewiston may still be a temporary solution.

“We’re in Lewiston, our outlook is for a long time, we’re looking to make it work there,” Just said. “We need the community help. We’re going to look at what we’ve done wrong, what we’ve done right, and we’re going to ask the people, if they really want a team there, it comes down to the fact that the people need to come out and show us that they want us there. Why would I want to go anywhere if the team was, in fact, successful in Lewiston? We’re entrenched there. I don’t want to go anywhere else.

“Donnie and Roger are outgoing, community-oriented, small-town-type guys who understand the community, and I think they’ll bring back some of that synergy that (former Maineiacs GM and coach) Clem (Jodoin) brought, where the people felt they were part of the team.”

Just said he plans to be in Lewiston several times during the month of April to tend to both hockey and operational issues

“We all get a second chance,” Just said. “We’ve all done some things right, and we’ve all done some things wrong, but there’s no point in being negative, because negative isn’t going to help anyone.”