Season opener
Rebuilding Rangers to lean on playoff run
KITCHENER — The sting lingered for Joseph Garreffa.
It was tough for the Kitchener Rangers forward to simply turn the page after his club came so close to reaching the Ontario Hockey League final last April.
“I was pretty upset,” said the fourthyear player. “I was still thinking about it until the day before I came to training camp. We had a chance last year. We had the team and the horses to win.”
In the end, it came down to one goal. Sault Ste. Marie forward Jack Kopacka was the hero for the Greyhounds, when his screened blast beat Rangers goalie Mario Culina four minutes into double overtime of Game 7 in the OHL’s western conference final.
An exhausted and beat up Rangers squad returned home to lick their wounds while the ’Hounds advanced to the league championship, where they eventually lost in six games to the Hamilton Bulldogs.
“You know, it stung, I really wanted to win,” Garreffa said. “It would have been so cool to win a championship for Kitchener. Our fans are so involved. But, hey, it’s a new season now and I’m excited to get going. Hopefully, we can have another special year.”
The Rangers’ season kicks off Friday when they host the Flint Firebirds at the Aud at 7:30 p.m. And the club is hoping to use last year’s run as fuel in what looks to be a more challenging campaign.
The losses are daunting.
Culina is gone. So too is hulking blueliner Logan Stanley while five of the team’s top six forwards — and most of its best power play options — have also graduated from the league.
In their place are some familiar faces that are now being asked to play bigger roles. They’ll be joined by a slew of promising youngsters eager to make an impression.
“We’ve already touched on some of last year with our team to remind guys of the reasons of why we were there,” said Rangers head coach Jay McKee. “We stressed that we want our returning players to lead the way and show our young guys why we were able to get that far and be as successful as we were.”
The pre-season returns were encouraging.
The Rangers went 4-1 in exhibition play and displayed a more uptempo offensive style in a bid to solve the scoring shortage that saw almost 70 per cent of last year’s goals go out the door when players moved on to the professional ranks.
Team defence also took a hit with the graduation of Stanley and overager Austin McEneny while Winnipeg Jets draft
pick Giovanni Vallati was traded to Oshawa in the off-season. But the back end should still be strong with a nice mix of veterans that includes overagers Connor Hall and Kyle Gentles. Goalie Luke Richardson is in his prime and coming off a steady season that saw him go 23-11-2-0.
Generating offence appears to be the biggest obstacle. But McKee is optimistic.
“We have to see who is going to step up and take it to another level,” he said. “All of our returning guys have a high end level of compete. That’s something that we’ve been stressing since day one.”
The skipper will look to last year’s shutdown
line of Riley Damiani (Dallas Stars), Greg Meireles and Nick McHugh to help fill the void.
Garreffa, a forward turned defenceman turned forward again, had 25 markers two years back and has finished second in team scoring two years straight while Swedish import Rickard Hugg is also expected to lead up front.
The Rangers will lean on rookies and players that were stuck behind veterans in the pecking order last season — Eric Guest and Jonathan Yantsis come to mind — to fill out its lines.
“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of teams,” Garreffa said. “If we can keep ourselves in good shape and play a high intensity game, I don’t think there are a lot of teams that can match our speed.”
General manager Mike McKenzie sees the roster turnover as a challenge. “You try to find younger players or guys via free agents and trades that can put us right back to where we were last year,” he said.
He too is taking the positives out of last season’s western conference final appearance, which was the club’s first in the past six years.
“I think that run gives the players extra confidence,” he said.
“All those guys that were there last year kind of have seen it all and know what to expect. They’re not going to fear any situation,” he added.
So many departing players also means new opportunities for this year’s squad.
McKenzie has already noticed a hunger on the ice at training camp and during the pre-season.
“I’m seeing some of the guys that wanted a bigger role last year and didn’t have it showing up and trying to step in and saying it’s their turn to make a mark on this team,” he said.