Getting to Know: Eric Ming
Growing up, Eric Ming spent more hours than he can count playing hockey on an outdoor pond.
The 18 year-old forward grew up in the small community of Williamstown, ON where he and his two best friends would play all day on a cow pond that was almost the size of a full rink. It was on that makeshift surface that Eric started developing his game, spending nearly as much time out in the cold as he did playing inside.
Of course, the 5-foot-11 winger spends far more time skating indoors these days. Selected by the Rangers in the seventh round of the 2009 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection, this is Eric’s second season in the lineup. Last year, he scored eight points in 65 games for Kitchener but believed he could increase his offensive production.
Ming identified his foot speed as an area where he could improve. “Last year I felt like, mentally I could see the game and play at the same speed as the higher-level guys on our team,” he says, “but anytime I got an opportunity to play my feet couldn’t get me into the game.”
So he went to work over the summer, going back to the basics of skating and focusing on the mechanics and dynamic of his stride. It looks like the hard work is paying off, especially on the score sheet. Ming went into the holiday break on a hot streak, with a least one point in four of five contests leading up to Christmas. He says his skating has been the difference: “I think it’s just me moving my feet more, generating better chances for me and my line mates”
He’s not the type to get caught up in his own stats, though. He would prefer to be the kind of player that makes his teammates look good, the type of impact player his coaches can trust in any situation – like his favourite player Jarome Iginla. Ming admires the Flames captain’s reputation for putting his squad ahead of himself and brings that same attitude to the Rangers’ dressing room.
“I’m a ‘team-first’ kinda guy. I don’t really care how many points I get as an individual, I just want to get our team into the playoffs and then as far as we can go from there.”
Happy to work his hardest to be a positive influence on the players around him, Eric says that playing in Kitchener is an ‘unbelievable opportunity’. He considers himself lucky to be part of the Rangers’ history and tradition. “To think that I can look back on this franchise in 50 years and say ‘I played for them’ is something that I’m going to take pride in for the rest of my life.”
It’s been a long road from the frozen cow pond to dressing room at The Aud, but Eric knows that the work was worth it for the sport he loves. Whether fighting the cold outdoors or battling to better his speed, he is always striving to make his hockey dreams come true.
“If it makes you smile and it makes you happy then it’s definitely worth doing. And if it’s something that you love to do then you’re going to want to be at the rink every day to work hard.”
