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Article - Anton Rodin knee is just not right


Bur14Kes17

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Anton Rodin had just finished practice and another lengthy, at times uneasy, question and answer session with the media.

He was alone, in the locker-room, when one of his teammates, out of uniform, stopped by.

“How is the knee?” his teammate asked, thoughtfully.

Truth is, Rodin’s knee is not right. Maybe it’s right enough to play, and maybe it’s not.

No one will find that out Sunday. He will not be in the lineup against the New Jersey Devils.

The knee, actually more than anything else, is the reason why, and it’s a bit heartbreaking because no one knows when it will be right.

“It’s not (100 per cent),” said head coach Willie Desjardins.

“We all want it to be 100 per cent. We all want him to play the way he can so when he goes in, we get a great evaluation. But with that, it’s hard to take guys out of the lineup to put in a guy who doesn’t feel he’s 100 per cent.

“That is a tough thing to do.”

Vancouver Canucks forward Anton Rodin has played just three games for the team this season. He is currently sidelined with a left knee injury.

Vancouver Canucks forward Anton Rodin has played just three games for the team this season. He is currently sidelined with a left knee injury. Jeff Vinnick /  PNG

Desjardins had been planning to play Rodin this week. His team’s power play looks punch drunk. It needs help, desperately. Helping power plays is what Rodin does for a living. At least, when he’s healthy.

Addressing the Rodin situation in unusual detail last week, Desjardins said it’s not just management pressuring him to play Rodin. It’s “everybody.” There is good reason. This city has little patience for plugs, so-called two-way players, the ungifted ones. Brandon Prust may have been something of a fourth line folk hero in Montreal. In Vancouver, they couldn’t get rid of him quickly enough.

The city craves offensive heroes, the skilled ones. Everybody wants to see Rodin play, because he has the potential to be one of them and there are not many in this organization who do.

“But I have to make sure that knee is totally ready,” Desjardins said. “I want to get him in.”

The fact Rodin is not right, at least not really, is one of the most confusing turns of this Canucks season. You can almost feel his heart drop when he looks down at his left knee to describe what he’s been through for a year.

“I couldn’t have imagined a year ago, I’d still be here talking about this knee,” Rodin said.

“When it happened, I thought they were going to stitch it up and I’d miss a practice. Then, I thought it was going to be two or three months. It’s frustrating.

“I do know why it’s been like this. There is no point in me saying it. I actually don’t even know how to explain it.”

What he said next is something that will stick with me for some time. You see, Rodin has wanted nothing more than to play in the NHL. His MVP season in Sweden is what got him back here. His explosive quickness, especially on his first three steps is what helped him have that season, and really it’s what the Canucks love most about him.

He was asked if he could feel that quickness returning, and he said:

“It’s been so long, I don’t even know where I was before anymore,” he said. “I don’t even know where I am now.

“All I can do is compare how I feel now to how I feel yesterday.”

You hear him say it, and you can’t help but feel for him. It’s been so long, he doesn’t remember what it’s like to feel healthy.

Rodin described his knee situation as a “work in progress.”

“It’s going to be like that for me for a while,” Rodin said. “But, it’s all right.”

Rodin has played in three games this season for a total of 26 minutes and 44 seconds. In his last one, on Jan. 6, his knee pad slipped and in a nondescript fall, he hit his knee, bruised it, and was seemingly unavailable, though he did dress and not play the next night.

It was another hit in what has been Rodin’s most difficult year as a professional.

“I’ve been in tough positions before, but I could get back to 100 per cent,” he said. “But not it’s like going up and down, going up and down.”

Even at the start of pre-season, when he played a lot and the team was telling people he was healthy, things weren’t right.

“It was tough in the beginning of every game, I want to say the first couple of minutes,” Rodin said. “But as I got warm, it got better.

“I played five games.”

In those games, he played on the power play, playing the half wall on both sides of the ice.

Listen closely, and you can almost hear it.

jbotchford@postmedia.com

 

 

Man I feel sorry for this guy. I was really looking forward to watching him play this year and hopefully we do still get to watching him play and succeed. I'm in the same place as Rodin right now with an injury and like he said, you forget what it feels like to actually be healthy. Perhaps now we can all lay off of Willie a bit for not getting him into the line up because when he does, he wants to know that he has the best version of Anton available to play. 

Best of luck Anton! We're are rooting for you

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37 minutes ago, chilliwiggins said:

well I wouldn't be surprised if he was encouraged to play while being hurt and did more damage in the process, especially being an organization desparate for anything to show the fans, and this has happened more than once with this team in the past.     Severing a tendon with a skate , maybe they never spliced it back at the right length to begin with and is causing other new problems.   It sounds like another surgery is needed and another season to right off, not exactly what the canucks need considering he becomes an RFA at season end, then they have to take a flyer on signing him again with no real book on him at the NHL level, as well if he reaches RFA status they could get screwed over by another team and overpay to keep him.  Remember Clark of the Flyers did that to us with Kes.

I doubt there was any encouragement needed to get him to play, if anything they've probably been holding him back from playing before hes fully ready. Which is why hes been so intermittent in which games he plays

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1 hour ago, Bur14Kes17 said:

The city craves offensive heroes, the skilled ones. Everybody wants to see Rodin play, because he has the potential to be one of them and there are not many in this organization who do.

Boucher has been an offensive hero.....almost a goal a game in 2012-2013 in the OHL, maybe he can play.

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Just now, Alflives said:

Boucher will have to get past Willie D.  Sadly not happening.

yes yes, just being facetious. Maybe Boucher should "borrow" Dorsett's jersey for practice and confuse Willie. 

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