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Jets' Slater finally gets the green light
Concussion symptoms forced 7-month layoff
Jim Slater missed half of the 2010-11 season after a New Year's Eve collision. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store
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THERE have been some dark and depressing days, Jim Slater will readily admit that.
Dealing with post-concussion syndrome can become all consuming from sunrise to sunset. It is debilitating. It is frightening. And, most days, it's just damn frustrating.
And so on a day in which Sidney Crosby called a press conference to update his status, Slater -- the Winnipeg Jets' forward -- felt a special, if unfortunate, kinship with the NHL's brightest star.
"I feel great," said Slater Wednesday after a workout with teammates at the MTS Iceplex. "It's been a long, long summer for me. But I've worked really had to get back. And when you're out for seven months you have to work twice as hard to be back. I've put in a good summer to do that and I feel really good coming in here right now."
Just to rewind, Slater missed the last half of the 2010-11 season fighting his own post-concussion symptoms after a collision with teammate Dustin Byfuglien in a game against the New Jersey Devils last New Year's Eve.
Initially, he thought he would be out for just a few days, but the symptoms didn't subside and the headaches became more frequent -- so much so that every time he stepped on a plane they would arrive again with an alarming consistency.
Days became weeks, weeks became months. And now here were are some seven months later and Slater is just now getting the green light to return to action.
He was in Winnipeg in June to get checked out by Jets' doctors and will have a follow-up again on Friday before attending main training camp.
"It was one of the most frustrating injuries I've ever had," said Slater. "Not knowing what was going to happen.... going to bed thinking, 'How many headaches did I have?' Waking up thinking, 'Do I have a headache?' It really just takes over your whole mind. It was the last thing I thought about before I went to bed, the first thing I thought about when I woke up.
"You just can't stop thinking about it. I was trying everything: getting the cranialsacral work (an alternative medicine approach) done. I was getting acupuncture. Nothing was working. I go to San Diego for the summer and I was just out there away from hockey and away everything for two months. I stopped thinking about it and it just cleared up for me."
Now Slater is consumed with simply this: getting back to the game he loves.
"But I can tell you," he said with a grin, "when you're out seven months, you know how hard it is getting back in NHL shape."
Ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 8, 2011 C3
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