Silfverberg is feeling ‘great, excited’ after hip surgery
ANAHEIM >> Sometimes the pain in Jakob Silfverberg’s hip was manageable.
“You have moments when everything is clicking again and you’re playing well and the team’s playing well and you’re, like, ‘Maybe it’s not that bad, after all,’” Silfverberg said the other day. “Then you get to a point where it’s almost in your head that it’s normal to have a little bit of nagging stuff going on and you push it aside.”
At other times, the pain was almost unbearable.
“Guys don’t like to make excuses,” he said. “I mean, if your play isn’t going the way you want it to go and on top of that you feel like you might have something that makes you lag because of it, so it’s definitely been going in waves. I’d say that’s been going on for three years or so.”
With the Ducks’ season spiraling to an unpleasant conclusion and with Silfverberg unable to help his teammates with his customary standout two-way play, he decided it was time to remedy the situation. He underwent surgery on his ailing hip April 22, expecting to be sidelined for up to six months.
“The longer the season went, I felt like my game was going sideways, as was the team,” said Silfverberg, a 30-year-old right wing. “Maybe it’s time to start thinking about a time where I come into (2021-22) feeling good and feeling healthy. We made a decision with two weeks left that would give me, hopefully, enough time to get ready for camp, and here we are now and, so far, it’s worked out pretty well.”
Silfverberg made his return to the Ducks’ lineup for their exhibition game Wednesday against the Arizona Coyotes at Honda Center, ahead of schedule and feeling no pain in his hip. His rehabilitation went well and his off-season preparation was better than he could have anticipated.
“Man, I feel great and I’m excited,” he said.
In fact, everything has gone so smoothly that he wondered whether he should have had surgery several years ago. The pain was debilitating at times, no question, but at a certain point it seemed natural, something he would just have to live with if he wanted to play and avoid surgery.
After all, Silfverberg was selected to represent the Ducks in the All-Star Game for the first time in his career in 2020, a few weeks before the COVID-19 shutdown. In the end, he didn’t play in the game in St. Louis because his wife, Clara, was expecting their second child.
Silfverberg scored a careerhigh 24 goals in 73 games in 2018-19, then had 21 goals in 66 games in 2019-20. It was during his off-season preparation for 2020-21 that he began to consider surgery seriously. He couldn’t do all he could do normally because his hip wouldn’t allow it. He had eight goals in 47 games before finally opting for surgery to mend a torn labrum and an impingement.
“With how smooth everything has been going from Day 1, maybe I kind of wish I had done it a year or two ago,” he said. “But here we are now. At a certain point, you almost normalize (the pain). That’s what you do. This is just how it is and this is the way it’s going to be. That’s the point where it was, (but since surgery) it’s almost been too easy.”