Smoking Hot

Thanksgiving hockey was a great way to finish off the evening as the only New York Ranger prospect playing was Ryan Bourque (2009 3rd) of the Quebec Remparts. Bourque one could say had a lot to be thankful for on this evening as right now no Ranger prospect is playing as good a game as he has been.


Bourque had a goal and two assists to lead his Quebec Remparts to a 5-2 over the Rimouski Oceanic. It was Bourque's 4th game in a row with a goal as he has gone 4-6-10 in those games but is now 8-10-18 for the month of November.

Against the Oceanic, Bourque got his Rempart's going when he scored at 4:40 of the first period to give the Remparts a 1-0 lead. Bourque also had secondary assists on the game winning 3rd Rempart goal as well as the 4th one when the Remparts broke the game open in the 3rd period.


No offense to Christian Thomas but Ryan Bourque is going to walk away with our Prospect of the Month honors even if Thomas repeats his 10 point performance of a week ago. Thomas may have more overall points but not as many or as consistently as Bourque has scored during the month.

At 13-17-30, Bourque has jumped past Ethan Werek and Roman Horak into second place among Ranger prospect scorers. A little stat that really stands out to us is that Bourque has his 13 goals on just 28 shots on goal, something that makes us want to scream for him to shoot the puck even more if they are falling for him like this.

Even better is that Bourque has been one of the leaders for the Remparts who have the most points now in the QMJHL after the win. Bourque is one of the assistant captains and we would not be surprised if when Team USA goes to defend their World Under-20 gold medal next month that Bourque is not wearing the "C" on his uniform.

Does the guy standing in the middle of the picture look like someone a Ranger fan should now? He should as it is former Ranger fan favorite Jeff Beukeboom who these days is an assistant coach for the Sudbury Wolves in the OHL.

Buekeboom and some of his Sudbury players took time away from the rink to give back to the Sudbury community by volunteering to serve meals at the Elgin Street Mission in Sudbury.

The story which can be found right here does not come as a surprise to us as giving back is something that Beukeboom has always done off the ice. Beuk was a giant of a player on the ice but an even bigger giant when it comes to giving back off the ice.

It does lead us to perhaps suggest that instead of using a part-time assistant coach working with the Ranger defenseman as they do with Jim Schoenfeld; why not bring in the defensive minded Beukeboom as a coach for the Ranger defenseman? It sure would not hurt to have one of the better hitters and defenders that the Rangers had teaching the current as well as future defensemen how to play defense.

(Images: Bourque/NHLmedia.com, Wolves/Gino Donato)