Mike McKenzie hoped for a spark eleven weeks ago.

 

The Kitchener Rangers general manager felt he had constructed a roster worthy of a top-four position in the Western Conference. But in late November, his group wasn’t anywhere near being a contender.

 

The Rangers stumbled under head coach Jay McKee. After a 5-1-4 start, they dropped nine of their next 11 outings, including four in a row, when McKenzie decided to make a change on November 25th.

 

“It’s never an easy thing to do, especially to a person who is a good person like Jay,” McKenzie said this week. “It comes with a lot of doubt, and you really never know for sure if it’s the right decision at the time. But at the end of the day, we felt it was necessary because of where we were at.”

 

Where the Rangers were at was in last place in the Western Conference. The 33-year-old McKenzie named himself the interim bench boss, a risky move considering he never had been a head coach.

 

After his playing career had concluded, McKenzie was hired as an assistant by then Ranger head coach Steve Spott. Before he was promoted to Kitchener’s GM in 2017, McKenzie spent five seasons under four different head coaches in Spott, Troy Smith, Mike Van Ryn and McKee.

 

“When you’re an assistant coach, most guys will tell you that you always look at it from the scope of ‘if I was the head coach would I do that or would I do something different? Or how would I handle the situation,’” McKenzie said.

 

McKenzie revealed he has been in touch with Van Ryn, now a Stanley Cup-winning assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues. Van Ryn has been there with words of wisdom for his protege.

 

“He is a guy I’ve kept in touch with,” McKenzie said. “He’s obviously had a lot of success, winning a Cup with St. Louis last year. He’s a really good coach, a super-smart Xs and Os guy. I’ve talked to him a lot, especially early on, when I made the change. I bounced a lot of stuff of him, and that was helpful.”

 

The change behind the bench had an immediate impact on the Rangers. It also didn’t hurt that goalie Jacob Ingham returned from injury at the same time. But first, there was a 5-4 shootout victory in Erie against the Otters followed by 3-0 and 2-1 victories at home against rivals Owen Sound and Guelph, respectively.

 

The Rangers put together an impressive 12-0-3 run, and after a 3-1 win against Erie at home on Tuesday, they have won four in a row.

 

“We knew it would give us some kind of a spark,” McKenzie said. “Usually, a coaching change does create a spark for a week or two, but we’ve had the good fortune of continuing it for much longer.”

 

Rookie Declan McDonnell has been scoring. Mike Petizian put together a 14-game point streak, in which he scored 11 times. The defence played much better, and the overage group of Greg Meireles, Liam Hawel and Jonathan Yantsis have been leaders.

 

“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing,” McKenzie said. “I think we’re a confident group right now. We were beaten down at that point because we had been on a losing streak. Once we got that first win, and a couple more followed, confidence started to build.”

 

Under McKenzie, the Rangers now find themselves in the top spot in the Western Conference. With 16 games remaining, they’re three points ahead of the London Knights, who have played two fewer times.

 

It will be interesting to see how this Rangers season evolves. Right now, the plan is for McKenzie to hire a new coach in the offseason. He has quite the pile of resumes on his desk, and the stack will only grow after the season.

 

Meanwhile, this weekend presents another good measuring stick with road games in London on Friday and Saginaw on Saturday.

 

“We always felt we had a talented group that could win on paper,” McKenzie said. “We felt we were in the top-four mix in the Western Conference, fighting for home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Once we started to get a little bit of confidence, the guys started to feel pretty good about themselves, and things started to turn for us quickly.”