Rangers GM preaches patience in a roller-coaster season
Pair of weekend wins have Blueshirts back on track
— At times, the Kitchener Rangers look like a club that is developing into a contender.
Scoring is spread out, the team plays tight defensively and great goaltending rules the crease.
Those days give general manager Mike McKenzie hope. Now, with the team a third of the way through the season, he just wants to see more of it.
“It has been an up-and-down year so far,” he said. “It has been a tale of two different teams on a lot of nights. Finding consistency is a priority moving forward.”
The roller-coaster season continued on the weekend as the Rangers strung together a pair of impressive wins — a convincing 5-2 victory over the Saginaw Spirit at home on Friday and a thrilling 5-4 road win Saturday against the Barrie Colts.
The deuce had the Rangers at 11-10-2-0 and sixth in the Ontario Hockey League’s Western Conference, heading into Sunday’s action.
“Obviously, we’d like to have more wins,” said McKenzie, whose club is 23 tilts into the 68-game season. “I think every team would. I think we also have to stay patient and not hit the panic button. A manager’s job is to look at the bigger picture sometimes and take a step back from the day-to-day wins and losses.”
That’s not as easy for the fan base. After all, Rangers Nation was treated to a wild ride last season that saw the club bow out in double overtime in Game 7 against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the Western Conference final.
This season, with a young roster, things are more volatile.
The Rangers won three games to kick off the campaign but then had a stretch where they won once in seven affairs. Meanwhile, the club has four wins in the past six games but has blown third-period leads in two of those contests.
And with great parity across the OHL, teams are bouncing around the standings like jumping beans.
“The league is just too close now,” said McKenzie. “You have a bad weekend and you’re going from fifth to ninth place and you’re out of the playoffs, and vice versa.”
Injuries to key players have hurt the Rangers. Veteran defencemen Connor Hall (shoulder) and Kyle Gentles (ankle) have been on the sidelines for more than a month, while forward Nick McHugh (jaw) is slowly working his way back into the lineup after missing a dozen clashes.
Their absence has put a spotlight on the team’s youth movement.
“The big thing for them (youngsters) is that they’re getting ice time and showing that they can play at this level,” said McKenzie. “They’re slowly getting acclimatized to what it’s like to play in this league. We have confidence that they’re going to be really good players for us down the road.”
McKenzie points to the 35-game mark as a better time to reflect on where the team is. And there are decisions ahead. The Rangers expect to have five overage candidates on next season’s roster — forwards Greg Meireles, Nick McHugh and Jonathan Yantsis, defenceman Joseph Garreffa and goalie Luke Richardson.
The team can only keep three. “They are all awesome players and playing really well for us,” said McKenzie. “They’re going to be tough decisions. Whether we make them close to the trade deadline or in the summer remains to be seen. I’m sure there will be interest in all of them.”
The Rangers also have an open OA slot right now with Hall expected to miss the remainder of the season, but McKenzie said he’s in no rush to fill it.
As for the coaching staff ? Management has no complaints.
“They did a real good job last year with a good team and even though our record isn’t where we want it to be, they’re still doing a good job and absolutely have our full confidence right now,” said McKenzie.
TORTORA TRADED: The Rangers sent the rights to forward Jacob Tortora and a conditional fifth-round draft pick to Barrie on Sunday in exchange for a second- and third-round pick, which only kick in if the former Boston College player suits up for the Colts. If he returns for his overage season, the Rangers get another second-rounder. Barrie drafted Tortora in the first round of the 2015 OHL draft and later traded his rights to Kitchener for a bevy of picks. As part of Sunday’s deal, the Rangers also get back two second-round draft picks sent to Barrie in the original deal.