Monday, March 29, 2010

Let's Get Ready to Rumble















After what really was one of the best weekends for New York Ranger prospects comes the next round of fun. It is not very often where we get to see the prospects go head to head in a playoff series but we are guaranteed at least 1 matchup for sure.

Chris Doyle and his Victoriaville Tigre will be facing Ryan Bourque and his Quebec Remparts in the second round of the QMJHL playoffs. It is going to be a very good matchup of teams that match up well with each other.

After the first round of the playoffs, Ryan Bourque was leading the Ranger prospects in scoring at 3-6-9. Guess who is second? Chris Doyle at 3-2-5.

Both players are very important to their respective teams even if they fill different roles. Doyle is the more physical player while Bourque is the relentless forechecker who's speed disrupts the other team.

But rather than us talking about it, we were able to get Chris Doyle and Ryan Bourque to talk about the series and the other player.

First Chris Doyle:

We just need to play our game , work hard for 60 minutes and play every game like its our last. Well to stop Bourque we will have to not give him room to use his speed , be very good in the system so he wont have an opportunity to skate with the puck.

Now Ryan Bourque:

I think in order for us to beat the Tigres its gonna take a lot of grit and intensity, obviously they are one of the top teams in the league so we need to play smart, tough playoff hockey.

Obviously Chris is a very dangerous player to play against especially when he has the puck, so I think as a team we just need to be aware of when he's out there and play him hard as well as their other top forwards.


This series gets underway on Friday in Quebec.

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Going into Monday we were selfishly rooting for Moose Jaw to defeat Calgary in order to create a second prospect match series but as this is being written, Calgary was whipping Moose Jaw so it does not appear a WHL version will happen at least for the 2nd round.

Sam Klassen and his Saskatoon Blades will be facing the Brandon Wheat Kings while Tomas Kundratek and the Medicine Hat Tigers will take on the Calgary Hitmen. We can still hope for a conference final where the two meet but we will not get ahead of themselves.

In the NCAAs, while we still feel that Carl Hagelin and the Michigan Wolverines got the short end; it will be Derek Stepan, Ryan McDonagh and the Wisconsin Badgers against the "Cinderella" RIT Tigers. In the other bracket will be Chris Kreider and Boston College against the Miami of Ohio Redhawks.

Nothing would be more fun to watch than a Wisconsin/Boston College final but we have a couple of weeks before the Frozen Four happens.

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Ethan Werek is breathing a whole lot easier as his knee was examined and the worst fears of a Torn ACL did not happen thankfully. Werek has a Torn MCL which is not going to require any surgery but he will be out for at least 4 weeks.

(Doyle courtesy of Benoit Dery, Bourque courtesy of Katherine Ep)

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