Wranglers’ coach: ‘We had 10 quitters’

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 8:56 a.m.

Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan stormed through the clubhouse Tuesday, memories of a cold night in 1991 still fresh in his head.

The second-leading points scorer on the major-junior Brandon Wheat Kings, Gulutzan admits he had quit on the team that finished 19-51-2 in that year's Western Hockey League standings.

That's when Brandon coach Kelly McCrimmon, fuming after a loss to Saskatoon, said the words that rang especially true to Gulutzan following the Wranglers' 4-2 loss to Fresno on Tuesday night.

"I've been embarrassed. I've been called the biggest quitter on the face of the Earth," Gulutzan said. "I can still hear those words today. I can tell you I haven't quit since, and I'm proud of it."

After Tuesday's loss to Fresno in front of a crowd of 3,618 -- the second smallest at the Orleans Arena this season -- Gulutzan tried to put the kind of fire under his team that McCrimmon's 14-year-old rant gave Gulutzan.

This year's Wranglers fell to 28-32-8, following a game that Gulutzan called a "disgrace."

"When you come to work you have two choices -- you work hard or you don't work hard," he said. "If you come and don't work hard, you're a quitter. Tonight we had 10 quitters."

In a year when the Wranglers have played hard and come up one goal short all too often, Tuesday was undoubtedly the low point of the year.

"This might be the first time this team was not mentally ready to play," Gulutzan said. "They didn't want to play this game. Quitters in our jerseys is unacceptable.

"To come home in front of our fans and our season-ticket holders and to (expletive) put on an (expletive) goat show is a disgrace."

It was the Wranglers' first home game since last week's major roster retooling at last Tuesday's trade deadline. Seven players on Tuesday's roster were acquired by Gulutzan in the last month, including three players signed fresh out of college.

"The younger kids gave me what they've got. My lowest-paid player was my best forward. His effort was great," Gulutzan said, referring to rookie forward Nick Anderson. "I can live with younger mistakes. It's the older guys who don't give (expletive), they're the guys I don't want to deal with."

Gulutzan added that he was "seriously considering" transactions, moments after he had pleaded with team captain Jason McBain to try to help him out more with conveying the importance of professional effort from his team.

The Wranglers practiced again early this morning, sentenced to an extra 44 minutes of ice time in exchange for, as Gulutzan put it, only giving him about 16 minutes Tuesday.

"It's called pride," he said. "If I was a fan I would have left after the first period."

Any fan who did give up on the "goat show" missed rookie Anderson's first professional goal, which he scored on a rebound from Dan Tudin's shot late in the third period.

"He worked hard," Gulutzan said. "He made a mistake and it cost us a goal and he worked hard. I'm not asking anybody to build a rocket, I'm just asking them to work hard."

Anderson, who in 136 games at Minnesota-Duluth had 30 goals and 23 assists, said it was luck that brought him his first points.

"I had a few chances before that," he said. "I was in the right place at the right time."

Anderson said he and his former UMD teammates aren't feeling overwhelmed by the caliber of ECHL play.

"I think actually we enjoy it a lot," he said. "We're out there trying to earn a spot on the team against guys that are bigger, faster and stronger. I personally enjoy that."

The Wranglers face Victoria on Friday and Bakersfield on Saturday before playing three games against Alaska next week to close out the 2005 season.