Reconditioning and Physical Therapy
"“Give me a sense of wonder To know I can be me Give me the strength to hold my head up Spit back in their face” ~from Can I Play with Madness"
With his typical work ethic, Erik Johnson attacked his recovery. Within two weeks of surgery, he was in Philadelphia working with renowned reconditioning trainer Bill Knowles. The reconditioning was meant to not only strengthen his muscles, but train them to avoid injury and compensation fatigue in the future.
NHL teams are notoriously closed mouthed when it comes to injured players. The Avalanche don’t allow players on injured reserve to even talk to the media. That’s fair. We fans are concerned, but it’s ultimately none of our business.
Of course, that means we don’t really know what was going on. A week into recovery, coach Roy announced that Johnson was swimming and doing light weights. However, it wasn’t until two weeks after his reconditioning — and six weeks into his recovery — that coach Roy announced EJ was skating again.
A week later Johnson was showing up to practices in a red No Contact jersey. Around that time the Avalanche were on the road a lot, so it’s hard to know how many practices Johnson was able to participate in.
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