Courteau Brings The Hardware

For Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Commissioner Gilles Courteau to show up in Lewiston at this time of year, there can only be one reason. That is to deliver some hardware. With the Lewiston MAINEiacs finishing first overall in the 2006-07 QMJHL regular season, Courteau brought the Jean Rougeau trophy across the border to the United States for the first time ever. Raymond Bolduc, the director of hockey operations for the league brought along the Robert Lebel trophy for the team’s best goals-against average for the combined effort of MAINEiac goaltenders Jonathan Bernier and Peter Delmas, and the Guy Carbonneau trophy for the league’s best defensive forward awarded to team captain Marc-Andre Cliche. For the fans in attendance Friday night, the first checkmark of the regular season was acknowledged in a pre-game ceremony.

The weekend was the first visit to Lewiston by the league commissioner since opening night of year one of MAINEiacs history in September, 2003, and enjoyed his visit to Lewiston. “It was really nice,” said Courteau after Saturday night’s game at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. “I really appreciated both games. Both games were very exciting. I think the (Lewiston) fans were really behind their team.”

Courteau’s real buisness in town was to hand out the Rougeau trophy, something he was proud to do. “It was a good thing after four years in Lewiston to make the Jean Rougeau trophy presentation for the regular season championship… They have a good team.

Something that has been discussed from time to time is the subject of parity in the league and for some smaller market clubs like Lewiston, being on a more balanced playing field is important. With four opening round series at 1-1 or 2-1 and the standings between 4th and 14th overall separated by just 13 points, the inquiry was made to the league boss about it.

“That is a very good point,” Courteau noted when asked. “What we’ve seen the playoffs is kind of a carbon copy of our regular season. The way the playoffs are playing it is very tight. As an example (Saturday night), Bathurst was leading 4 - zip, and PEI came back to tie it up and (Bathurst) won it in overtime, so that is going to be very interesting across the league. It’s exactly what the fans are expecting, close games and it is going to be very good that sometimes you can flip a coin and you are not sure what is going to happen.”

With Lewiston being the only US based franchise in the QMJHL, the franchise has been watched by those around the league and the league office to see if it could be successful. For the “Q” to head south of the border made followers of the league skeptical, and there are a few that remain that way. On the subject of the importance of Lewiston being successful for possible future plans of the league, Courteau has been impressed with the growing market.

“The way the Lewiston has developed the market in the last four years has been tremendous,” Courteau emphasized. ”They (did) a great job to develop a fan base, to create the good atmosphere in the city, and get better media coverage on a yearly basis. The business community is supporting the team very well, you can see it with the advertising. We are very, very happy with the way Matt McKnight and his group of people are working hand-in-hand with the hockey community.”

A successful hockey league starts with all of it’s franchises turning profits. Ten of eighteen teams showed large to nominal growth in attendance in the past year. Seven teams with arenas less than 5,000 in capacity showed respectable gains, more notably places like Baie-Comeau, Drummondville, Victoriaville, Lewiston, Cape Breton, Val d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda. In the case of Val d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda, their arenas are among the smaller in the league, not to mention the overhead involved in transportation from the far northwestern points in Quebec. The question was asked, how can those teams compete?

“It looks tough, but it is not as tough as people think it is,” Courteau pointed out. “Beacause of the fact that they are doing a great job on the marketing aspect, a great job on merchandising, and they have great support of the communities. They have a good (arena) deal with both cities, and that is exactly what they need to operate their franchise in a good way. They don’t look as healthy as they are, but I can tell you that they are doing well. Look at where they are (in the standings), Val d’Or finished first in the Telus division, and that is very good because the last two years they have not been as good as they have been this year. It’s been a big improvement for them. They went to the Memorial Cup twice since they entered the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (1998 & 2001). I am very happy with the way they are doing business there.”

Back last fall, news was broke here in ‘Off The Post’ about the league signing a deal with Telus for video webcasting of QMJHL games. What was once “by Christmas” then “by March” followed with “by playoffs” for the unveiling, may not be fully complete until September. The subject needed to be brought up with the commissioner, and it was. The latest word, from the top boss himself. “The latest on that is that it has been a long negotiating process to start with. Secondly we have to install a T1 line in each and every building in order to get this thing going. Fans are going to be able to see a couple of our playoff games throughout the actual playoff series. Starting as of next September, we will have all the regular season games on the webcast.”

Certain teams in the Maritimes have agreements with Eastlink and Aliant to broadcast their games over the world wide web. Once Telus installs the necessary equipment, those agreements will change, as agreement in principle names Telus as the exclusive provider. The cable arrangements with Eastlink, Aliant, Rogers Cable, Rogers Sportsnet, RDS, Cogeco, and VOX systems will all stand, just their feeds will be no longer available on the interent.

Busy week ahead… watch for Jeff Mannix’ Road Reports from Shawinigan to keep you updated as the MAINEiacs head north for games 3 & 4 of the opening round series on Tuesday & Wednesday.

News, comments and questions appreciated. offthepost@lewistonhockey.com