It was a series of unfortunate events that led to the injury.
Sedlak and Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau got tangled up right after the puck was dropped, which caused Sedlak to stumble toward Florida defenseman Alex Petrovic, who sent him to the ice with a crosscheck.
By that point, Sedlak knew the puck was at the point, or at least headed that way. He also knew which teammate had it, too, with Jones winding up for a high-velocity clapper from the blue line. The good news is that no bones were fractured, despite the hard impact that caused a pressure cut to open up.
He's now cleared, about two months later, to resume hockey activities on and off the ice.
"I'm feeling pretty good," Sedlak said this week, from his hometown of Ceské Budejovice in the Czech Republic. "I passed all the testing. The numbers were the same as the testing before [the injury], so I got cleared. Every day I'm getting better, and I feel 100 percent now."
The bad news were the aftereffects from the incident and all the time he missed. Sedlak sat out the remaining 10 games of the regular season and didn't play in the Jackets' six-game, first-round series in the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It was the second straight season an upper-body injury cost Sedlak time in the postseason.
"It's kind of happened to me twice now," he said. "Same thing last year. I was fortunate enough to play a couple games last year, but you grind through the whole season and then you can't play the most fun hockey, it's disappointing. But that's hockey."
The injury wasn't the only disappointment.
Sedlak also dealt with a prior ankle injury that cost him 13 games and was unable to help the Jackets' fourth line become more of an offensive threat. Last season, as a rookie, Sedlak had seven goals, six assists and 13 points in 62 games. This year, he finished with just four goals, four assists and eight points in 53 games.
"I wasn't really happy about it," he said. "I think I had a decent start the first 10 games or whatever I got to play before I got injured [early on], and then I think I lost a step when I came back. I felt like I was slow and behind the play all the time. I was late on the forecheck, stuff like that, and that kind of affected my play."
Sedlak started out as the Jackets' fourth-line center and resumed that role after returning from the ankle injury. He just struggled to create much offense, with his goal-scoring and assists dropping along with his puck-possession measures.
Eventually, he lost his spot in the lineup after Columbus added Letestu in a trade the day before the NHL Trade Deadline in late February, as Letestu and veteran Brandon Dubinsky shared the center responsibilities on the fourth line.
The other three centers were captain Nick Foligno (third line), Alex Wennberg (second line) and rookie Pierre-Luc Dubois (first line).
"I was confident there, and then I didn't make enough plays," Sedlak said. "I was just trying to be safe instead of trying to do something on the ice, so I didn't have that much impact on the game as I wanted to. That obviously led to, kind of, losing my spot after the trade deadline."
Dubinsky's prolonged ineffectiveness created a path back to the ice when coach John Tortorella scratched him for two games and dressed Sedlak, but that lasted just two games because of the shot that ended Sedlak's season.
"I think when I got to play after [being scratched], I played good games because I kind of relaxed," Sedlak said. "I kind of knew it might be my only game to show myself, so I kind of relaxed and just let it go. I felt much better after that."
A fraction of a second, in the time it took for the puck to hit him, he felt much worse. Scary as that injury was, though, Sedlak is looking forward. He'll begin offseason training soon and keep his focus on next season.
"That's the plan," he said. "You can't rely on the top guys to score every game, so you need your third and fourth lines to contribute. We did it my first year. Obviously, this year it was a little bit different lineup. I played with younger guys. I was kind of hoping to lead them, but I didn't think I did a good enough job of that. You try to get better every offseason, so I'm hoping I'll be better than I was last year."
