First Shift 🏒
The Stars have been battling injuries all season, so it was nice to see them get two key players back on Sunday.
Duchene and Nils Lundkvist each have been out since mid-October, and each looked good in a 3-2 shootout win over Pittsburgh. Now, the duo has to get back into the grind of the season as they join the Stars on a two-game divisional road trip to Winnipeg and Minnesota.
“We’ve got to scar him up a little bit,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said of Duchene skating the day after his return. “He’s got to get back into the rhythm of the league, so it’s good for him to get out there and skate and put some layers on so he can get caught up. It’s good that he felt good.”
Duchene suffered a concussion on Oct. 14 against Minnesota, missed the next game and then tried to come back and play Oct. 18 at St. Louis. He had bad after-effects, and that kept him out for a lengthy stretch when he didn’t feel right.
“It’s been hard for him because he did come back right away and then had to kind of take a step back,” Gulutzan said. “He was feeling that he wanted to play, but sometimes you’ve got to protect those competitive guys from themselves.”
Duchene called it the most difficult injury he has dealt with in his lengthy career.
“That’s the hardest injury I’ve ever had to come back from,” Duchene said. “I won’t bore you guys with the details of the last eight weeks, but it’s been a lot, and that’s a really tough recovery.”
Duchene had to adjust several parts of his game just to get back on the ice.
“Concussions are really weird things,” Duchene said. “Everyone knows how complex the brain is, and I found out firsthand.”
Gulutzan used him for almost 16 minutes of ice time, including 3-on-3 overtime and in the shootout. That was a good sign for the 34-year-old. Still, he said he knows this is a long road and he needs to remain patient.
“It’s going to take a little bit more time,” Duchene said. “Kind of the process of getting back to normal is getting back into some games….It felt like about six months that I was out. I know it wasn’t, but it felt a lot longer, so it was great to be back.”
Lundkvist suffered a lower body injury and also has had a long recovery. He was wheeling around on a scooter for a while and then eventually got back to skating. The skilled defenseman now looks like his old self.
“It’s been tough for sure, with the injury last year that ended my season,” Lundkvist said of playing just 39 games last season. He got hurt in the fourth game this season. “And then coming back, I feel like it was a pretty good start of the year, and we were rolling pretty good, and then kind of a freak accident, it was tough.”
Now, the two seem ready to get rolling again.
“I thought they both did a good job,” Gulutzan said. “It’s a moving train to get on right now. This league is heated up, and it’s hard to get on that when you’ve been out two months. But I thought they did a good job. They didn’t look out of place, but sometimes it takes two or three games to get their `A’ game back.”
