The hardest part is not the waiting, it is the hoping. There were times when Tim Connolly was recovering from his two concussions that his spirits hurt worse than his head.
It was tough getting through the days when he felt better, then worse, then better. It was difficult believing, as he was sitting out nearly a full season on two occasions, that there would be a night like tonight, when he finally appears in a playoff game at Nassau Coliseum.
Nor could the Sabres center ever have believed, when he didn’t miss a single game because of injury through his first four years in the NHL, that he would be in the position of sympathizing with the other team’s goalie.
But sure enough, Connolly and Rick DiPietro — back-toback Islanders first-round draft picks in 1999 and 2000 — said almost the exact thing about the stretch of hard road they share.
“It’s not something you want to see anybody go through,” said Connolly, 25, whose concussion last May 8 kept him out until the final two regular-season games and the first two games of the Islanders series.
“It’s definitely an injury I wouldn’t wish on anybody,” said DiPietro, 25, who had two concussions in March and returned to spark the Islanders to a seriestying 3-2 win in Buffalo on Saturday, his first appearance since March 25.
The goalie knows how lucky he is to be back so soon. He called missing a few weeks “torture.” He doesn’t have the words to describe what Connolly went through, having also missed a season after his first concussion in 2003.
“I can’t imagine,” DiPietro said after practice at Ice- Works in Syosset yesterday (Sunday). “It’s such a scary injury. Everyone’s timetable is different, everyone’s recovery time is different. You see a guy like him, he’s been out three-quarters of a season with post-concussion syndrome. It’s something you think will never end, and all of a sudden, you wake up one day and you feel good.”
By the same token, Connolly was the only other player on the ice who really knew the joy DiPietro felt in just being out there Saturday.
“I haven’t talked to him and I don’t know exactly what the situation is,” the forward said. “Obviously, they’re going to keep that pretty tightly watched. You don’t want to see anybody in the league go through something like that.”
If discouragement doesn’t get a concussion sufferer, the tedium will. Connolly was so desperate that he resorted to reading.
“I never really read any books at all up until this year,” he said. “I read about 40 books this year.” He is partial to suspense novels and he still reads every night.
The point is, Connolly would have done anything to get him through a second long, dry year. He benefited from an innovative program at the University at Buffalo that prescribes physical activity instead of prolonged rest. He began to believe again.
“You’ve just got to know that you’ll eventually get through it and get back on track,” he said.
Getting back on track was dear because getting on track in the first place was no bargain. He made the Islanders as an 18-year-old, but it just didn’t work out. No hard feelings.
“It was a great experience. We were a really young team so I got to play a lot at a really young age and it was a great group of guys,” Connolly said, “but most of them are gone.”
DiPietro and Jason Blake are the only current Islanders who were on the team when Connolly was included in the 2001 deal for Michael Peca, whom the Islanders envisioned as the kind of cornerstone that Di- Pietro is now. Peca, a Maple Leaf, made the short hop from Toronto on Saturday to see his old buddies and was impressed, Blake said.
But Connolly was impressive in his own right, gaining steam in 17 shifts Saturday. “There’s no question about it,” Blake said. “If he can stay healthy, he’s going to be a big-time player in this league for a long time to come.”
“We know he’s been through a lot,” Sabres defenseman Brian Campbell said. “There’s just a feeling, watching him back on the ice. It’s kind of uplifting for all of us.”
Connolly just feels natural. He is making plays, not looking backward, which is healthy for a concussion veteran in more ways than one. “Honestly,” he said, “your mind-set goes right back into what you were usually thinking.”
Playing is the easy part.
Reference:
http://www.buffalonews.com/214/story/54944.html
