Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Our Kitchener Ranger Pride

Have you been to a Junior hockey game lately? Holy cow! Those kids are good. This season in particular my family and I have been attending as many games as times and funding would allow. Our local Junior hockey team is The Kitchener Rangers, and I have to be honest here, we lucked out. They are a consistently good hockey team. Beyond that, it is always fun to go to a game because the fans love them! Kitchener fans are similar to Habs fans, yeah. Totally awesome!
Not only that, but they have a high level of sportsmanship too. You see some teams play really "dirty", and it seems to be a consistent to certain ones through the seasons. From the way the team is ran, the guys on the team, right on down to the very bottom, they are a team anyone would be proud to call their hometown team.
A brief history: During the time in the 60's when the NHL sponsored  Junior teams, the NY Rangers moved them from Guelph to Kitchener to gain fan support. It worked but the NHL ended the Junior sponsorships, and the rangers sold the team for $1 to a local businessman who aided in bring the team to Kitchener. He immediately knew the importance of the team to the community so he decided to make it a publicly owned team. They set up a volunteer based Board of Directors from the season ticket holders. Which in my eyes is pretty brilliant, give the direction of the team to those who love the team and want whats best for the team and community! Anyway the set up holds true to this day, made up of a board of 40 season ticket holders, nine of which are key duty positions.
The Rangers current head coach is not only the head coach but also the GM, talk about a commitment to excellence. Tough job but he's doing great! Five past players have been inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame, including Scott Stevens who ironically, used to play often in the yard and home which now belongs to my in-laws, as his Aunt lived next door and his buddy lived in that home!
Skinner played for the Rangers last year, and has been playing fantastically in my old hometown of Raleigh, NC.
OK, despite this rich history, the organization is still fantastic and the hockey just get better and better. I love how this team in particular pulls the community together. The players had a meet and greet not long ago at a new Sobeys that opened up. We were debating weather to go, and I asked my little man if he wanted to meet BIG hockey players, and he did, so we went. When we got there it was sooo busy, and the players were all spread out doing different thing, some were bagging, some were handing out samples to people, a couple were dipping chocolate. We started to shop, I mean, while we were there I could get the shopping done with too. Then Avery saw Cody Sol. I'm not sure exactly how tall this kid is but he is huge and at least a foot taller than me. He and Landeskog are his favorite players. How does a two year old have and know his favorite players? Sol fights, and Avery delights in watching hockey fights, especially when they are right in front of you, like they were when we had standing tickets directly next to the Kitchener bench.

 And as for Landeskog, after the warm up skate when returning to the bench we had Avery standing in the ledge right up against the glass, and he tapped his hockey stick on the glass right at Aves, who delighted in it. How did Avery know it was them? We told him of course, "Thats the fighter you liked so much!", "That is that one who tapped his stick at you!".
He is tickled and I ask him if he would like to get his jersey signed, and he nods. We head over, I tap Sol on the shoulder and ask if he'd sign Avery's jersey. He agrees and as I hold Avery, who is wearing the jersey, up he starts screaming and wriggling and crying. Scared? Maybe he thought Sol was smaller? I don't know, but the poor guy is trying to sign the jersey and Aves changed his mind. Luckily one of the players who was dipping the chocolate came over and offered Avery some. It was on toothpicks and rather than take them out of the players hand and eat them , he chomps them right off the toothpicks the kids holding and gives the guys a big marshmallow and chocolate grin.
We continue to shop, and I was cursing myself that I didn't make Avery have a nap before we left, as he probably would have enjoyed it lots more. In the car he was even saying is his eager two year old voice, "Avery drop gloves and fight big hockey players!", "Avery a hockey player, Mom, Avery play hockey with guys too!", "Avery play hockey, he shoots he scores....Avery wins the tanley cup!". Needless to say his excitement was there. The players all go to one area of the store to sign autographs, and we decide that since we are already here we might as well get the signatures to put up on the wall in Avery's room. Despite the attitude he had developed, we knew he'd like it down the road. I take him up and Ryan waits with the cart. He insisted on bringing his hockey stick which is about three feet long, but I couldn't get him to leave it with Dad, so up we go. He surprisingly lets Landeskog hold his stick, which is rare, I am not even allowed to hold his stick most of the time. The boys were such good sports. They were sitting there eating pizza, and greeting the fans. It seemed like they were genuinely happy to sign the stuff for all the kids there. And there was a nice number of children and their parents. The players asked his name, and I answered as I always do when its concerning hockey people, "Avery, but not after Sean Avery!". I joked with them that Avery had not had his nap yet, but on the way up he was talking big talk about dropping the gloves. They all laughed, and as he had a minor breakdown about me trying to pick him up to move the line along (after all he is two!) and they said "Oh, yeah he's going to be a scrapper for sure!" "Look at that temper! D all day". After we came down, the level of interest and kindness these kids showed my boy, made me really proud. Proud that these were the kids representing our community in the hockey world on and off the ice.
I  took the cart of groceries to pay for our stuff, and left Avery with Ryan. Ryan was letting him pass and shoot his ball around by the door, while I was gone. A bunch of kids walked up, and patted him on the head, and passed the ball back and forth with Avery, who was loving it. They complimented his slap shot and continued on their way. Ryan said he saw them all file up the stairs and put on Jerseys, it was the second wave of the team. So as I waited with the groceries he also got to meet the second wave of boys. Just your average hockey loving kids. It totally made Averys day, and mine for making my baby boy so happy.

Since then Ryan, who coaches 10 year olds, and the team were invited to participate in Ranger Nation, where they played on the ice that the Rangers play on with announcements and everything. They all got a dressing room, and a bag of Ranger goodies. They were featured on the big screen at the Rangers game later that night, they 10 year olds were in total excitement. To top it off after they played their game, while the team was eating breakfast, I wandered around the Aud. I found some of the guys in the Dutchmen's Arena taking practice shots on their goalie, and texted Ryan to bring all the boys over then they were finished eating. A bunch of them got the guys autograph, and the smiles they walked away with that day were priceless!  We were also given a set of tickets by another kind  fellow Ranger enthusiast, and had a blast. That was our most recent experience and as always the Rangers played a great game, and our fellow Ranger fans all around us, were so friendly.

 We are planning on having my sons 3rd birthday with the Rangers, as they have an entire package put together for the kids, and my son is a huge Rangers fan, as are we. Just a great community to be in for hockey. A great game, great players and coaches and management. Living in Ranger Nation was an excellent way to get into Junior hockey. http://kitchenerrangers.com/page/birthday-club

2 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, those photos are so adorable!

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  2. Thank you so much! When we are at hockey games, Avery makes that face he is making in the pictures a lot. It's called his "Hockey Face" appropriately! Haha.

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