It’s over, and they made it.
For 13 teams in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League the long first part of the season is over.
Most of them are gearing up for a playoff run, excited and energized at what lies ahead. The Lewiston Maineiacs, however, need to take a few minutes off and reflect on a tumultuous season that could have been better, but also could have been much, much worse.
“Some of the young kids, they survived training camp,” Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin said following the team’s regular-season finale Sunday. “We survived the season as a team, and the main goal is always making the playoffs, and that was tough. The teams were all so good this year. There wasn’t any easy games against anyone, but we did it.”
Many prognosticators picked the Maineiacs to finish in the top six this season. This writer picked them seventh, and, lest we forget, also picked Gatineau to finish atop the league.
Rimouski, with Sidney Crosby at the helm, blew away the rest of the league down the stretch. Christmas gifts weren’t opened the last time the Oceanic dropped a game.
Halifax, with the return of the “Boomerang Boys” (players traded to Cape Breton two years ago who have since returned to the team in a “boomerang” trade since outlawed by the league) and solid goaltending from Jason Churchill, claimed the top spot in the Atlantic Division, and Rouyn-Noranda edged out Shawinigan for the top Western berth.
There were only three teams that finished more than three places away from my preseason predictions: Gatineau (picked first and finished eighth), PEI (which nose-dived hard from fifth to 14th in the waning weeks of the season and was picked in 10th) and Lewiston.
But that’s all over now. In hockey, the regular season is only half the battle, and the year is now half over.
“Usually, the first half of the season, the talent is going to carry you, and after that, it’s going to be your grit, and now it’s your will,” said Jodoin.
Grit? Will? Now where have we seen that this year? Was it in the four 16-year-olds and eight 17-year-olds that suited up and played regular shifts for the Maineiacs? Was it in veterans like Sheldon Wenzel and Nick Cowan, who both played injured and brought a necessary spunk to the team? Or was it in Alexandre Picard and Alex Bourret, who seemed at times to strap the team to their backs and carry them through games?
Yes to all.
True hockey personalities rarely make excuses. They liken those to opinions and assumptions, which tend to make fools of those airing them.
The Maineiacs were handed excuses on a silver platter. Eight players scratched from the final roster; a roster that has not been complete and injury free since the opening day of training camp; trade rumors about star players; stories of players being unhappy and threatening to leave; no captains; stupid penalties. The list could go on.
Still, Jodoin has repeated over and over that “these are not excuses for playing bad hockey.”
Maybe not excuses, but certainly explanations.
That said, the playoffs are about to start. Playoffs are a time to wipe the slate clean and forget about the regular season. Picard’s 85 points and Bourret’s 86, the pair’s combined 332 minutes in penalties and Jaroslav Halak’s 2.76 goals-against-average mean nothing now.
And forget about asking Jodoin to praise the future.
“(The rookies’ playing time) good for the future, but let’s talk about this year now,” said Jodoin. “We all know that there is a good future, but what we can do right now is the most important thing. How can we surprise people with what we are going through right now? How can we have a chance in the playoffs? That is the most important thing right now.”
Shawinigan is a good team with a stellar goaltender and a near impeccable record on home ice (20-7-8, .686 win percentage), while Lewiston has been less than stellar on the road (12-18-5, .414).
The numbers, however, are eerily similar when flipped.
The point? None of it matters.
The regular season is over, and welcome to the playoffs, where anything can, and usually does, happen.
Oh, for those keeping score? Lewiston in six games, and Jaroslav Halak is the series and league MVP for the opening round.
Justin Pelletier is a staff writer. His e-mail address is jpelletier@sunjournal.com
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