Jackson Oleson - WHL Combine Day 1 Part 2 and 3 ***Updated***

Combines are a series of long days strung together.  As a player, you are on stage the entire time and you know it.  Coaches, scouts, agents, trainers, parents...everyone is watching you.  Stop watches are ticking, pens are scratching on notepads feverishly, grown men whisper to each other about this player and that player and who is looking good and who is not.  How do you perform off the ice?  How do you perform on the ice?  How do you interact with other players around you?  How do you respond to the spotlight shining brightly on you?  These are questions each player must answer and how they do may determine their future in hockey.  After all the off ice intensity of the morning on Day 1, it is now time to hit the ice...

4/17 12:55pm

Lunch is over and all the boys are gearing up for the skate.  Jackson is now out of the locker room and the unis are beyond cool.  Under Armour logos to the max.  They really have these kids looking pro!

The layout for the rest of the day is a skate with basic drills apparently for the scouts to get a quick view of the basics then a skills evaluation tonight.

Jackson is dressed and ready to go.  The pinnie signifies defense.  Yes, in the land of giants the little whipper snapper just shines on D.  Funny, there is one other small guy Jack’s height who is also a D, however, that kid is about 3 feet thick and was lightning fast in the off ice eval.  It will be interesting to see how this all goes.    

There is a quick skate around warm up, then the lead coach calls practice to order.  The first drill is standard two lines on one side of the ice each line on the boards.  This is a 2 on 0 cross ice passing drill at full speed.  Jackson drew a good partner both flying passes tape to tape.  Looks like the Elevate stuff Findorff’s having the kids do is a payoff.  Down and back, down and back.  Some of the kids have a few flubs but all and all these kids can play.

A bit of a variation on the next version of the same drill.  Down then curl back leave the puck for your partner then break out.  Again long cross ice pass and “YES”  tape to tape.  The little guy is looking great.  It appears that the goal of this session is a quick fundamentals check.  How they skate and pass.  The next three drills are again more variations of the same.

Essentially the entire practice is:

2 on 0  go down inside come back outside

2 on 0 go down outside peal to the boards and down outside

2 on 0 do down outside peal with back checkers

Next set was neutral zone weaving passing drills.  I’ll leave it at that.  Way too complicated for me to describe.  Thankfully I don’t have to do these since I can’t even explain what the #$% is going on.  A Findorff thing…

Last drill was a 1 on 0 shooting drill.  The innovation here was if the shooter misses they must get their puck and take it back to center ice.  Reminds the player to get his rebound and all the pucks are in one spot for easy pick up.  NOTED!!

Same old Jackson, nice shake and bake but didn't take this one very seriously.  A good chance to show off kinda wasted. I’ll have a chat with him later to remind him he is on stage.  But what would I know?

The good news is that 71 is Jackson’s teammate.  Unfortunately, a lot of the guys are this big.  I suggested to Jackson that he offer 71 a salary position as body guard for the rest of this weekend.  Certainly offer to polish his skates and dry his gear in any case. 

This one is in the books.  Jack had a solid showing.  The Findorff practices with the Elevate crew and the Blue kids have totally paid off. 

We have four hours before the skills evaluation.  Jack and I have talked it over and are discussing how to best prepare for the next session.  We were thinking back to the hotel for a nap.  A little debate and weighing the options and we made the right choice.  Shopping!  The rip curl outlet is about 15 miles away and that place is wicked cool!

4/17 – Evening Skills Competition

Still waiting for the next on ice session.  I picked up the printed rosters and just flipping through.  Players representing all the big name teams are here.  Shattuck’s,  MN Edina, MN here,  MN there,  Chicago Fury, Colorado, Dallas,  Alaska, Phoenix and of course the So Cal kids.  The Jr. Ducks finished ranked 9^th at the 2000 group this year and the Kings finished 15^th.  All the big names are here (Harris, Castro, Ensign, …) and all very familiar to the little guy.

Now this is getting even cooler.  The ice is arranged with obstacles that have laser start and stop systems.  The way this works is each kid gets RFID scanned prior to each run.  They bolt through the start laser and off to complete the obstacles.  The kid then races to the finish lasers where their time is recorded and displayed in real-time on a leader board. 

The weave agility with the puck is the first event and Jackson just misses the leader board by a hair.  He is in this thing.  I think I am the only one taking pictures of the leader board.  Nut parent is what most are thinking I am sure.

Beyond COOL!!! But just noticing Jackson’s profile picture.  Looking all laid back, and what are you holding on to?  Come on kid!!!!  This is an amazing opportunity. “Sit up, Look sharp, act like you …" If there was a count I am sure this would have been the 100,000,000^th time I said that exact phrase.  This is a sports event not a rap video.  Millie could have raised him better!!

For the weave agility, Jackson was the last to go in the last group.  OMG the kid finished 2^nd!!!!  Findorff was right,  “Wait till they see him skate”!!!!  The leader, “Griffith”, that’s the other defenseman I mentioned that is Jackson’s size.  He was the wicked fast kid in the off ice.  Jackson can really tighten things up on the ice it seems.

Next up is Transition Agility.  Basically same idea just adding a backwards transition both ways in the mix.  This really separates the kids with big strong legs that can skate fast north and south from the kids that can stay in the play.  AND ……  OMG …. Jackson makes the board again and finishes 7^th in this group. 

The next event was transition ability with the puck.  Jackson had an amazing looking run going then fumbled the puck on the last transition.  The kid was moving.  Feet flying backwards.  I think he is the fastest out there, surely would have been #1 on the board.  Around the last flag he went to one hand control of the puck transitioning from full speed forward to his left side.  Now this is a specialty for him, but with one hand on the puck you have no room for error.  ERROR. 

This must be very difficult.  You can tell these kids want to go full speed all out.  The judges are being fair and are letting the kids go again, however, you can tell the 2^nd pass is more cautious.  So, Jackson now lines up for another run and sure enough this looks half speed but it’s a clean finish and he misses the leader board by .01 seconds.  This was his event!!

Following this is the “Forward Agility Event”.  There is one kid out here that was born for this one.  There is no one even close.  Essentially, you skate forward in a hurry to then wait for a signal telling you to dart left or right nearly 90 degree horizontal. You have to be left to right on a dime.  You do this twice in each run.  This kid times it perfect and is a showcase.  Jackson, nowhere close on this one.  Back to the lab again “Yo”.

Another event was the backward straight away without the puck then the backwards straight away with the puck.  Again, Jackson’s looks to be #1.  But, the board is hung up.  I can’t tell if a score registered or not.  RFID tag mis read?  Software error?  Just dang.  This was all him.

So it’s around 7:30 and this event is in the bag.  Off to dinner where I can’t wait to hear what it’s like to participate in an event like this.  What it must feel like?