Stamkos vows to come back stronger
TORONTO — At that ball hockey camp in Calgary back in August, when most of Canada’s best hockey players were not allowed near the ice because of insurance concerns, Steven Stamkos was asked if he was a lock for Sochi 2014. “I wouldn’t say anyone’s a lock,” said the 23-year-old, who at the least was Canada’s best goal scorer. “Injuries happen. Unforeseen circumstances.”
Stamkos snapped his tibia on Monday, crashing into his own goalpost while backchecking at high speed, and it was gruesome to watch. He tried to get up, tried again, collapsed and calmly told the trainer, “It’s broken.” Stamkos underwent surgery in Boston Tuesday morning, and a metal rod was inserted. The wide range of estimates were eight to 10 weeks for the bone to heal, and then one to three months of rehab before a realistic return to elite hockey. The short end of that estimate adds up to just less than three months. Canada plays its first game, against Norway, three months and one day after the surgery. It’s a slim hope at best.
“In the brief period that I did speak to him — and it’s not surprising if you know him — he was particularly upbeat,” Steve Yzerman, the general manager for both Tampa Bay and Canada’s Olympic hockey team, said Tuesday. “Said, ‘I’ll come back stronger than ever.’ We’d hope that he’d be healthy for the Olympics, but I have no idea at this stage.”
It was a screamingly awful injury, made worse because Stamkos is one of the guys in the NHL that is impossible for anybody to hate. He’s an elite and thrilling talent, a diligent worker, a good kid.
And this season he had a league-leading 14 goals and 23 points in his first 17 games, and Tampa Bay was first in the East, and he has worked so hard to become a reliable player everywhere — on faceoffs, backchecking — which is a prerequisite both for Canada and for true stardom.
Stamkos, the goldenhaired boy from Markham, Ont., has become everything you want a hockey player to be, more or less.
“He’s elevated his game at this early stage of the season to beyond last year, upped all aspects of his game,” Yzerman said after the general managers’ meetings in Toronto. “He’s been tremendous. And even beyond the Olympics, he’s motivated to be the best player — not just the best scorer, the best player — in the world. And this injury isn’t going to discourage that, if you know him.”
“Stammer came into our building the other night and he was an absolute superstar, playing head-to-head against (Pavel) Datsyuk, and it’s hard to be good against Datsyuk,” said Detroit and Canadian Olympic coach Mike Babcock on Monday.
“I feel bad not for myself and not even for Canada, but for Stammer. He’s a heck of a player and the league needs him. You need the flash and the great players, the guy who has charisma. He does it right. The league needs guys like that.”
Canada probably did, too, despite the depth this country carries up front. There will surely be a game at the Olympics when Canada will be dying for a goal, and Stamkos conjures goals as well as just about anybody on Earth. A centre in a country deep in centres, he had worked on the wing at the world championship, preparing for Sochi, trying not to freewheel back into the middle of the ice.
Meanwhile, Canada will try to construct its roster with him, and also without him. Hockey Canada’s staff met Tuesday and watched games and was set for a more formal meeting Wednesday, where Yzerman said they would establish the team’s core players, and toss around names on the bubble. There are good things being said about Dallas’s Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene of Colorado, maybe Milan Lucic. Already this season Rick Nash of the Rangers has suffered a serious concussion, Edmonton’s Taylor Hall has sprained his left knee and Claude Giroux has been afflicted by whatever is plaguing the Philadelphia Flyers.
“Some of the veteran guys, regardless of the start they’ve had, good or bad, we give them the benefit of the doubt at least to stay in the discussion for the team,” said Yzerman. “But you can’t ignore some of the young players who have played extremely well. We cannot ignore some of the younger players who simply have — they’ve always been on the radar, but a couple, we probably can’t keep off the team.”
Hockey Canada believes the injury guidelines will mirror 2010 when a lastminute replacement would be allowed until a day before the Olympics. If so, it will allow the Russians to stash an injured player on the roster, and it will allow some question regarding Stamkos and others.
But it seems far away right now and it’s a shame. Stamkos was said to be deeply disappointed when he didn’t make the roster for Vancouver, and when asked earlier this year what playing in Sochi would mean, he said, “Getting the chance to represent your country, it means everything to me.”
This could be the final Olympics for the NHL, with commissioner Gary Bettman openly talking about a future filled with league-controlled World Cups.
According to Yzerman, Stamkos started rehabilitating right away. The race is on.