HARTFORD, Conn – Kale Kerbashian joined the New York Rangers organization literally over a cup of coffee and a vanilla milkshake.
The smallish (5-foot-11, 165 pounds) but quick forward was interviewing with Rangers scout Rich Brown at a Starbucks in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, when he got an offer to sign an American Hockey League contract with one of the NHL’s Original Six organizations.
“He had watched me all season, and I guess he liked what he saw so they gave me a chance,” Kerbashian recalled. “I loved coming down (to Hartford) and staying in the Homewood Suites. It was great.”
Kerbashian got a three-week taste of pro hockey in April after he signed AHL and amateur tryout deals after completing his junior career with Sarnia of the Ontario Hockey League. He had 63 goals and 81 assists in 126 games in two seasons in Sarnia and chipped in two goals and one assist in four games with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers in 2010.
Kerbashian celebrated his 21st birthday in Connecticut, but was scoreless in four regular-season games and then watched as the Whale were eliminated by the Portland Pirates in six games in the first round of the playoffs.
“It would have been nice to step right in and help the team, but the experience helped me a lot as far as understanding the dedication it takes toward the game,” Kerbashian said. “On the ice, not that much stuff is different (from juniors), but off the ice, there’s the preparation before the game. It’s paying attention to detail. It’s your job, not something you do for fun or for something to do. You’re signing up for it, so it’s your job, and we’re pretty lucky it’s something we love.”
Kerbashian spent the summer in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and returned to play in the prospects tournament in Traverse City, Mich., where the Rangers lost 5-3 in the final to the more experienced Buffalo Sabres. Kerbashian then participated in the Rangers’ main camp in Greenburgh, N.Y., before being among the first 21 players assigned to the Connecticut Whale on Friday.
“I didn’t have a very good camp in New York,” Kerbashian said. “I was very uptight, thinking way too much, and they told me that in my exit meetings.”
A meeting with Whale assistant coach Pat Boller, who works with the forwards, immediately helped Kerbashian, though he said it wasn’t anything resembling Einstein’s theory of relativity.
“I just basically told him to just play his game,” Boller said Tuesday. “He was trying to overdo things a little bit, trying to worry about putting the numbers up, and I just told him to do the little things like stopping and starting, going to the net, shoot the puck. I just told him to relax, play hockey and do the little things.”
It might have been simple advice, but Kerbashian knew exactly what Boller was talking about.
“I’m better off when I relax and keep it simple,” Kerbashian said. “And they want me to shoot it more. I know I’ve got a good shot but I wasn’t much of a shooter, and they brought it to my attention. It can be one of my assets if I use it, so I took that as a confidence builder. You don’t have as much time and space as you do in juniors, so if you’ve got a shot, you’ve got to take it.”
Kerbashian proved an excellent listener Monday, when he had three goals and an assist in the Blue’s 6-4 victory over the Red in a training camp scrimmage. His last two goals were nearly identical shots from the left circle off nice passes from Kelsey Tessier and Scott Tanski that beat 6-8 Jason Missiaen high to the near corner. Though the forwards have to constantly rotate in scrimmages because of a shortage of players, Kerbashian was especially dangerous on a line with Tessier and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, former teammates with the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Though each is on the small side, they have good speed and obvious skills.
“(Kerbashian) is a good skater with a pretty good shot,” Whale coach Ken Gernander said, “but he’s going to have to learn the professional game a little more in terms of some attention to detail and managing the puck. Sometimes when you don’t have a play, you can’t force it. And on the defensive side, you have to pick up your reads. Nobody can get by just on offense. He had some points in juniors, but there are no one-way offensive players any more, especially at the AHL level because you have to be a solid, all-around player. The more numbers that you can post offensively will obviously help, but you have to be diligent in both areas.”
Kerbashian got that chance again Tuesday night against the Albany Devils in the Whale’s preseason opener at the Koeppel Community Sports Center on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford. It was his latest connection to the Insurance City, where his uncle, Ron Busniuk, played for the New England Whalers and Ron’s younger brother, Mike, was a Hartford Wolf Pack assistant coach for five seasons, including in 1999-2000 when the team won the only Calder Cup in franchise history. Ron is now a retired coach who guided the Thunder Bay Twins senior hockey team to two successive championships in 1983 and ’84 and was later inducted into the Northern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Minnesota Duluth Athletic Hall of Fame. Mike is in his second season as the assistant coach of the Lakehead University hockey team in Thunder Bay.
“My mom’s sister married Ron, so Ron is my first uncle, and Buzzy is like my uncle,” Kerbashian said. “I talked to him on the phone when I was struggling.”
Buzzy always specialized in talking and enjoying himself, and Kerbashian has to hope his words and those of Boller continue to sink in.
Story by Bruce Berlet of the Connecticut Whale
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