Fowler anxious to get into the fray
Ducks miss their top defenceman
He was careful with his footwork. Understandable.
Cam Fowler was back on skates Monday for the first time since suffering a sprained knee in the final week of the regular season. After, the Anaheim Ducks defenceman was careful with his words.
That’s understandable, too. The 25-year-old Fowler was injured April 4 from a knee-on-knee collision with Calgary Flames captain Mark Giordano, an incident that sparked some pointed comments from the general managers of these first-round playoff foes.
Anaheim’s Bob Murray fumed that the hit was intentional and Giordano “has done this before.” Calgary’s Brad Treliving later characterized those comments as “asinine.”
After his spin Monday at the Saddledome, Fowler wasn’t going to re-ignite that blaze.
“It’s something that is in the past. Honestly, I don’t really want to get into the hit too much,” said Fowler, who joined his pals on the ice at the tailend of the morning skate but was a spectator for Game 3. “There are other focuses that we have and I don’t want to be a distraction to the team. It’s something that happened, it was dealt with at the time and it’s all in the past now.”
Anaheim’s defensive depth has been on display during Fowler’s absence, with youngsters Brandon Montour and Shea Theodore both earning rave reviews, but there’s no doubt the Pacific Division pennant-winners will be anxious to welcome back their most productive point man.
Fowler, who notched 11 goals and 39 points in 80 regular season contests and also led the Ducks in average ice time, insisted there is no set timetable for his return.
The initial diagnosis was that he would miss two-to-six weeks with the knee sprain. He was back on blades after 13 days.
“It was a good first day,” he said of Monday’s twirl. “Obviously, first time on the ice so you’re going to kind of test the waters a little bit. But about as good as it could be for the first day, so I’m happy about that.”
Certainly more happy than he was two Tuesdays back, when he crumpled to the ice at Honda Center after his collision with Giordano.
“That’s the scariest time is when you don’t know exactly what it is, you just know that something is wrong,” Fowler said.
Is it possible Fowler returns in this series against the Flames?
“My goal is to return as quick as possible without putting the team or myself in jeopardy,” he said. “So whenever that is. But yeah, as soon as I can I’ll be back out there.”