Peeke, Gudbranson set tone blocking shots for Blue Jackets
The risk in blocking shots in hockey is getting drilled with a frozen puck in spots that will cause even the toughest players to crumple in agony or hobble to the bench.
The reward, other than a handsome NHL paycheck, is the sound of ‘atta boys’ from the bench and sticks clacking the boards.
“I don’t really bruise much,” said Erik Gudbranson, one of the Blue Jackets’ top shot-blockers. “I mean, they still hurt. I’ve been lucky. I mean, knock on wood, I haven’t really taken any in the face or anything like that …”
Gudbranson, 31, has played long enough to know that merely saying those words aloud, “knock on wood,” isn’t enough. Seated at his stall in the Blue Jackets’ locker room, he quickly scanned for the nearest wooden object and gave it a hearty knock.
The night before, during the first period of the Blue Jackets’ 5-4 overtime loss Tuesday in Pittsburgh, one of Gudbranson’s hands was rendered useless after it was struck.
“It just hit me in a weird spot,” he said. “It hit me on a nerve and it just, like, hit the ‘off ’ button on my hand for 10 minutes. That was something, but now it feels normal.”
As Gudbranson was out with his hand issue, rookie defenseman Nick Blankenburg was struck with a glancing blow that left him rubbing his chin.
Blankenburg didn’t miss a shift and later took another shot up high. Gudbranson finished the game after the feeling in his hand returned. Each banged his stick in approval in the third, when rookie Kirill Marchenko struggled to leave the ice after blocking a shot with his knee to keep it 4-4.
“Some of them sting, sure, but it’s also a ‘hurts so good,’ kind of thing,” Gudbranson said. “When you come back to the bench and it’s a big block, you’re getting stick taps from the boys and it just feels good. For a guy who doesn’t score too many goals, to get the bench fired up that way is just great.” Andrew Peeke knows the feeling. Peeke, 24, is playing his second full NHL season and ranks fourth in the league over the past two years in blocked shots (312). A two-way force at Notre Dame, Peeke has changed his game by using his size (6 feet 3, 210 pounds) for physical confrontations and blocking shots.
He’s first on the Blue Jackets in blocks, eighth in the NHL with 143 and, along with Gudbranson, has picked up the pace since former teammate Vladislav Gavrikov was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings last week.
“It’s something I take pride in,” Peeke said. “It gets the boys fired up. Anytime someone else blocks a shot, I always give stick taps on the bench, so it’s something that’s part of my identity and part of my role. I enjoy that aspect of it and I know Guddy does too. It’s just the roles we play, so we enjoy it.”
The coaching staff does, too. “They’re giving it,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “You get 28 blocked shots (in Pittsburgh) in a road game like that, guys are eating it left and right … blocking 14 or 15 in the first period. (That’s) a really good sign these guys are putting it in the effort.”