LEWISTON — He’s not much of a looker, with his portly stature, over-sized head and fuzzy complexion.

He looks kind of goofy, really.

But judging from the honking horns, smiling passers-by and the waving hands from motorists passing him on Lisbon St. on Wednesday and on Main St. on Thursday, Lewy the Maineiac is pretty popular.

The Lewiston Maineiacs are hoping those honks, smiles and waves turn into ticket sales this weekend as the team opens its 2009-10 home schedule with a pair of games against Baie-Comeau at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, the first of which is Friday at 7 p.m.

“(The home-opener) is the first chance you have to make a positive impression on your
fans,” Lewiston president and head coach Don MacAdam said. “In our case, it’s more than just the hockey, it’s
the entire organization.”

The organization appears miles removed from the turmoil that surrounded it last season, from the firing of a head coach to a botched attempt to relocate the franchise and the uncertainty of the team’s future.

With an influx of new talent on the ice, and an influx of new bodies in the front office, the Maineiacs set out over the summer to reconnect the team with a jilted community. So far, MacAdam said, things are looking positive.

“From the response in the community, collectively, over the summer,
people are behind this team,” MacAdam said. “It’s their team. The
Maineiacs belong to the L/A area. We spent the summer, we’re going to
spend the winter and the next two years following that reinforcing the
point that this is where this team belongs.”

It all starts with a good showing. It’s a second chance, MacAdam said, for the team to make a good first impression.

 
“What we want as an organization is to entertain our fans, we want to
make this an event, not just a hockey game,” MacAdam said. “Not just
the home-opener, every night when the fans come to our games, we want
them to be entertained, and we want the hockey to be a bonus, on top of
all of it.”

MacAdam and the rest of the staff have set lofty attendance goals for the team’s opening weekend, but were quick to point out falling short of those goals won’t be a disaster.

“We want to see total attendance this weekend in excess of 6,000,”
MacAdam said. “It’s absolutely doable. We’ve worked very hard over the
summer to make that happen. I’m not blindly optimistic, but I am
optimistic that we can have more than 6,000 people this weekend.”

Fans have sporadically filtered into the Colisee on practice days, just to watch the team put through its paces. A handful of hard-core fans made the trip last weekend to Quebec to watch the team on its first road trip of the regular season. With 14 skaters on the team who were not a part of last year’s squad, with a new look to the front end, and with a redefined commitment to the community, the Maineiacs appear to be ready to meet some of those lofty goals.

Even the players understand.

“This is the biggest game (Friday) since training camp is over,” Maineiacs’ captain Billy Lacasse said. “For the fans, it’s important to have a good team this year. They expect a lot from us, and we have to prove we can be a good team.”

Friday, the Maineiacs will get that second chance at a first impression.