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| By: Tom Conaway, KW Record - May 4th, 1982 |
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Even if the Kitchener Rangers don't win the Memorial Cup in Hull, Que. next week, team president Bob Ertel will consider the 1981-82 season a tremendous success. Many of the Rangers' faithful might vehemetly disagree with the 42-year-old liquor salesman on that point. After all, frustrated Kitchener fans have been waiting to celebrate a national major junior A hockey championship since the early sixties. Until last year's big breakthrough with a determined, young squad that was supposed to be a season away from the Ontario Hockey League title, there had been some might lean years as Ertel is aware. But despite the fact the Rangers came so close to winning it all last year, losing to the Cornwall Royals 5-2 in the cup final, Ertel doesn't feel that the Rangers will have much of an edge in a series in which one break can be so decisive. Though many of the scouts favor Brian Bellows and company, you can be sure that the Portland Winter Hawks and Sherbrooke Beavers aren't visiting Hull to sample the pub life and watch the girls. "Joe Crozier did what he was hired to do and what he said he'd do," said Ertel, who was responsible for hiring the former NHLer. "That was to get the Rangers into the Memorial Cup. It's quite a thing to make a statement like that and then do it. "But in a round-robin competition, you can get yourself into a one-game situation and lose on a bad break, a bad bounce . . . anything. If someone beat us in a best-of-seven series, OK. They’d be a better team. But so far no one’s been able to do that.” Like many of the veteran Rangers, Ertel has tasted life on both sides of the hockey fence. He coached two solid Ranger clubs in 1977-78 and ‘78-79, losing to the Niagara Falls Flyers in the seventh game of the Emms Division finals the second year. Such talented personnel as Paul Reinhart, Doug Sulliman, Jody Gage, Russ Adam and Joe McDonnell played on that ‘78-79 team, which Ertel still feels might have gone all the way had it survived the rugged Niagara series. Niagara lost to Peterborough in the league final, and Gary Green’s Petes eventually won the Memorial Cup 2-1 in overtime over the Brandon Wheat Kings. Tempers had flared throughout the chippy seven-game affair between the Flyers and Rnagers, and Ertel wound up with a 13-game suspension for send a player off the bench to help outnumbered Bennett Wolf in a fight in Niagara. Ertel, angry at being suspended and fed up with what he described as coach Bert Templeton’s goon-like tactics, resigned after game six in Kitchener. He had hoped that his resignation would provide the players with additional incentive but alas, it wasn’t to be. By ’79, it was rebuilding time for the Rangers once again. With Ertel still suspended assistant coach Rod Seiling started the season behind the bench. Eleven games later, Ertel returned knowing full well that he had a better chance of winning a lottery than making the playoffs. With rookies Grant Martin, Kevin Casey, Jeff Larmer, Brad Schnurr and Joel Levesque breaking into major A hockey the hard way (Walt Poddubny was the only 19-year-old to start the season), the Rangers won only 17 of 68 games. The guillotine came crashing down on Ertel in mid-December and Seiling guided the club the remainder of the way. It was a humiliating experience for those ’79 drafts. But Ertel thinks it helped mould them into the fine players they are today. “I did the best I could and so did Rod,” Ertel said. “The kids were trying but they were green. You can’t win without six or seven 19-year-olds.” Ertel knew he’d be the sacrificial lamb that season. If he’d done the smart thing, he’d have sat the year out, he said, adding that he firmly believes in one man controlling his own destiny as general manager-coach. Orval Tessier and now Crozier are adequate proof that the system works. Even after his firing, Ertel continued to attend the Rangers games on a regular basis. He became an executive member last year and was put in charge of the Blueline Club. Now a little over two years after being axed as bench boss, he’s controlling the executive rudder. “I just didn’t like some of the things I saw last year,” he said, preferring not to get specific. “My concern will always be for this hockey team. I thought there was an awful lot of money spent in the areas that should have been looked into more carefully.” Incredibly enough, while the Rangers grossed $477,000 last year, their expenses totalled $562,000. Without $80,000 in draft money and $23,000 in bank interest, they’d have lost $85,000. As it turned out, their net profit was $18,000. “People don’t realize what you lose in the playoffs,” Ertel said. “It costs $15,000 to compete in the Memorial Cup. The costs are awful.” According to Ertel the Rangers financial operation has been streamlined, and the budget reduced by $60,000 this year. The team will definitely make money, the most in its history. But of course who cares if the Rangers don’t excel where it counts on the ice. Ertel thinks the hard-working Crozier has done a tremendous job for the Rangers this year. But the key was acquiring 17-year-old superstar Brian Bellows first overall in the ’80 midget draft. “That was a super draft,” he added. “Getting Bellows (as well as Al MacInnis, Wendell Young, Mike Eagles and Mike Hough) made the difference. Our scout Trevor Shilston did a super job, and deserves full credit. “Then we had a couple of kinds – defencemen Dave Shaw and Scott Stevens – who matured so quickly. Who would have thought they’d come along that fast?” Who would have thought two years ago that Bob Ertel would become Rangers president?
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