Hockey more than a career for Shaw
Shaw can’t wait to get back in action after missing games because of injury
The Canadiens’ Andrew Shaw can’t imagine his life without hockey.
The 27-year-old still remembers learning to skate with his brothers — Josh and Jason — when he was growing up in Belleville, Ont. Every Tuesday at 7 a.m., the boys would join a group of youngsters at the local rink, where their father would teach hockey skills at one end of the ice and a figure-skating coach would have them skating in circles at the other end while working on their edge work, pivots, etc. The kids would switch ends after about 30 minutes.
“I just remember going every Tuesday morning, waking up at 6, bitching at my dad about getting up,” Shaw recalled after the Canadiens practised Friday morning in Brossard. “Everyone would be so jacked to go to the skills side because who wants to figure skate? We were young boys and we wanted to play with the puck. But I’m glad he forced us to do it.”
Hockey has been Shaw’s passion ever since. When he wasn’t on the ice playing hockey as a kid, Shaw was playing ball hockey and was named the 2010 International Street and Ball Hockey Federation’s Junior Player of the Year after leading Canada’s U-20 team to the world championship in Austria. When his NHL career ends, Shaw plans to continue playing beer-league or pickup hockey with his old friends back in Belleville for as long as he’s physically able. Shaw’s father, Doug, who turns 60 next month and used to play junior B for the Belleville Bobcats, is thinking about playing hockey again.
“My dad actually has started talking to me about how bad he misses it,” Shaw said. “He wants me to buy him equipment so he can start again with his buddies.”
Shaw loves everything about the game.
“I think it’s just the lifestyle of being around the guys, and the exercise is awesome, too,” he said. “You stay in great shape. I realized when I had my surgery (on his knee last April) and I couldn’t walk for three months and wasn’t able to work out, how fast you can lose it. I’m a guy who likes to be in good shape and full of energy. I’m the kind of guy that has to stay busy.”
But in each of the last three seasons with the Canadiens, hockey has been taken away from Shaw at different times because of injuries and it hasn’t been easy for him. He was limited to 68 games two seasons ago when he suffered two concussions, played only 51 games last season before suffering a concussion and a season-ending knee injury, and has missed 15 of the Canadiens’ first 51 games this season. Shaw won’t be in the lineup for both games this weekend at the Bell Centre against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (2 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio) and the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday (2 p.m., SN, RDS, TSN 690 Radio) as he continues to recover from a neck injury suffered on Dec. 31 in Dallas that resulted in headaches.
“Obviously, it sucks,” Shaw said. “It’s tough, but that’s part of the job. Hockey’s not an easy sport. It’s physical, it’s demanding.”
Will this latest injury change the way he thinks when he’s on the ice?
“Thinking’s never been a strong point of my personality,” he said with a grin. “The way I play and the way I have success, I’ve got to be in-your-face, aggressive. I’ll never change that, I don’t think, because then I wouldn’t be in the league.”
But Shaw has learned to worry more about his health and listen to what his body’s telling him. He said his latest injury happened after his neck twisted in a weird way when he collided with a Stars player.
Shaw was cleared for contact before Friday’s practice and hopes to play when the Anaheim Ducks visit the Bell Centre Tuesday night. He had been playing some great hockey before getting injured, with 11-13-24 totals in 36 games this season.
“It tests you mentally,” Shaw said about his injuries. “I’ve got to make sure I come back and start off where I left off. That’s why I’ve got to focus on making sure that my timing’s right, everything’s perfect before I come back.”
Back to the game he loves so much.
Everyone would be so jacked to go to the skills side because who wants to figure skate?