Photo Credit: Colby Spence
We are still a little ways away from seeing him in the above scenario but part of the rookie’s road to recovery was getting back on the ice for the first time since his concussion back on January 7th against the Sabres in Buffalo. Following morning skate at the MTS Centre he opened his press conference by announcing “Patrik Laine skated this morning. Let me get that out there first cause I know you’re going to ask me about it and I didn’t want to forget.” Laine skated with the team’s fitness director.
Coach Maurice was asked about the next step “Gets through to the point that we are comfortable. He gets back on the ice. So all the things that have gone on, the light bike rides he got through and was fine, so this is the next phase, he gets back on the ice and we will see how he feels tomorrow to see if he’s going on or not and then you just start augmenting it a little bit every day…but good sign.”
He was asked about a timetable to which he replied “Even right to the very end because the last thing will be full contact practice and a good old tug and we’ve had players in the past just blow through the first part, get to that and hold there for a long time. If you present any kind of symptom in that, you’re back to square one so there’s no timeframe for ya.”
When asked how Laine looked on the ice and how long he was on the ice the bench boss indicated “he did what he needed to do, he skated around and he was out there for a bit.”
So while the prized Jets rookie still has no timetable, will miss his sixth straight game tonight, the good news for fans is he has gotten back on the ice and is on that road to recovery.
