Ryan Bourque Injured And Prospect of The Week Too

Wednesday Afternoon Update: To put an end to rumors, Chris Doyle (2008 5th) of the Prince Edward Island Rocket was in fact arrested and charged with assault causing bodily harm and willfully damaging property after an incident this past weekend.

Doyle has been released and will have to appear in court Oct 22. We will have more on this in tomorrow's report.

Breaking News: Le Journal de Quebec reported that New York Ranger's 2009 3rd round pick Ryan Bourque suffered a concussion last Saturday evening and is out at the least until Friday. Bourque who plays for the Quebec Remparts in the QMJHL missed Tuesday's

In the story here (translated version), the injury was believed to have occurred during the 3rd period of the Remparts game last Saturday against the Chicoutimi Saguenéens.

The Remparts via Coach Patrick Roy are saying that it has not been ruled 100% a concussion but Bourque believes he has suffered one. Bourque is going to sit out a 2 game road trip (game 1 was Tuesday night, game 2 Wednesday) and will be re-evaluated when the Remparts return back to Quebec by Friday.

We hope that the Remparts do the smart thing and make Bourque sit out at least a week or until he is symptom free.

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Luke Walker Prospect Of The Week

Luke Walker was going to be the headline story today as our Prospect Park Prospect of the Week so we hope he understands why he got bumped down a little bit. It is a deserving honor for the 19 year old who hails from Castlegar in British Columbia.

Walker is coming off a 4 goal, 1 assist weekend as his Portland Winterhawks were able to win two out of three games this past week. But it was more than just his offensive output that earned him this recognition as it was the little things that sometimes get overlooked that win you games.

For us there were 3 plays that clinched the award for Walker; the first can be best described as a Ryan Callahan special where Walker kept fighting to keep control of the puck out working Prince George Cougar players to the point where Walker forced Daniel Gibb to pull him down out of frustration.

Portland used that power play to score their 3rd goal of the game enroute to a convincing 5-1 win. The second play came during the Winterhawks 4th goal as it was originally credited to Walker but given after a review to teammate Troy Rutkowski.

It is easy to see why Walker got the first credit as he attacked the Prince George net, outfought 2 Cougar defenders while never once touching the Cougar goalie like so many wind up doing until the puck eventually made it to the back of the net.

The 3rd play actually was Walker's efforts in the 3rd period as once a game gets out of hand like this one was, Walker played it like it was a 1 goal game. Walker stayed in his defensive position not once looking for the breakout pass to pad his stats.

Instead Walker remained in his defensive position, he watched where the puck was, where his teammates were and continued to make sure none of the Cougars was able to sneak past him. Watching Walker play hard at both ends of the ice no matter what the score was is a really good sign to see.

The Winterhawks are a young team so a player like Walker who wears an "A" setting this kind of hard working example is going to pay huge dividends much later in the season. The Winterhawks are off to a 3-1 start this season and Walker has been a key part of why.

On Friday in Tri-City with one goal under his belt and his Winterhawks trailing 3-1, Walker scored 2 goals to tie the game to earn a hat trick. On Saturday, Walker added another goal for his 4th in 2 games and you folks already read what he did on Sunday.

For the week ending on 9/27, Luke Walker was 4-1-5 +4 4PIM and 2 goals credited as key goals. People ask why I include Walker as a Ranger prospect just need to watch him play as Luke Walker is the kind of prospect Ranger fans would want wearing Broadway Blue.

Congrats Luke but we know we will be doing this again a few times this season.

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Game Action

Want another reason why we continue to cover those like a Craig Cunningham (Traverse City) even though they remain free agents? How about 3-6-9 in 6 games since returning to the Vancouver Giants of the WHL?

How about a goal and an assist to help his Giants to a 5-1 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes? See as long as players like Cunningham continue to play like they deserve another shot at earning a Ranger contract then we will keep covering them.

For Ranger fans, wearing that Ranger uniform is supposed to mean hard work, dedication and a good person which describes all of the 3 free agents we are continuing to cover. So until we find out that the Rangers no longer are interested then we will keep reporting on what they do.

(Picture credits: Bourque/Quebec Remparts, Walker/Portland Winterhawks, Cunningham/Vancouver Giants)