"It could have been a lot worse if, one, if I got hit harder in that spot, and two, if I didn’t get the medical attention that I did," he said Friday. "I'm so glad to just put it in the past. It's so good to be back.
"If it would have got me a couple centimeters lower, it just would have hit me in the ear and I'd had to maybe get a couple stitches on my ear. If it would have hit me a couple inches or centimeters higher, it hits me in the helmet and I'm fine. The area where I got hit, only a puck could fit there. And it just so happened that it hit me right there."
Faber has added plastic ear guards to his helmet as he ramps up his skating and physical fitness toward making his season debut. That timeline is undetermined, although Wild coach John Hynes said Faber is expected to travel on the three-game road trip that starts at the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
Minnesota plays at home against the San Jose Sharks on Friday (8 p.m. ET; Wild+, MINNHL, NHLN, NBCSCA, KSTP) and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Faber started working out again about a week ago and is ramping up his conditioning and strength after about a month off.
"Even though he's a workout horse, he couldn't work out," Hynes said Thursday. "He's a genetically gifted kid too. So that helps. But to go from that to go right into playing, we just want to make sure that through our strength staff and trainers, including Brock, that the process from him is right, that he feels confident, that he's going to be able to perform the way he can perform."
Faber said Friday that when he got hit by the puck, initially he felt fine. He remained down on the ice briefly before skating to the bench under his own power. He played the rest of the second period but did not return for the third. He said he didn’t think anything of it, since it was a slow shot.
"When I got hit, to be honest it didn't even hurt that bad," he said. "It just felt like a little bruise on your skull, like nothing crazy, really.
"Obviously, things progressively got worse."
He was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, and the fracture was discovered on a CT scan later that night. He had surgery Sept. 27, and spent three days in the hospital.
He said he felt completely fine just a few days after surgery, "which was almost the hardest part."
"Knowing that my body feels normal, my head feels completely normal, I just can't do anything," Faber said.
He said his days following surgery were boring, especially since he had put so much work into preparing for the season.
"You get to training camp and it's full-go, and then obviously snap of the finger and then you're sitting on the couch for four weeks straight," Faber said. "I don't know the last time I haven't done any physical activity in that long.
"But that's part of it. I needed to do that to heal."
Faber had 51 points (15 goals, 36 assists) and was second on the Wild with an average ice time of 24:41 in 80 games last season. But without him they've gone 11-3-3 and lead the Central Division.
"It's one of those things, they're playing so well right now, I think I could get back and be OK," Faber said. "I just want to get back and be 100 percent. ... I'm going to take my time a little bit more with this one than maybe I would have in the past just considering what the injury was. The last thing I'd want to do is get back too soon and something else pops up."
Even with a serious injury like a skull fracture, Faber wasn’t necessarily surprised at how relatively quick he’s returned to the ice. He knew it could be a longer timeline, but scans and meetings with doctors were positive early on.
"I didn't really let myself feel any other way than I'd be playing in a month," Faber said. "I missed it by a couple weeks."
