Devils’ Boyle returns to practice following leukemia diagnosis

When Brian Boyle received word last month that he had cancer, a return to hockey was the last thing on his mind.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Boyle, an 11-year NHL veteran, said Monday. “I was scared. I was nervous. It was the worst feeling ever. After the initial shock wore off, I started to think about the rest of my life, my wife, my kids. Hockey was a little down on the scale.”

The 32-year-old Boyle said he started to feel fatigued in August, but didn’t think much of it.

“It would come and go in waves,” Boyle said. “I thought it was just because I was running around chasing two kids.”

A blood test revealed that Boyle had chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a form of blood and bone marrow cancer.

“When you’re looking across the table at a doctor and he says to you that you have leukemia, you tend to listen,” Boyle said. “It was disappointing news. Thankfully, they found it in time.”

But from the minute he was diagnosed in mid-September, right before training camp was set to begin with his new club, the New Jersey Devils, Boyle always believed he would be back.

On Sunday afternoon, almost one month to the day of his diagnosis, Boyle returned to practice with the Devils.

He signed a two-year, $5 million contract with New Jersey in July. Boyle has to take medication in the morning and before he goes to bed, and that’s all the treatment he needs at the moment.

“I’m very fortunate to be here,” Boyle said after his second day of practice went smoothly. “Once we got the medication under control, I knew I would be back. I didn’t think I’d be out as long as I have been.”