One of the great things that I look forward to this season is meeting the out-of-town media that visits Lewiston covering the opposition. I like to get different perspectives from people around the league on a variety of issues. With the minimal league wide coverage available to us in Lewiston, one thing that I hope to bring to this column is the thoughts of others that cover their hometown team and the league itself.

Neil Hodge of the Moncton Times and Transcript was intown covering the Wildcats at Friday evenings preseason game at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. Neil has covered the ‘Cats for many years, and travels with the club from Rouyn-Noranda to Sydney to St. John’s to Lewiston and all points in between.

I had a chance to talk Neil Friday evening about his preliminary thoughts going into the 2006-07 season, and the way he sees the two divisions shaping up. It is still early, as many teams rosters have not been finalized yet. His comments to me were “off the cuff” so to speak, and are not his season “predictions”, as many in the media like to do at the open of the regular season.

With Moncton coming off of a President’s Cup championship and reaching the final of the Memorial Cup, his outlook for the Wildcats appears to be in the bottom third of the eastern division. “I see Moncton a couple steps ahead of the expansion teams (Saint John & St. John’s), not quite as far ahead as PEI, ,” Hodge says. “I predict fifth or sixth place of the eight teams in the conference at this stage.”

With Moncton mortgaging off a fair amount of youth for the 2005-06 run for the league title, the ‘Cats still have a fair amount of players returning to the team for 2006-07. The question in Moncton is what they will do with some of the veterans come December at the trade deadline, whether or not they will go into full rebuild mode. “It’s kind of the unknown factor with Moncton right now… Moncton’s never won a championship before (last year) so they’ve never had this luxury before of having 7, 8, or 9 returnees with championship experience, so it is be interesting to see what the x-factor is, in terms of what is exactly the spin-off value of having a returning nucleus with that kind of experience,” Hodge notes.

Moncton does have players of value that may just be at a different postal code come January, the difficult thing is figuring out just who and how many find their way out of town. “I think at Christmas that if they are still in the race (for the middle part of the division) I don’t think they will add anybody, I think they may trade one or two guys. If they are struggling or at the bottom, I don’t think they will have a wholesale sell-off, but I would expect them to I could see them dish off four or five guys.” Hodge thinks. “Some of their top talent, it’s 20 year olds, Andrew MacDonald is a two way solid defenseman. Nathan Welton, if someone is looking for an offensive defenseman. Christian Gaudet, their captain, probably one of their best face-off men, a good solid leader and penalty killer… I think he’d be a good solid investment for somebody.” he continued.

Switching gears and looking ahead to the Eastern Division, Hodge likes Lewiston. “I think Lewiston has to be considered the team to beat at this stage.” Hodge notes. “I think, ironically that (MAINEiacs GM & Head Coach) Clement Jodoin his teams over the years has been known to be strong defensively. I think this team in Lewiston is good defensively, but I think they are better offensively than defensively.”

Hodge thinks that if a move is to be made to improve anything on this MAINEiacs club the rest of the way, it may just be on defense. “If there is a question mark, maybe they will need to add to the blueline,” he says. But he reiterated the fact that he likes Lewiston to come out of the east, “At this stage they have to be the team to beat.”

Hodge also thinks the acquisition of Simon Courcelles last week is a key element to the Lewiston line up. “He just adds more depth and experience. He’s a Memorial Cup winner, and been to the league final,” he pointed out.

Looking at the rest of the division in order, “Bathurst, if they get a good goaltender, that is their big question mark. I think Bathurst has three good lines up front, I think they have a pretty good defense, but goaltending is a huge question mark, which is why I put Lewiston tops right now. I think Lewiston (Jonathan Bernier) and Cape Breton (Ondrej Pavelec) have the best goaltending in the league, by far.”

Hodge thinks at this stage, third and fourth place is a toss-up between the Screaming Eagles and the Mooseheads, and runs down the rest of his initial thoughts ” I think Halifax and Cape Breton, take your pick. After that, there should be a bit of a drop to PEI in fifth, then Moncton (in sixth) and the two expansion teams (to round out the eight team division).”

Taking a quick peak out west, Hodge likes the Foreurs and Remparts to battle it out for the top spot, “I think Val d’Or is going to have a huge rebound season. I think they and Quebec have to be the two favorites, with Quebec returning all that experience from the Memorial Cup winner. It’s not to often that you see a Memorial Cup winner that still has this many returnees. They are a pretty deep team still,” he was quick to point out.

Following Val d’Or and Quebec, the Voltigeurs are likely to take third in Hodge’s mind and might make a postseason charge. “Drummondville, they have been saying this is ‘the season, 06-07′, this is what they have been building for, we’ll see,” he mentions with some reserved doubt. Drummondville has had a history over the past 24 seasons of coming up short in championship drives. “Drummondville always finds a way to mess things up,” he says as we both laugh. “They never seem to be able to get it done. They have a new coach this year (Guy Boucher), I don’t know if that will make a difference. If Guillaume Latendresse is back from Montreal, and I expect that he will be, (along with) Derrick Brassard, he’s a candidate for (Quebec) league MVP. They have a dynamite offense, good defense, if Pier-Olivier Pelletier, their goaltender can recover properly from the hip injury that he had last year that limited his ability, Drummondville could be there again.” As previously noted, there is just something that seems to jinx the Volts, “But there is always a ‘black cloud’ over that team. For some reason, for several years now, they have a strong nucleus of players but just can’t seem to get the job done.” he notes.

Looking at the rest of the division, Hodge thinks Rouyn-Noranda to take a dive from last season to fourth, and the Olympiques may be in for a rough ride in 2006-07. “I think Gatineau is in for a tough season, with a young defense and a question mark in goal as well. I think the ‘ace’ they have in their hand is a fantastic coach in Benoit Groulx, one of the top two or three coaches in the league,” he mentioned. Although it is difficult to go against the perennial favorite, Hodge seems to think that there might just be enough questions with the ‘Piques to keep them from doing too much postseason damage. “With the lack of a proven goaltender, and a young defense, that is why I think they are in for a tough season. You say that, and quite often in Gatineau, you say that and they always seem to find a way to surprise, but I don’t think they can pull another one out of the hat this year.” he concluded.

Bus Trips are starting to fill up, so get on the phone with Sheila if you plan on making the trip.

First bus trip of the year is to Moncton on Saturday & Sunday September 23^rd & 24^th… bus leaves the Androscoggin Bank Colisee at 6 AM Saturday, a stop for lunch and on to Moncton for the afternoon and evening. Game is Sunday at 4:00 Atlantic Time at the Moncton Coliseum, bus to return to Lewiston immediately following the game. Price is $84 for Legion Members, $92 for non-members.

Next trip is to Saint John on Saturday & Sunday October 21^st & 22^nd … bus leaves the ABC parking lot at 7:30 AM, a stop for lunch and on to Saint John for the rest of the day. Game is Sunday at 4:00 Atlantic Time at Harbour Station, bus to return to Lewiston immediately following the game. Price for this one is $82 for Legion Members and $90 for non-members.

Sheila’s “big” trip of the year will happen January 25^th to the 28^th to Halifax & Cape Breton. This one includes lunch in Chad Denny’s hometown of the Eskasoni First Nation. Casinos, prizes, two games and loads of fun as always. Cost is just $248 for Legion Members, $278 for non-members, and Sheila will take four easy payments for you to get on board for this trip.

There is another trip to Victoriaville on November 26^th. Call Sheila to get on board for the trip you want. 783-9650.

As always, news, notes, rumours and comments appreciated.  psmaineiac@yahoo.com