Central Hockey League: Van Drunen does the little things that help Jacks win

It's easy to take an athlete for granted, to forget about the little things they do right that makes their team much better and much more dangerous night in and night out.

The Odessa Jackalopes never have taken defenseman Dave Van Drunen for granted - they know just how talented the veteran blue liner is each time he steps onto the ice.

If they didn't, however, then some recent numbers would make the case, instead.

Since Van Drunen was sidelined with a broken jaw on Jan. 30 in a game against the Corpus Christi IceRays, the Jackalopes have:

>> Seen lead in the Southern Conference disappear to the point where they now trail the Texas Brahmas by seven points (79-72) with nine games left in the regular season.

>> Been mired in a February swoon, going 3-6-2 during the month, giving up 48 goals and finding several different ways to find the wrong end of the scoreboard.

Jackalopes coach Paul Gillis knew that Van Drunen was important to the team's success, but even he was a little surprised when one of his co-captains went down.

"We've really missed him," Gillis said. "More than I thought we would and more than I thought we should have.

"We needed guys to step up and help us get through this time and I've been disappointed with our play that last month. Not disappointed in the work ethic, because the guys are working hard, but we've made some poor decisions with the puck and thrown away three or four games that we should have won."

The decision-making with the puck is one of Van Drunen's fortes, the ability to find the right teammate with a pass that will break the Jackalopes out of the defensive zone and into the opponent's offense zone as one unit.

During the first three-plus months of the season, the Jackalopes were 30-10-4 as Van Drunen, Russ Moyer, Philippe Plante, Josh Chase, Garrett Gruenke and Mario Joly were staples on the blue line, ready to log the minutes needed to keep the Jackalopes in the win column.

Then Van Drunen went down and Joly soon followed with an injury that forced Gillis to begin juggling his defensive pairings, including moving Ryan Palmer from offense to defense.

While the players continued to work hard each night, not being able to make the crisp first pass out of the zone was forcing both the defensemen and forwards to take longer shifts and expend more energy in their own zone.

"I went back and looked at a game from earlier in the season to compare to how we are playing now and it's a big difference," Gillis said. "What had been one of our strengths earlier in the season has been difficult for us the past three weeks.

"We want to get back to the business of playing better hockey; I'm not happy with the way we've been playing hockey and no one around here is happy with the hockey we've been playing."

Getting back to the business of playing better hockey might not come at a better time for the Jackalopes, who face a trio of playoff teams beginning at 7:05 p.m Friday against the Laredo Bucks at Ector County Coliseum.

On Saturday, they'll travel back to North Richland Hills for the fifth time this season to face the Brahmas and then at 4 p.m. Sunday, the Jackalopes will be back at Ector County Coliseum to face the Mississippi River Kings.

"We have a big test in front of us," Gillis said. "But it's going to be a good test because we are facing three quality hockey clubs that will make us compete. It will be nice to have Vandy back and I'm sure that everyone else will be ready to play."