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frijolhead · 01-27-2021, 06:29 PM

It was Sudden Death overtime in the Canada Youth Hockey Championship game. The Toronto Sentinels were playing the Calgary Tigers. The score was 3-3, with just under 14 seconds left in the period. A shootout seemed imminent, but a clutch goal was not out of the question. Erik Andrews stood to the right of Sentinels center Corey Jameson. The two had grown to become good friends once Erik had arrived on the team from Prague. Erik and Corey skated to center ice and got set. The referee dropped the puck, and then all hell broke loose.

Corey won the faceoff and got the puck over to Sergei Mozgov, star Sentinels defenseman and Russian import. Sergei cruised up the ice as the clock went down.

10 seconds to go.

Then, Sergei faced a dilemma. The Tigers knew exactly where to make Mozgov uncomfortable. They trapped him near the blue line, ready to attack and get the puck away from him. But Sergei caught on and passed the puck away...right to Erik Andrews.

8 seconds to go.

Erik got the puck and saw a lane, clear as day. He skated past the blue line, more determined than ever to win the game for the Sentinels. He was untouchable as he saw the Tigers’ goal zone grow near. Or at least, he thought he was.

Boom. Erik got hit. Well, actually, “hit” is kinda an understatement. You can’t really put it into words. Think of a wrecking ball hitting an ant. Except that wrecking ball is a 6’9”, 280 pound Tigers defenseman, and that ant is a 5’11”, 180 pound winger. In summary, Erik got wrecked.

4 seconds to go, and the puck was astray. Erik couldn’t get up, but it just so happened that Corey Jameson was right beside him the entire time. He got the puck, took a last-ditch shot, and scored. Game over. Sentinels 4, Tigers 3. Of course, Erik was not in the best state of mind and body to be celebrating, since he had been knocked unconscious by the hit. While his teammates were raving about the win, they were also seriously concerned for Erik’s well being after the hit. After the game, Erik was promptly put on a stretcher and delivered to the hospital, where he ended up overnight as doctors frantically tried to see what was wrong.

The next day, Erik woke up, having virtually no recollection of yesterday’s events. All he remembered was the few moments before the hit. Turns out, that one hit had cost Erik 2 of his ribs and a mild concussion. The hit was so powerful that he ended up sliding from the center lane to the left wall with such speed that it amplified the concussion. It sounded like it was straight out of a cartoon, but unfortunately for Erik… it wasn’t. What should have been Erik’s last hurrah before moving onto the professional ranks was a hellacious nightmare for his friends, family, and team. It was a bittersweet day, but with about 80% bitter and 20% sweet.

After a while, Erik came to his senses. He learned about his injuries and that he would need a while to recover- around six to eight weeks. The concussion would heal better than the ribs- as long as Erik obeyed basic protocol the concussion would heal in just 2 weeks. The ribs, well, they were severely broken. Erik was lucky. That hit could have hindered his career, and might have forced him to call it quits on hockey. But luckily, it didn’t.

Erik was very commonly visited by his teammates and was actually able to talk with the Tigers defenseman who injured him. The defenseman was super apologetic about the whole thing and they began to talk more as Erik recovered. You know what also happened as Erik was recovering? The SMJHL draft was coming up, and as the scouting season was fast approaching, Erik was quickly recovering.

6 weeks after Erik was injured, he was healed. His ribs had recovered and so had his head. He still had to go to physical therapy but that wasn’t too big of an impact on him. He was just thankful that he could play hockey again. Of course, now he had to deal with reporters, but that was a whole other ballgame.

Soon enough, Erik was being asked a lot of questions about the SMJHL. He was being asked how he wanted to spend his time, there, what teams he wanted to go to, etc. etc. It became a cycle for Erik- wake up, go to Physical Therapy, skate a bit, do interviews, sleep, repeat. He loved the routine and as the interviews ramped up, the more excited Erik was for the draft to get here.

Eventually, after an interview with Ellie Oliver of the IPR (coming soon), Erik went back to his house and was greeted by his parents. After a chat, the family sat down for a bit. Then Erik’s father Pat asked the best question he had ever heard:

“Well, Erik, are you ready?”

Erik nodded. “I know I am.”

Code:
850 words, Gib 2x media pls

DeletedAtUserRequest · 01-29-2021, 01:26 AM

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