Hull, Que – Grant Marin was boarding the Kitchener Rangers bus behind the Kitchener Auditorium Thursday afternoon when he remembered he forgot his Cooperall uniform in the dressing room.
     He went back and got his blue outfit, but when he returned to the bus, teammate AL MacInnis told him he had also forgotten his red outfit – which MacInnis had picked up for him.
     The bus was almost loaded when Jeff Larmer climbed aboard, holding a duffle bag above his head.
     “Who forgot this in the dressing room,” he hollered.
     A player scurried up from the back of the bus.  It was Martin.
     The bus finally began to roll, but stopped a few seconds later.  Someone had parked a car in the middle of the laneway behind the Auditorium.
     “Whose car is this?” asked the driver, laughing that someone whould leave a car in such an outrageous place.
     Martin hustled out and reparked his 1973 Satellite, which he had pulled up close to the bus so the players riding with him didn’t have far to carry their luggage.
     As the bus finally pulled away several players yelled to Martin that he had left his car window open.
     En route to Hull for their second straight appearance in the Memorial Cup tournament, several Rangers had a card game.  Martin – the way his luck had been going – stayed out.
     “I was scared to get in,” Matin laughed.  “Maybe tomorrow.  My mind seems to be somewhere else today.”
     The 20-year-old center was hoping Thursday’s events weren’t an omen for things to come because he had enough things go wrong in his brilliant but unlucky, three-year career.
     Last year the chunk Smooth Rock Falls native injured his right hip in the second game of the Canadian finals in Windsor and missed the last three games – including the championship contest in which the Rangers lost 5-2 to the Cornwall Royals.
     This year he missed the last three games of the Ontario Hockey League finals with a suspension for spearing in the second game of the series in Kitchener.
     “Not being able to play in Windsor last year was probably the biggest disappointment of my career,” Martin said.
     “When the guys were skating around the rink with the trophy and then spraying champagne around the dressing room.  I felt kinda left out,” Martin said.
     When Martin was suspended, coach Joe Crozier said he lost several nights sleep over the loss of his star center.  But Martin’s absence didn’t seem to slow down the Rangers as they won the last three games and captured the eight-point series 9-1.
     “We had the depth and I didn’t think Ottawa was going to win a game, even with me out,” Martin said.
     Martin, Larmer and Brian Bellows formed the most dazzling unit in the OHL, but it remains to be seen if they’re the best line in the country.
     Sherbrooke Beavers of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League also feature high-scoring lines.  The Rangers will be up against both of them this weekend when they play Sherbrooke in the Cup opener Saturday night and tangle with Portland Sunday.
     All of the Rangers made the trip Thrusday, except defencemen Scott Clements who had a knee operation this week.  Clements, who hadn’t played much in recent months injured his left knee in a playoff game in Sault Ste. Marie.
     Rangers unpacked their gear at the Robert Guertin Arena late Thrusday night and many of the players walked onto the ice to have a look around.  One of the players was dragged around the ice on his bare bottom by Rangers pranksters.
     “I don’t like the place,” Larmer quipped.  “It reminds me of London and I never play well there.”