Dumoulin Enjoying Family Time While Rehabbing Knee Injury

For the past few weeks, Brian Dumoulin has been rehabbing his knee injury at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex - and getting some quality father-son bonding at the same time.

He has been bringing his 3-year-old son Brayden to the rink, with the defenseman's Mini-Me starting to take the ice himself as well. Getting the chance to spend more time with his family after the grind of an 82-game season, plus playoffs, is something that Dumoulin really cherishes.
"Now that it's the summer, I get a little bit more family time with my wife Kayla and my son Brayden, and it's a blast. It's so much fun to see them every day," Dumoulin said. "Because in the season, you kind of miss that. It's nice now to get into a routine where you're sleeping at the same time and waking up at the same time and you're getting into a more real-life schedule. It's good to get that family balance back and kind of recharge a little bit."

Dumoulin's recovery from the Grade 3 MCL tear he sustained in Game 1 of the First Round against the New York Rangers has been coming along well. It happened in the final minutes of the third period when his right knee made contact with the post and hyperextended during Kaapo Kakko's disallowed goal. Dumouliun said he didn't feel anything in that moment, but quickly realized something was wrong while skating for an icing on his next shift.
"With MCL injuries, you kind of feel like you don't have support in that knee, it's almost like your shin is slipping out - like you don't really have any proper power," Dumoulin said. "I think there were only three minutes left in that period, so I just sat on the bench for the rest of that period and then I put a brace on, but it didn't really help too much."
He joked wryly that a couple of his shifts from there on out were a bit questionable, like when the veteran blueliner uncharacteristically caught an edge and fell coming out from behind the net after his leg simply gave out on him.
"I remember I got back to the bench and everyone was kind of looking at me because they knew I was hurt. And they're like, oh, man - are you okay?" Dumoulin recalled. "I'm like, dude, I don't know. I don't know (laughs(=). I was like Reirds (assistant coach Todd Reirden), I need to take one off, I need to just try to figure it out here."
Fortunately, he was able to gut it out and the Penguins were able to emerge victorious when Evgeni Malkin scored in triple overtime to give them a 4-3 win at Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, Dumoulin got some bad news when he went out for the optional skate on the morning of Game 2. He couldn't pivot, turn… or do much of anything.
"That was really frustrating, because I still believed in the back of my mind that I could play in that Game 2," Dumoulin said. "I wanted to; I just couldn't do it."
That frustration only increased as Dumoulin was forced to remain on the sidelines for the remainder of the series, especially with what happened in the final three games. After the Penguins went up 3-1 in the series, they jumped out to leads in Games 5, 6 and 7… before the Rangers battled back to win each of those contests and ultimately, the round. It was already hard enough to be stuck watching, but as a shutdown defenseman, Dumoulin takes pride in helping his team hold onto leads. So watching them evaporate - and being completely powerless to do anything about it - was tough to swallow.
"It hurt, just having to watch it from up in the stands," he said. "It's not the same. You're not really around the team, you're not in the locker room. Especially in playoffs, that's what you work the whole year for, is to play in that situation. That's when I play my best hockey, too. So it was unfortunate."
Dumoulin hasn't taken much of a break since that time, as he started rehabbing off the ice almost immediately after suffering the injury. But he's really been enjoying getting on the ice with not only Brayden, but a few of his teammates that are still in Pittsburgh, including Casey DeSmith and Mike Matheson - whose wife Emily, an Olympic gold medalist for Team USA, has been skating with them as well.
The 30-year-old is focused on getting healthy and coming back better next season after a 2021-22 campaign that wasn't his most consistent. When looking back and assessing his play, Dumoulin feels that he was maybe trying to force plays more than he needed to, a habit that can creep in when playing with elite talents like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and Kris Letang.
"Just those little decisions, that's something that I either got to execute on or they can end up in the back of our net," Dumoulin said. "I still feel like I had a pretty good year, but I know I can be better. And that's my expectation for myself."