The thought understandably ran through Trevor van Riemsdyk’s head as he hobbled to the locker room during Sunday’s game: not again.
More than a year after a shot off his left knee ended his regular season, van Riemsdyk once again took a shot off that left knee. This time, however, van Riemsdyk was back in a matter of minutes instead of months.
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Van Riemsdyk said Monday that he felt fine after taking a Jacob Trouba shot off his knee in the Blackhawks’ 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday afternoon. Van Riemsdyk, who returned after missing just a few minutes on Sunday, was part of the Blackhawks’ optional practice and feeling no ill effects from the shot.
When it first happened, however, he feared the worst.
“Obviously with what happened to me last year, your mind starts to race a little bit and then you just go off as a precaution, start walking on it and realize it felt better than the last time,” he said. “Just had took a look at it and it was fine. Obviously it’s a relief when they tell you it’s all right because of how the last couple of years have gone for me. It was relieving, to say the least, that it was fine and feels good today.”
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Last November Van Riemsdyk took a shot to the knee by Trevor Daley, then with the Dallas Stars. He had surgery to repair a fractured patella a few days later and was out for several months. Van Riemsdyk said he was already going through the mental checklist when it happened again on Sunday.
“You get that shooting feeling down your foot. It doesn’t feel good. And you think back to what it felt like last time: ‘Oh, is this the same thing?’ Especially with it being a similar spot, same leg. Automatically your mind starts to race a little bit,” he said. "I just wanted to have it checked out and [after] they do that, miss as little time as you can. I think I missed 5-10 minutes? It was relieving to know that everything was all right.”