Hockey Player Channels Happy Gilmore, Practices Blocking Shots By Getting Blasted With A Tennis Ball Shooting Machine

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Hockey players are among the toughest athletes on the planet. They play the one team sport where players can fight each other during play and not get ejected. Plus, there's nothing that really compares to blocking a 100+ mph slap shot.

Not only that, but the game itself is played on a giant block of ice. And the players skate around on sharp blades of steel. There is danger lurking in every shift.

So you'd think that during the offseason, hockey players would take a break from all that. Kick back, relax, have some fun. Stay in shape and exercise, of course. But put the pain aside for a few months.

Not Macauley Carson, though. Carson played junior hockey with the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL. He had a good, but not great, junior career and served as an assistant captain for the team.

Macauley Carson, who likes to channel his inner Happy Gilmore, of the Sudbury Wolves skates during an OHL hockey game.

Macauley Carson, who likes to channel his inner Happy Gilmore, skates for the Sudbury Wolves during an OHL hockey game. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)

No NHL team drafted him, but he spent some time in the San Jose Sharks organization. Although, he failed to make the team and now plays college hockey in his home nation of Canada.

The University of New Brunswick product continues to hone his skills, hoping to one day make an NHL roster. One of those hockey skills, apparently, is blocking shots.

And Carson needs to work on that skill, even in the offseason. So, he found a creative way to do that. By running back and forth across a tennis court and taking tennis balls off the body.

That does not look fun. But it's reminiscent to the great Happy Gilmore. Who now appears to have been way ahead of his time.

At least Carson is wearing a helmet. And you can tell from his reaction to a few of those tennis balls shots that he wants to yell, "God, that hurt a little but I'm all right!"

I hope someone asked the hockey player what he was doing and he responded with "122 more days until NHL training camp, gotta toughen up!"

Kudos to Carson for working on one of the most important underrated skills in hockey: blocking shots.

Does an NHL team see this video and think "we gotta give this kid a shot?"

If I ran a hockey team, that answer would be an emphatic "YES!"

Perhaps that's why I don't run a hockey team.

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Dan began his sports media career at ESPN, where he survived for nearly a decade. Once the Stockholm Syndrome cleared, he made his way to OutKick. He is secure enough in his masculinity to admit he is a cat-enthusiast with three cats, one of which is named "Brady" because his wife wishes she were married to Tom instead of him.