Thomas Chabot had quickly progressed from wearing a non-contact jersey to a regular jersey on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, just over two weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a broken arm.
Those progressions were both welcome surprises, but nowhere near as welcome as his appearance on the second pair with Jordan Spence during Thursday’s morning skate. Chabot and Travis Green confirmed that the longest-tenured Senator will dress against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, beating Green’s initial recovery prognosis of 4-8 weeks handily.
“Everything went well, and obviously the healing process went a lot quicker than we all expected, and it’s just fun to be back out here,” Chabot told the media after the skate, crediting his quick return to “a lot” of work with the team’s medical staff.
“They spent a lot of time with me, I’m lucky, but it’s obviously a best-case scenario, and just happy to be back,” said Chabot.
“Felt really good, I wasn’t going to go back out there if I felt like I couldn’t do what I can do out there. And you know what, the last couple days, everything, we kind of built it up, every time I faced contact and whatnot, everything reacted really well, so I was like, ‘why not’, let’s start playing again.”
“It speaks volumes of his preparation, work ethic, commitment to what we’re doing here,” said Brady Tkachuk.
“Everyone knows how big of a character he is, so whenever he just gets back in the room, it just lights everybody up, and just so much fun to be around. I know we’ve been around each other for a bunch of years, one of my closest buddies, and to have him potentially back here, it definitely gives me a boost of energy.”
Chabot will draw into the lineup in place of Cam Crotty, one of several depth defenders who had stepped up in the absences of Chabot, Jake Sanderson, Tyler Kleven, Nick Jensen, and Dennis Gilbert.
“It’s been great to see, obviously we always say the ‘next man up mentality’, and that’s exactly what applied to our team. Every single guy that went into the lineup went and did of a hell of a job and kept us in and played some big games,” said Chabot.
“[Linus Ullmark] played amazing hockey for us too, but no, it’s good, you like seeing that. Like I said, when you get hurt, you sit up in the press box and it seems like an easy game, but I know how hard it is down there in tight, and seeing the guys step up and play such good hockey definitely makes it better for you in the rehab process, for sure.”
Green said he couldn’t recall any specific memories of a player returning from such an injury so quickly.
“Anytime someone does come back that quickly, it’s an important time of year, for sure,” said Green, adding that the team has been in playoff mode for the last few months. “100 per cent, [the push for the playoffs] it’s a big part of it.”
