Wranglers staple thrives with kamikaze edge
They are fighting words any of the Hanson brothers would consider sacred: “Keep your head up and don’t duck a lot, keep it inside and tight, know which is his strong arm and tie it up, have fun and go from there.”
And as for destroying a soda machine when it eats your quarter?
“I try,” Shawn Limpright continued, “to stay away from private property.”
Minor league hockey has a certain animalistic tone. A hunger. It’s a fierce image hysterically portrayed in the 1977 film “Slap Shot” and one still common today. Limpright, a left wing, owns that same kamikaze edge that made the Hansons beloved goons on a screen. He too is a rat. The good kind. There is apparently a difference.
The Wranglers on Monday night open the ECHL’s National Conference finals against Utah at the Orleans Arena, a best-of-7 series that advances its winner to within four victories of hoisting the Kelly Cup. It’s the closest Las Vegas has been to a championship. For Limpright, too.
Every team has one. Sometimes two. Limpright’s first fight on ice came at age 14. The other guy started it and dared Limpright to follow, and he did merely out of fear not to. It went
pretty well. He gave as much as he took and hasn’t stopped swinging since.
But perhaps more than his desire to rack up more penalty minutes — he is the team’s all-time leader with 477 — while inflicting harm this series, Limpright will play with a passion shaped by the thought of windows closing.
He is 26, and logic suggests the NHL will not be part of his career resume. He once played 45 games in the American Hockey League, but that level too might have passed. There is an annual option of playing for more money in Europe, which he likely will take advantage of soon.
But if he ever is to have a ring sized for a championship in the States, his best opportunity might present itself the next several weeks. Sometimes, you have to settle for the reality of kissing a cup not named Stanley.
“I’ve been there,” said Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan, a career minor league player. “At first, it’s all about getting to the next level, but when you are found to have maxed out a little, different things become more important. For Shawn, it’s very important to win a championship now.
“When I traded for him (in 2005), I knew he was hard-nosed. Guys hate playing against him, but coaches like him, and players respect him. I didn’t know at first he was this much of a rat. But he’s the honorable kind.”
This is what I like about Gulutzan. He not only runs intense practices that make your legs ache just watching from chilly confines behind plexiglass, but every time you talk with him, you learn something. Strategy. Motivational tools. The variation of stick-wielding rodents.
A good rat evidently is one who stands and fights, who has little regard for his opponent’s body and even less for his own. A bad rat hits and glides away like a frightened turtle. Think of Carmelo Anthony on skates.
The list of injuries Limpright has compiled over the years suggests he never has run from anything. But playing as he has and not getting hurt is impossible, a truth that undoubtedly kept him from advancing as he would have hoped.
It’s a difficult irony to accept and yet one the Wranglers’ all-time scorer can’t ignore.
“The (NHL dream) is something I’ll never cross off my list,” Limpright said. “I don’t think anyone should, even though it gets harder and harder every year. Maybe one guy sees you in the playoffs and that’s all it takes. You never know.
“But if I wasn’t fighting, it wouldn’t be my game anymore. I just can’t get away from it … Obviously, winning a championship would add to my career, and I’d be a little more proud of it than if I don’t win one.”
During practice Thursday, during one of numerous brutally taxing drills run by Gulutzan, Limpright took a high stick off his neck. He crumbled to the ice in pain and swiped a glove past the injured area, which exposed no blood. So he rose, skated into position and put his helmet on. But he didn’t attach the straps, leaving them to dangle while Gulutzan dropped the puck and the action began anew.
And you thought: There it is. That kamikaze edge. Minor league hockey is classic stuff. Rats make it even better.
Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.
