Milking his chance for all its worth
Small-town farm boy Flaman, who started as a checker, has early lead as Giants’ top goal scorer
Jack Flaman knows all about milk doing the body good. He’s also finding out what goals do for his mindset this season with the Vancouver Giants.
Flaman, who spends summers working on his family’s dairy farm in Vibank, Sask., has a goal in each of the Vancouver Giants’ three games this Western Hockey League season.
The 19-year-old forward had been used mostly as a checker in his first two WHL seasons. He came into the current campaign with just one goal in 76 games split over two partial campaigns with the Giants and the Portland Winterhawks.
“I just feel good about myself out there,” said Flaman, who was centring a line at practice Thursday with Radovan Bondra and Ty Ronning, who will make his season debut Friday against the Seattle Thunderbirds after returning from the New York Rangers’ training camp.
“It’s going good for me right now. I have to keep doing what I’m doing now. I need to play hard in the defensive zone and when I get my chances up front, I need to take advantage of them.”
It’s not unusual to see players at the junior level make dramatic jumps with their stats from year to year thanks to gains in strength, speed and confidence. And Flaman had been a point producer in Junior A: He had six goals and 15 assists in 23 games with Notre Dame of the Saskatchewan league last season before he was picked up by Vancouver.
He says he didn’t change his routine this summer. He returned to Vibank (population 374) and stayed off the ice for a couple of months while he was working daily on the farm with parents Matthew and Tricia and brother Michael, 22.
Vibank is about a 45-minute drive east of Regina. Flaman heads there when he looks to skate in preparation for the season.
“Lots of people only have hockey friends. I get to go home and be totally away from the game,” said Flaman, a 5-foot-11, 210-pound left-handed shot. “When I’m there, I’m a farmer. I’m hanging out with my buddies. Most of them are skateboarders or working guys.
“I get away from everything and it’s nice. If I focused on the game all summer, I feel like when I did come to the rink, I wouldn’t be as happy or as good. When I come back now, I’m so excited to play. I can hardly put my skates on without jumping out of them.”
The farm has been in the Flaman family for more than 70 years. It was founded by Matthew’s great-grandfather Victor. They have 170 cows, according to Flaman.
“It’s not a big farm, but you’ve got your work cut out for you for just four people,” said Flaman.
He does come across as a fan of the small-town life.
“A Starbucks? In my town? No, no, no,” he said. “The only thing we’ve got is a little grocery store. I’ve got nowhere else to go. Most of the food I eat comes from my mom off the tractor.
“We used to walk down the street and say ‘hi’ to everyone I knew. That’s just what I did because I lived there. And now, when I come back, there are a few people I don’t know who are moving into town, but everyone is making an effort to meet everyone else.” Sewen@postmedia.com twitter.com/SteveEwen