BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — The text messages, composed by a friend and launched from 2,000 miles away, served a vital purpose for Grant Besse.
They brought perspective into an otherwise depressing experience.
They brought humor into an otherwise dour conversation.
Besse is the junior right winger and assistant captain for the Wisconsin men's hockey team, a guy that teammates, coaches and fans alike look to for offense.
The Badgers were 8-0 when he scored a goal as a freshman. He led the club in goals and points as a sophomore. He currently paces the team in assists and points heading into a Big Ten Conference series at 14th-ranked Penn State on Friday and Saturday.
Which made Besse's recent seven-game goal-less streak all the more glaring and frustrating. It equaled his longest career drought, which was set in his rookie season. It was made harsher by the fact Wisconsin was 1-4-2 during his skid.
The run ended during a 4-4 overtime draw with Ohio State on Jan. 9 at the Kohl Center. It was a meaningful conversion, too, because it came in the third period and erased a 4-3 deficit.
"It's nice to finally get one," Besse said after practice Tuesday. "I feel a little better about myself."
The goal, Besse's fifth of the season, showed the fickle nature of the game. After a series of great scoring chances went awry, Besse converted when his shot doinked off an Ohio State defender and into the net.
Scoring slumps in hockey will eat you alive if you let them. You simply cannot get down on yourself lest the emotional hole will get deeper.
"If you fret and frown and press and squeeze your stick, it gets worse," said Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves, who scored 94 career goals for the Badgers and another 90 in the NHL.
"As I've gotten older I've tried not to press because it just gets worse," Besse confirmed.
How do you keep your wits about you? Eaves typically asked himself three questions.
"Am I working hard? Am I scoring in practice? Am I getting chances in games?" he said. "If those three things are there, you can take the pressure off your own back. It's going to come. It's going to come back."
The breakthrough for Besse was celebrated in Plymouth, Minnesota, where he grew up, but also in Los Angeles. That's where one of Besse's buddies, Jack Jablonski, is a college student at Southern California.
Besse and Jablonski were teammates at Benilde-St. Margaret's (Minn.) High School in December of 2011 when Jablonski was paralyzed from the chest down by a hit he received during a game. Besse was a year ahead of Jablonski, but they have a bond.
"He's a really good friend," Besse said. "I try to keep in touch with him as much as possible to see how he's doing."
Jablonski is a quadriplegic who lives with a full-time attendant near the USC campus. He's majoring in communications, broadcast and journalism while working as an intern with the NHL's Los Angeles Kings.
"He's doing what he loves," said Besse, a fifth-round NHL draft pick of Anaheim in 2013. "He loves hockey. He loves being part of the game anyway he can, so I'm just happy to see him afforded the opportunity to be out there."
Weekly text messages from Jablonski help keep Besse grounded even through goal-scoring slumps. They're a reminder not to take things for granted.
"You realize it's a blessing to be able to come to the rink every day," Besse said.
The texts from Jablonski serve another purpose where Besse is concerned: They keep him humbly humored.
"During my little drought there he was letting me know I wasn't scoring," Besse noted with a smile. "He's giving me grief about (freshman winger Matt) Freytag having more goals than me."
Freytag, a fellow Minnesotan from Wayzata, had five goals during Besse's slump, including two vs. Michigan that kicked off a three-game goal-scoring streak.
"I had to take a couple days to reply to that (text) so I didn't say something I regret," Besse said in mock disgust. "(Jablonski) likes poking fun at me and the rest of the guys (from Benilde)."
Besse is one of the elected leaders on the team – senior defensemen Kevin Schulze and Eddie Wittchow are co-captains – which turned his slump into a balancing act.
"Guys are looking at me to put pucks in the back of the net," Besse said. "They see me not putting pucks in the back of the net and they see me sulking around, it doesn't send a good message. You want to be (scoring goals) for your teammates, but you also want to set a good example about being positive and not getting frustrated."
Besse has been a fixture on the top line along with freshman left winger Luke Kunin, who leads the Badgers with seven goals. They'll likely have a new center for the Penn State series – sophomore Cameron Hughes is doubtful with an upper-body injury; sophomore Adam Rockwood was the replacement at practice this week – so it'll be interesting to see how their chemistry evolves.
Kunin thinks he and Besse, who has 12 assists and 17 points in 18 games this season, have forged a sense of on-ice unity and it gets stronger every game.
"As a young guy, a lot of the younger guys look up to him," Kunin said. "Obviously because of his skill on the ice, but also his leadership qualities."
On a club dominated by underclassmen – six juniors and seniors; 21 freshmen and sophomores – Besse stands out, according to Kunin.
"He's pretty dialed in before games and practice," Kunin said. "He just knows what he's doing out there. When he wants to, he can really get things done."
If Besse could impart one bit of wisdom on the freshmen, what would it be?
"Just have confidence in yourself," he said. "If you have confidence in yourself and believe in yourself, you're going to make the right plays out there more times than not."
The Badgers are hoping that insight starts paying bigger dividends.
Besse, meanwhile, awaits more text messages from his inspiring friend.
