Pavelski reflects on painful, surreal night
As doctors treated his head, he heard echoes of epic rally
SAN JOSE >> Right around the time the first staple went into the back of Joe Pavelski’s head, the Sharks captain heard the goal horn go off at SAP Center.
By the fourth or fifth staple, the horn sounded again.
Doctors put eight staples into Pavelski’s head to stop the bleeding after the back of his helmet slammed against the ice in the third period of Game 7 against the Vegas Golden Knights on April 23.
When Pavelski left the
game, right after he took a faceoff against Cody Eakin, the Sharks were down 3-0. By the time he got out of the trainers’ room and in front of a TV, he could not believe the score: Sharks 4, Golden Knights 3.
“It was just kind of like, ‘How did we score all of these goals? How did we get the power play?’ Stuff like that,” Pavelski said Sunday in his first public comments since his injury. “Just really proud of the guys, the way they handled it and responded. It was pretty incredible to see what they did out there.”
The Sharks won the game 5-4 in overtime to get to the second round. Now they are one victory away from advancing to the Western Conference final for the fifth time in their history. They took a 3-2 series lead over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, as Tomas Hertl scored twice in a 2-1 victory.
Pavelski traveled with the Sharks on Sunday afternoon to Denver, where San Jose looks to close out
the Avalanche tonight. It’s doubtful Pavelski will play Game 6, but he has been skating more regularly in recent days.
“You’d like to think you can play tomorrow … but we’re going to be smart, obviously,” Pavelski said. “Definitely getting closer, feel like I’m getting closer.”
In the third period of Saturday’s pivotal win by the Sharks, Pavelski was feeling good enough to come out from under the stands at SAP Center to wave to the fans. The ovation was deafening.
“That was as loud as this building gets,” Sharks center Logan Couture said. “That was reminiscent of Game 7 against Vegas. That was a pretty cool moment.”
Coach Pete DeBoer called it a “give-you-a-chill type moment.”
“I was excited to get out there,” Pavelski said. “Once I got out there and saw the crowd, and the energy, got into it, you realize how much you miss it,” Pavelski said. “I knew I missed it. But these fans are special to me and this group. They always have been.”
Pavelski doesn’t remember much about the injury. After he landed awkwardly on the ice following Eakin’s cross check, and a collision with Paul Stastny, he lay motionless for a few moments before being helped off the ice by trainer Ray Tufts and teammates Joe Thornton, Brent Burns and Evander Kane.
“Some of it I’ve seen on video by now,” Pavelski said. “But just the faceoff, I remember taking it and I don’t really remember a whole lot after, getting pushed and all of that stuff. The first thing that kind of came back was getting helped off and Jumbo was right there calming me down.”
What did Thornton say? “’We’ve got you, we’ve got you. You’re going to be all right,’ Pavelski recalled. “We had a little bit of a sense that it was fairly serious, but just coming back (to win the game), that was definitely one comforting thing.”
The cuts on his head were from the impact and the pressure it created inside his helmet.
“The helmet did its job, it stayed on, first and foremost,” Pavelski said. “In those situations, they can come off. But it stayed on and did everything it was supposed to.”
Pavelski still joined in the locker room celebration after one of the greatest victories in Sharks history.
“I had the headaches and was dizzy at that moment, but was able to come out. I wanted to be in that room,” Pavelski said. “I was still very excited for those guys and then we went and got everything checked out after.”
Pavelski was still experiencing headaches when he went home, and that night was rough. The headaches had subsided by the following day, but he was still “laying pretty low.”
“It was pretty quiet, for me. I didn’t have a ton of sensitivity to light. But if I looked at my phone for a little bit longer than a glance, you just get kind of tired,” Pavelski added. “TVs, you didn’t want them loud, but they could be on.
“It just kind of stayed like that for a little bit. Everything’s been improving the last four, five days, been able to train a little bit, get through some of those training sessions and skate a little bit and start working our way back.”
Pavelski made it clear he holds no ill will toward Eakin or Stastny, whom he considers a friend, or how the play transpired. The resulting five-minute major and game misconduct handed to Eakin changed the course of the game. The Sharks scored four goals with the man advantage in 4:01.
Jonathan Marchessault tied the game 4-4 in the waning seconds of the third period. But Barclay Goodrow scored in overtime to give the Sharks the win.
The penalty was the subject of great debate across the hockey world.
“Was it a five-minute major? No. I don’t think it was,” Pavelski said. “Am I glad they called it that way? Heck yeah.”