Versteeg on the mend after latest hip surgery

Kris Versteeg, with ample time on his hands, has been active on the Calgary Flames group chat. Very active. “I’m usually the only one that texts,” said the 31-year-old winger, grinning as he stood outside the dressing room Tuesday. “I think I kind of text to myself.”

It’s no surprise Versteeg, one of the key cogs, is desperately trying to stay connected with his teammates as he recovers from hip surgery — the second in his career.

The veteran injured his hip during a road game Nov. 24 against the Dallas Stars and was shut down shortly after, going under the knife Dec. 4. It was a crucial loss for the Flames, but Versteeg, now going through the rehabilitation process, is optimistic.

Now that he’s feeling better and enjoying more mobility every day, the wait is on.

And in some ways, this part — keeping his mind active but staying patient — is worse than the procedure.

“You just want to be out there,” Versteeg said. “You want to be playing. It’s something I’ve been through before and it’s difficult, but it’s about understanding that you’re getting better for a reason.

“You feel good, but you also understand that you’re not ready. There’s times during the rehab process when you need to push it or you have to pull back.

“Or sometimes you pull back so you can push it more. It’s always a fine line of finding where you can go in the process.”

Following the procedure, Versteeg had to spend three weeks without bearing weight, which meant he couldn’t pick up his two young sons, Jaxson and Maddox, over Christmas holidays. But now there’s an end in sight. Versteeg isn’t cleared to skate just yet, but he’s working on strengthening, physiotherapy, movement patterns and building on it day-by-day.

The injury was similar to the hip ailment which required surgery in 2012.

“In the end, it was the exact same surgery,” said the Lethbridge native, who has been limited to 22 games this season. “It was a little different than when I was 25 dealing with it. I only missed about 12 games that year because of it. But this year with it happening, it needed to be done.”

There’s no clear timeline on his return to the ice, but Versteeg said he will know more when he sees the New York-based surgeon on Jan. 22.

“We’re trying to figure that out,” Versteeg said. “That’s when I’ll know more about when I can get back on the ice. There’s no timeline — even when I go back on the ice, it’s not like it’s going to be a week or two weeks or one month. With this type of injury, there’s a patterning process, and you almost have to train your body to skate again … it’s going to be a process.”

The Flames are missing his presence, on and off the ice but especially on the power play, which has scored eight goals on 57 attempts since losing him off the first unit.

“You want to help in any way you can,” Versteeg said.

“You want to go through the entire process with these guys. When you see it going good, you want to be part of it. And when you see it going bad, you want to be part of the solution to get out of it.

“I watch pretty much every game and you see some things work and some things that don’t ... it’s a lot of synchronicity that goes into it. Guys need to trust each other ... that’s when we were going, it made us successful. You want them to keep that success going. That power play is going to keep us winning games.”