'I Feel Fresh': Jaccob Slavin's Early Absence May Be Blessing In Disguise For Hurricanes
Will Slavin's extended absence prove beneficial? Now, fully healed, he feels "fresh" and ready to dominate the playoffs with the Hurricanes.
Carolina takes 1-0 series lead over Ottawa Is missing your star defenseman for over half a season actually a good thing? Stick with me here. The Carolina Hurricanes were without defenseman Jaccob Slavin for over half the regular season, but still managed to lock up the second best record in the league.
It wasn't easy, but the Canes proved that their a deep team and were able to overcome the prolonged absence. And now Slavin is fully back and, according to him, the freshest he's ever felt at this point of the year. "I didn't play half the season, so the body feels good right now, legs feel good," Slavin said.
"I feel fresh and like I only played half a season. Being injured is not easy, but you just don't have the wear and tear on your body like you do when you play 82 games in a year. " The NHL regular season is a seven-month long grind and those miles definitely rack up on the body.
But for Slavin, who only played in 39 games this year, those miles weren't really able to build up. That's to the tune of around 800 less minutes played, 70 less shots blocked and 50 less hits taken. Those are major physical tolls for a player to bear with and so for Slavin to go a whole year without that increased burden, perhaps those early injuries were truly was a blessing in disguise.