Here's a look back at some Rangers history from The Maven.
Before I went to work for the Rangers in September 1954 in the Blueshirts publicity department, I had been a fervent Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
My favorite Maple Leaf was a hard-hitting right wing named "Wild Bill" Ezinicki. Many consider him the best body checking forward of all-time.
By the 1954-55 season – my year with the Rangers – Ezzie had wound up in the minors skating for the Vancouver Canucks in the old Western League.
At the time, the Blueshirts had two farm teams in the WHL, one in Saskatoon and the other Vancouver. As luck would have it, the Rangers suffered several injuries late in the season forcing manager Frank Boucher to promote Ezinicki to the Rangers.
Naturally I was thrilled to death and – as assistant publicist – I thought Ezzie's arrival deserved some publicity. So, I corralled Dana
Mozley who covered the Rangers for the NY Daily News.
I told Dana: "Ezinicki has three types of body checks. One is the 'Jolt' and the second is the 'Thump' and the best of all is the 'Whomp.'" And he wrote this in his sidebar so I felt pretty good about that.
We played the Canadiens that night and I was watching Ezzie very carefully. On one of his shifts, he was moving up right wing when he detected Montreal's great right wing Maurice Richard coming in Bill's direction.
For a couple of seconds, I actually thought that Ezzie would deliver a resounding "Whomp" and came very close to doing so.
But, at the last split second, Rocket picked up the human torpedo on his radar and escaped what would have been a colossal hit by inches only!
While the "Whomp" never happened, that episode with Rocket and Ezzie goes down as one of my favorite Ranger memories.
P.S. I was reminded of it while reading Matthew Blittner's excellent book, "Unforgettable Rangers – Games & Moments From The Press Box."
