Colin Sends Rangers To Penalty Box
(from the NY Daily News)
By Frank Brown
Staff Writer
January 3, 1996 - There are limits to the patience of every coach, and Colin Campbell clearly has reached his when it comes to the number of penalties his Rangers are taking.
Though no NHL team has played nearly as many games as the Rangers' 42, no team has come anywhere close to the 263 times the Rangers have been shorthanded. That is going to change, and fast, or Campbell is going to turn party pooper in a hurry on the Atlantic Division front-runners.
"We know there's a point in time that we, as coaches, have to discipline guys have to sit them out of games or pull them back or find a way to criticize them that they don't like," Campbell said after yesterday's practice at Rye Playland. "Obviously, we've been telling them in meetings, and sometimes you have to 'take something away from your kid,' because that's what they remember the next time they go out.
"But at the same token, we love emotion and (for) guys to play with passion," Campbell said. "That's something we were missing a bit last year."
The Rangers' most emotional and passionate newcomer has not made it through an entire game yet. In his Rangers debut Saturday at Edmonton, center Ian Laperriere was ejected for a hit from behind on Oilers wiseguy Kirk Maltby. And Sunday night, when the travel-weary Rangers could have used a jolt of Laperriere's heat, the 21-year-old was thumbed for instigating a fight with the Flames' Trent Yawney.
Because Sunday's ejection was his third game misconduct of the season he had instigated a fight with Yawney while with St. Louis Laperriere figured to be ineligible for tonight's Garden meeting with the Canadiens because a third game misconduct usually is accompanied by an automatic one-game suspension. The Montreal native's expression brightened considerably when he was advised such was not quite the case.
There are three categories of game misconducts. There is an aggression group, which covers instigation and other fight-related ejections; for the sake of clarity, we'll call that Group I. Another group pertains to stick-related fouls; let's call that Group II. The the third group deals with boarding and checking from behind. You only get an automatic one-game suspension for your third Group I game misconduct or your second ejection under Groups II or III. Since Laperriere is under the suspendible limit, he gets another chance tonight to finish a game with the rest of his new Rangers teammates for the first time.
"Two games, two kicked out," Laperriere said sheepishly yesterday. "I have to be aggressive, but smarter."
Which is exactly Campbell's point about the young, impulsive Laperriere and about other older and supposedly wiser Rangers.