Rangers Rap

Boo!

Happy Boo-day to former Kitchener Ranger Steve Eminger.

Halloween baby turns 27 today.

Just seems like yesterday I was accidentally tipping over a cup of Gatorade in his Rangers stall.

Now, of course, the well-travelled Em is still a Ranger. Of the New York variety.

Other Rangers to light candles on special days:

Boris Valabik on Valentine's Day.

Dan Turple on New Year's.

One-shot wonderful

By Jeff Hicks

Record staff

SUDBURY --

Mike Morrison searched deep within his masked-man memory banks.

There it was, standing alone and naked in the corner of his goaltending mind.

That one and only shot he faced in the third period of  Friday’s 3-1 Kitchener Rangers’ victory over the Sudbury Wolves before 3,239 at Sudbury Arena.

“It hit the post,” said Morrison, who kept from dozing during a 15-shot night.

Morrison deserved a light Red Bull night after he and crease-mate Brandon Maxwell were blitzed 8-3 in a no-defence loss in Barrie on Thursday.

Go figure. The Rangers strolled into Sudbury and put a sleeper-hold on the woeful Wolves. So make that three taut defence-first wins for the Rangers in the last four games.

Just consider Thursday’s nervous breakdown a psychological blip.

The Rangers blueliners were spry and spunky in Sudbury.

Jonathan Jasper even punched out Wolves ace forward John McFarland, just back from a hip injury, in the second period.

“He asked me to go and I thought, why not, he’s one of their top players,” Jasper said.

“I think I got the upper hand.”

Tobias Rieder, Jason Akeson and Ryan Murphy scored for the Rangers, who can give up on the dream of getting centre Jeff Skinner back from the Carolina Hurricanes. Skinner scored twice in New York on Friday and will play the magical 10^th game of the NHL season tonight against Pittsburgh. That means the first year of his pro contract kicks in.

Luckily, Rangers coach-GM Steve Spott snagged Rieder in the import draft as insurance against losing Skinner and winger Jeremy Morin, now in the minor pros.

Rieder has nine goals in 14 games.

“We played a complete 60 minutes,” Spott said of his club’s rebound win in Sudbury.

The Wolves are reeling and trade rumours have already dogged their most marketable forwards in McFarland and Marcus Foligno.

Sudbury GM Blaine Smith said his aces are not on the block.

“Right now, our plan is to have Marcus and John lead this team,” Smith said.

“We’re in the business of winning hockey games. We need to score goals and they are two of our best forwards. I’m sure there will come a point in time this season when we may have a tough decision to make. ‘May’ is the key word.”

The Rangers visit London on Thursday.

With a week off, regaining their defensive footing up north was an important victory.

“You just have to go back to basics and that’s what we did,” Jasper said.

“We really shut the door and proved we could play at full 60-minute game.”

jhicks@therecord.com

 

Rangers 3 at Wolves 1

First period:

No scoring.

Penalties – Lopes, Sud (cross-checking) 4:09; Landeskog, Kit (tripping) 4:24; Trecapelli, Sud (slashing) 17:40

Second period:

1. Kitchener, Rieder 9 (unassisted) :21

2. Sudbury, Lomas 9 (Foligno, McFadden) 11:33 (pp)

3. Kitchener, Akeson 6 (Catenacci, Landeskog) 16:09

4. Kitchener, Murphy 9 (Tipoff, Rieder) 19:55 (pp)

Penalties – Jasper, Kit, McFarland, Sud (fighting) :43; Rieder, Kit (hooking) 3:09; Lorentz, Kit (holding opponent’s stick) 10:18; Dodero, Sud (tripping) 19:30

Third period:

No scoring.

Penalties – Bench, Kit (too many men, served by Randell) :59; Chiarot, Sud (hooking) 3:20; Landeskog, Kit (slashing) 5:49; Lomas, Sud (high-sticking) 11:59; Corrado, Sud (head check) 14:25; Foligno, Sud (kneeing major, game misconduct) 15:22; Lomas, Sud (10-minute misconduct) 17:24; Randell, Kit (fighting), Chiarot, Sud (instigating, fighting, 10-minute misconduct) 17:38; MacLean, Kit (hooking) 19:52

 

Shots on goal:

Kit 8-17-15 40

Sud 5-9-1 15

 

Goaltenders: Mike Morrison, Kit. Alain Valiquette, Sud.

Power plays: Kit (1-7), Sud (1-6)

Referees: Kendrick Nicholson, Jason Goldberg

Linesmen: Jean-Yves Maillet, Adam Robinson

Attendance: 3,239

 

Patience

That was Jason Akeson waiting out an Alain Valiquette poke-check bid as he stuffed in his second-period goal.

Rangers lead 3-1.

Late PP score from Andrew Crescenzi. Early goal from Tobi Rieder.

Wolves got a PP goal from Mike Lomas.

Just in case you held out hope for Jeff Skinner to return, he has two goals tonight for Carolina.

 

Zeroes

No score after one.

Shots 8-5 for Rangers.

Wolves apparently just don't like to shoot the puck when they get chances.

Tobi Rieder almost scored, puck bounced off goalie Alain Valiquette and over the net.

Akey double-clutched on a side-door one-timer.

Trade today, according to good pal Tony Saxon of the Guelph Merc.

OA Matt Sisca goes from Guelph to Sag City for a third-rounder.

Guelph can use that third-rounder as it looks to load up.

So the Storm right now have Van Laren, Lofquist and Carroll as their OA's.

Good enough trio for a title run? Again. discuss among yourselves.

"Anything can happen"

Wolves GM Blaine Smith on Marcus Foligno and John McFarland, subject of early-season trade rumours.

"We’re looking at winning hockey games with the lineup that we have and Marcus and John are both big parts of our team moving forward. We fully expect they will be with us at the end of the season.  But, as you know, in junior hockey, anything can happen,” Smith told me a few minutes ago.

So, discuss amongst yourselves.

Game on.

McFarland is a go...and so is Mo!

Wolves get John McFarland back from a hip flexor tonight.

Been off two weeks, fueling trade rumours.

At the time, Wolves GM Blaine Smith told me JM was definitely not up for trade and the Wolves needed him. Also said that McFarland wants to be Sudbury captain.

Will be talking to BS in a few minutes. Unfortunate initials for a GM.

Mo starts in net for the Rangers.

Jesse Young and Chad Lowry sit.

 

The lights are on in . . .

 . . .Berk Keaney's announcing booth.

I've got two pounds of Doghouse wings in my gut and I just downed some tar-thick Sudbury Arena coffee.

Still waiting for the official lineups.

Big story will be whether John McFarland suits up for the Wolves. Lots of trade rumours surrounding Hip Flexor boy and the son-of-the-ex-coach.

Wolves GM Blaine Smith promised to spend a few minutes with me in the press box around 6:30.

Anything to keep Simon from Londonia informed.

Band on the Run is playing on the Video Board.

The wings and coffee are duking it out.

Could be a long drive home. Face off in 80.

A Nickel for your thoughts

A Big Nickel, that is.

Pleasant late-October noon-hour in Sudbury. Sunny skies. Near freezing temps.

Wolves hope to have John McFarland (hip flexor) back in the lineup for tonight's 7:30 puck drop against Les Rangers.

Rangers need some counselling after last night's 8-3 nervous breakdown in Barrie.

Assistant coach Paul Fixter relayed one of the best quotes he's heard over the years to describe games-like-that.

"Some days, that's how the cookie crumbles. And it was a BIG cookie!"

Got that right. Crumbs on everybody.

Interesting call in net tonight.

Try and get Maxx going again? Or give Mo the blue ice?

You can make a good case either way.

You can make a good case against either way.

Of course, sometimes those decisions are made for you. Remember when Matt Harpwood came down with a case of appendicitis in Sudbury? Harpo went to hospital.

Scott Dickie started all games that weekend...with NO backup.

One of the games was in North Bay. That tells you how long ago it was!

Of course, the Cents ran Dickie every chance they got.

Ah, North Bay. Now, I'm getting wistful.

Jigsawed!!

By Jeff Hicks

Record staff

BARRIE –

You can watch Saw 3-D in theatres this Halloween.

Or, for grisly hockey horror, you could have gone to Barrie on Thursday The Kitchener Rangers were the defenceless victims.This was Saw No-D.

No defence. No goaltending. No penalty-killing.

The worst team in the Ontario Hockey League, the Barrie Colts, carved up the Rangers 8-3 before 3,945 at the Molson Centre.

“An embarrassment from top to bottom,” Rangers coach-GM Steve Spott said.

“You can’t mask it.”

The macabre moments were many.

Witness a Barrie power-play goal from Dylan Smoskowitz bank in off the leg of Rangers defender Ryan Murphy.

Avert your eyes as a Trent Hawke snapper hit Rangers goalie Brandon Maxwell in the shoulder, popped into the air and landed in the net behind him.

Scream like Faye Wray as Mike Morrison replaced Maxx after six goals and got skewered through the pads 12 seconds later on the first shot he faced.

After two tighly-played victories, the Rangers let the Colts run wild.

Waterloo’s Colin Behenna had a goal and two assists for Barrie.

Kitchener’s Mark Scheifele had three helpers for the Colts.

The entire Rangers blueline corps looked flat-footed and dim-witted.

They took bad penalties and made bad pinches.

Every one of  them – Ryan Murphy, Jamie Doornbosch, Cody Sol, Julian Melchiori and Jonathan Jasper – looked like still figures from Vincent Price’s House of Wax.

Tis bad enough the Rangers, who visit sad-sack Sudbury on Friday, need to find a top-line replacement at pivot for NHL-lost Jeff Skinner. Now, they need a total defensive overhaul too? Suddenly, the Rangers are a jigaw-puzzle missing a lot of pieces.

Their penalty-killing is the most gruesome in the OHL. They gave up three power-play goals and another on a delayed-penalty call.

“Between Jasper, Sol and Melchiori, those guys have got to get the job done,” Spott said of his dysfunctional penalty-kill. “It’s an area, no doubt, that we have to improve on or it’s gonna kill us.”

Meanwhile, the Rangers made Colts rookie tender Clint Windsor look like a righty reincarnation of sinister Steve Mason.

Halloween, traditional trick-or-treat time for general managers looking to make trades, is two days away. Eric Ming, Andrew Crescenzi and Tobi Rieder had Rangers goals.

On to Sudbury we go.

“We just can’t think negatively now,” Rangers assistant captain Matt Tipoff said as he stood outside the dressing room in Barrie.

“I’ve got to go in there and try and get the guys in a good mood to have a game tomorrow night.”

jhicks@therecord.com

 

Rangers 3 at Colts 8

First period:

1. Barrie, Prout 2 (Behenna, Braid) 2:19

2. Barrie, Carnevale 6 (Behenna, Braid) 13:03

3. Barrie, Archibald 8 (Scheifele, Carnevale) 15:00 (pp)

Penalties – Randell, Kit, Gaskin, Bar (fighting) 1:23; Ezekiel, Bar (boarding) 12:22; Akeson, Kit (hooking) 12:25; Jasper, Kit (slashing) 14:02; Landeskog, Kit (hooking) 19:08

Second period:

4. Barrie, Behenna 4 (Scheifele, Carnavale) :52 (pp)

5. Kitchener, Rieder 8 (Tipoff) 2:59

6. Barrie, Smoskowitz 6 (Beyers, Nixon) 8:08 (pp)

7. Barrie, Hawke 4 (Smoskowitz, Bennett) 12:26

8. Barrie, Carnevale 7 (Nixon, Bursey) 12:42

9. Kitchener, Crescenzi 6 (Tipoff, Rieder) 15:48

Penalties – Ezekiel, Bar (delay of game) 1:07; Crescenzi, Kit (unsportsmanlike conduct) 1:48; Randell, Kit (hooking) 7:58; Sol, Kit (roughing) 8:54; Smoskowitz, Bar (interference) 8:38; Braid, Bar (holding) 17:36; Tipoff, Kit, Bursey, Bar (roughing) 18:07;

Third period:

10. Barrie, Prout 3 (Scheifele, Archibald) 13:18

11. Kitchener, Ming 2 (Melchiori, Lorentz) 16:10 (pp)

Penalties – Sol, Kit (roughing) :14; Bursey, Bar (roughing) 7:27; Randell, Kit (holding) 10:31; Archibald, Bar (roughing) 14:12; Padulo, Bar (hooking) 18:16

 

Shots on goal:

Kit 12-15-11 38

Bar 17-13-12 42

 

Goaltenders: Brandon Maxwell, (18-24), Mike Morrison, (12:26, 2^nd) Kit. Clint Windsor, Bar.

Power plays: Kit (1-7), Bar (3-7)

Referees: Ryan Hutchison, Mike Marley

Linesmen: Andrew Hubbard, Sean Chatland

Attendance:3,945

The Horrror, The Horror

Rangers have nothing tonight.

Flat-footed D, dumb penalties, no penalty-killing, swiss cheese goaltending.

An embarrassing 7-2 deficit after two.

Maxx got chased after goal No. 6. Mo let in the next one.

Rieder and Tipoff for the Rangers.

A whole bunch of guys I didn't even know played in the O have points for Barrie.

Mistah Kurtz, he dead.