Wolves' scorer Rattie muscles up for big season
Chicago Wolves right wing Ty Rattie enjoyed a triumphant start to his professional career last season. Of the 19 American Hockey League players who scored more than 25 goals, Rattie was the youngest of the bunch.
Rattie, who turned 21 on Feb. 5, shared fourth in the league with 31 goals last year. After adding 12 pounds of muscle during the offseason, he's producing at a similar rate in the early going this year with 3 goals and 2 assists in the Wolves' first six games.
As the Wolves prepare for three games in three days this weekend - featuring the Salute to Military Families game on Saturday against Milwaukee at Allstate Arena - Rattie took some time out to talk about goal-scoring, baseball, his housemates' goofiness and other topics.
Q. What is your secret to scoring goals? How did you get to be where you are?
A. Probably the biggest thing as a goal-scorer is your shot. My dad was a big help to me when I was younger (and growing up in Airdrie, Alberta). He put a mini-rink in our basement. Painted it and everything. It had the Calgary Flames' logo on it. He'd say, 'Let's see if you can shoot 200 pucks per day' and kind of challenge me. We'd be watching the Flames game on TV and it'd be intermission and he and I would go downstairs and shoot pucks when it was intermission.
Q. Help us go through the goal-scorer's mindset. Let's say the puck gets on your stick with an immediate scoring chance. What are you thinking?
A. First of all, you see if the goalie's hunched over. If he's hunched over, you know he's going to go down. So I need to get the puck up. If I was playing with a Keith Aucoin (the former Wolves center and one of the leading assist men in AHL history), he likes the puck on his stick and I know I've got to find that soft area - back door, or maybe in the slot where guys might lose you in coverage or something like that.
When you're playing with skilled guys, they'll find you. They'll put the puck on your stick. What (Wolves head coach) Johnny (Anderson) calls it is your bread-and-butter: You find your favorite spot and you shoot on it 10 times in practice. Then, when you get that chance in a game, it's automatic."
Q. Though you posted some huge scoring totals growing up in Alberta, you didn't specialize solely in hockey. As you proved last year when you whacked a puck out of midair and scored a goal from the faceoff dot, you have a nice baseball swing.
A. We had a lot of fun and we won a lot of tournaments. My dad (Rob) was the coach and I played shortstop. One year (at age 15) I made Team Alberta for a pretty big tournament. It was a pretty big deal. But at that point, I had to make a choice. I couldn't play baseball if I wanted to continue playing hockey at a high level. I still love baseball. It's right up there with hockey with how much I love it. I go to Toronto every summer to see the Blue Jays.
Q. Over the summer, The Oregonian newspaper ranked the Top 25 Portland Winterhawks of all-time. Considering such greats as Marian Hossa and Cam Neely played for Portland, how did you feel about listed as the No. 1 Winterhawk of all-time?
A. It's obviously a very big honor with how many players have played there, but I was very lucky to have Mike Johnston (now Pittsburgh Penguins head coach) and then Travis Green (now Utica Comets head coach) as a coach when I was there. I was there for four years. Three of the years we went to the finals and one of the years we won it. I was very lucky to be on a very good team and play with a lot of great players that are in the NHL right now.
Q. Right before camp began, there was a picture on Twitter of roommates Joel Edmundson and Jordan Binnington picking you up at the airport dressed as chauffeurs. What was up with that?
A. I walked in the baggage claim area and they were standing there with the taxi drivers and chauffeurs with my picture and a big sign that said 'Mr. Ty Rattie' and they were dressed up in their suits. It was pretty funny. They obviously were pretty bored if they had time to do that stuff.
Q. Did you have a favorite Flames player growing up?
A. Jarome Iginla was the man. And when we had a puppy, his name was Kipper for goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. When they went on that Cup run against Tampa Bay (in 2004), that was a fun year.