BLOG: Lowry remaining patient

WINNIPEG – Jets fans are used to seeing Adam Lowry put his body on the line night after night.

They will have to wait longer than usual to start the season as the captain continues to rehab from offseason hip surgery.

“Yeah, good. Super happy with how it’s feeling and where it’s at. Obviously, a ways to go,” said Lowry.

“My job is to push myself every day, try to do the right things to make sure that when I get back, I’m ready to go and feeling good. It’s nice to be back on the ice. It feels like another milestone, another step closer to my return.”

The 32-year-old had surgery just a week and a half after the Jets were eliminated in six games by the Dallas Stars back in May, Lowry said that his target date for a return to the lineup is end of October or the start of November.

“It’s not one of those things that you constantly have to manage. Making sure I’m strong, making sure I’m in good shape. I feel really good. I was really happy with the outcome of the surgery, I’m really happy with where the rehab’s been,” said Lowry.

“It’s nice to have a goal in mind, but those things can change. Every day we’ll just see how my body responds to different stressors and kind of gauge it, listen to the medical staff, listen to the strength coaches.”

Lowry said that he has been dealing with the hip issue for quite some time now and it was becoming a chronic issue. The Calgary product said that it was becoming painful to walk down the stairs, and he would even feel it while watching TV and eventually the decision was made to have surgery.

“It started to kind of creep into my mind, some days on the ice, whether it was turning a certain way, whether it was pushing off. And then the joint started to look a little worse, the tear started to get a little bigger. We got imaging and I saw there was some changes to it,” explained Lowry.

“After consulting with Dr. Kelly in New York, we made the decision that, timing-wise, I think made the most sense. It gave me the most opportunity to recover and recover fully and miss the least amount of games.”

Clearly, the Jets are hoping that Lowry can return within the time frame that he had mentioned it would be between 11-15 games. For the first month of the season, Winnipeg will be without their emotional leader and one of their best defensive forwards. Fortunately, Scott Arniel has a lot of depth up front to try and replace Lowry.

“I'm just looking forward to seeing progress, not necessarily, kind of fill my shoes, but I think we saw glimpses of Morgan Barron last year, and when we transitioned him into center. There were stretches of time where you could really see the dominance, using his size, taking pucks to net, scoring some big goals for us,” said Lowry.

“Gussie (David Gustafsson), you always feel like he takes a step every summer. And you want to see him, and then, even guys like Fetts (Cole Perfetti), you want to see the young guys take the next step. And honestly, I'm just excited to get back out there working with everyone. We're such a tight knit team. We love coming to the rink.”

When camp begins next Thursday, Lowry will have to remain away from his teammates.

“I think, I'd love to be out there. I'd love to be pushing myself in the trenches with the guys. But yeah, I think in long term, you got to pace yourself. You got to take these things slow,” Lowry said.

“You got to make sure that when I do join the group, I'm ready. It's not one of those ones where I come back, maybe I'm a little too eager and have a setback. I think that's our biggest fear. But, so far, everything's gone smoothly.”