Kitchen Rangers’ Ryan Murphy hoping to be third time lucky at Canadian National Junior Camp
Ryan Murphy, a Canadian defenseman who plays for Kitchener Rangers in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) is hoping to be third time lucky as he attends his national team junior camp ahead of World Junior Championships.
19-year-old Murphy had also attended Canada’s national junior camp last year and the year before, but he could not get a place in the final side both times and was sent home at the final selection. But this time there is something which would go in Murphy’s
favour and might get him a place in the final line-up.
This year, coach of Canada’s national junior hockey team is to be Steve Spott, who is also the coach of Kitchener Rangers. The 44-year-old, who is former head coach of Plymouth Whalers, was named coach of Canada’s junior team for 2013 World Junior Ice-Hockey
Championships and might face some difficulty as he would need time in knowing the players.
But he would be familiar with Murphy who he has been coaching for three years at Kitchener Rangers.
According to Aurora, Ontario born defenseman, he is going to feel lot more comfortable and would have great advantage with Spott being around him. In his opinion Spott is a great coach and he is happy that his coach got the job, as he said,
"I'm probably going to be in a comfort zone. I have a little bit of an advantage over others because he is my coach during the regular season [in Kitchener], so I'm happy he got the job. He's a great coach”.
The 5-foot-11, 176 pounder, also added that his coach has told him just to do what he does at Rangers as he said,
“I'm just going to go out there and play the game I play in Kitchener."
Ryan Murphy made his debut in OHL for Kitchener Rangers in 2009 and had an impact early on as he scored 6 goals, 33 assists and total of 39 points in first season. His second season was even better as he showed phenomenal performance to score 26 goals, 53
assists for a total of 79 points in just 63 matches. In total he has scored 172 points in 174 games for Rangers in three years.
He was picked 12th overall in the 2011 NHL draft by Carolina Hurricanes.
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