Andrej Nestrasil was among a number of Carolina Hurricanes players attending an informal skate for the first time this season on Tuesday, participating in 2-on-1 drills on goaltender Cam Ward and a 3-on-3 half-rink game at Raleigh Center Ice.
Without a doubt, no one enjoyed the light workout more than he did.
“It felt great,” he said, unable to hold back a beaming smile and laugh. “Being back here and being out on the ice today was awesome.”
Six months ago, shortly after suffering a season-ending fractured vertebra that initially seemed career-threatening, it was a lengthy task for Nestrasil to simply sit up.
His progression from that feeble stage to full health in time for Hurricanes training camp became an endeavour that completely transformed his perspective on his hockey career – and on life.
Flying into Toronto for a game on February 25, Nestrasil was enjoying the best two-month stretch of his NHL career. His line with Jordan Staal and Joakim Nordstrom had recently gone 19 consecutive games without allowing a goal and Nestrasil had recorded 12 points since Jan 9 to set career highs in both goals (9) and assists (14) with more than six weeks still left in the season.
Then, late in the second period, a legal hit by Toronto’s Nazem Kadri sent Nestrasil tumbling backwards, landing in an awkward position at the bottom of the boards at the Air Canada Centre. He writhed in pain, play was stopped and, minutes later, Nordstrom and Kris Versteeg helped him to the locker room.
“Some of the prognoses I got the first 48 hours were ... pretty scary,” Nestrasil, 25, said. He wasn’t sure how long it would be before he could play hockey again, if ever. And for the next three months, he would have to wear a back brace for every minute of every day.
“For every athlete, you’re used to having your routine when you wake up and you go to the rink and you practice and you sweat and then you have lunch and then you lay down,” he said. “Out of nowhere, blink of an eye and they tell you you’ve got to stay put for three months, it’s definitely hard to do.”
After two months, he was finally able to begin physical therapy at Duke. The first exercise: lay on the ground and breathe.
Another month later - a month he largely spent on Duke’s pool treadmill – the brace was finally removed. Nestrasil decided to return home to the Czech Republic for the summer to work with a trainer there.
“He pretty much corrected everything (in my workout routine), what he thinks I can do and what I shouldn’t do, and we communicated every day,” Nestrasil said. “Work ethic is one thing, but if the body’s not working the way it’s supposed to and you work hard, it’s pointless.”
While working to regain his overall fitness level, Nestrasil’s rehab primary focused on strengthening his transverses abdominis – “basically like your inner brace” 2 by working with his trainer three times per week and completing a set of 10 targeted exercises each day.
He had a flight back to North America booked for Aug. 31 and, with hopes of playing on the Czech team at this month’s World Cup of Hockey, pushed himself to work to recover as fast as possible.
“I pretty much didn’t stop for the last three months,” he said. But after being informed that it “wasn’t possible” for him to play in the World Cup, Nestrasil suddenly found himself well ahead of schedule for his new deadline – Hurricanes training camp.