Hello to all… I still exist as I have been consumed with family related issues that demand my most of my attention these days. I haven’t been to the rink in well over a month and the need for a live hockey game is beginning to boil in my bones. Hopefully if all goes well, I will be back for the Moncton game on the 27th, and I look forward to seeing you all there.

Dave Taylor Dealt

Even though I haven’t been around, I have kept an eye on what has transpired with the whole Dave Taylor situation, a most unfortunate one at that. Taylor says that MAINEiacs GM & Head Coach Ed Harding is anti-Francophone. Here’s a memo to you Dave: Don’t fight the separatist movement down here. It might fly in the Maritimes, but here in the US? When it comes to the Quebec political scene, the Lewiston MAINEiacs aren’t the enemy in the culture struggles fanned by the Parti- and Bloc- Quebecois parties.

Sure, we’ve seen players that voiced frustrations of being in a dominantly Francophone in the majority Anglophone world that demanded to be moved, but much as in the case this time, they end up running to the media and run their skimmers which embarasses the organization for no good reason. If you want out because you don’t like being in an Anglophone world? Keep your mouth shut to the media and quietly ask to be dealt. Don’t run home to Quebec and find a news reporter that is just salavating to write up your anti-Anglo hate rant. The language in Lewiston is hockey. You perform to the best of your ability, you get ice time. You act like a dope, take a night off and do dumb things on and/or off the ice, you sit. As it should be.

In this case, I’d like to give Taylor the benefit of the doubt. Facing facts, there are just some players that struggle to perform under certain systems. Some players who are invisible under one coach could flourish with another. Speedy forwards with a lot of creative ability don’t work in trap or defense first mindsets. Smart forwards who are willing to pay the price in front of the net get rewarded by getting rebounds and goals. Taylor, to his credit, really never fit under the Jodoin or Harding regimes. That is not to blame him, or the coaches he played under. He just seemed to be in his own world on the ice, and didn’t look all that comfortable on most nights. So be it. Leave town with some class and dignity by quietly requesting a deal, and don’t run your mouth to a media about a bias that clearly does not exist in Lewiston.

Durand Comes to Lewiston

The flip side of this deal is that of Guillaume Durand, a 19 year-old defenseman, who had 19 points in 67 games for Shawinigan last season. The former 1st round pick of the Cataractes in 2004 played in only 5 games in the 2007-08 campaign and has not seen QMJHL action since October, when he decided he couldn’t play for Cats coach Eric Vellieux. Durand was the second player to leave Shawinigan since the start of the season, the other being goaltender Marc-Andre Perron. Reading a translated column that ran in L’Hebdo of Saint Maurice, Durand showed up to training camp not in the best of condition and wasn’t ready to make sacrifices, according to Vellieux.

Durand left the Cataractes and joined Les Patriotes de Saint-Eustache, and had 14 assists and 70 penalty minutes in 20 games. Durand will bring an element of toughness and grit to the MAINEiacs, as he is not afraid to drop the gloves in judging his history.

offthepost@lewistonhockey.com