"It’s great, I’ve never played with Savy," Marco Sturm said about returning to the team on the top line alongside center Marc Savard.
Sturm has been sidelined since having knee surgery last December, but his name has been brought up repeatedly as a key cog in replacing all those Phil Kessel goals.
"We have everything on that line," Sturm said as he pondered what life could be like on a line with Savard and Milan Lucic.
Sturm’s confidence in returning for opening night mirrors David Krejci’s words of determination as he prepares to come back from hip surgery. Krejci had surgery about four months ago, and while it shocks some that he is ready to return so soon, Krejci is hardly surprised.
"They said four to six months, and Oct. 1 is like four," Krejci said about his recovery and rehabilitation period. "When I had the surgery, I thought I couldn’t even walk. You didn’t see me, so it seems really fast, but it was long."
Long, because being ready doesn't just mean healing the broken parts. It means making sure that the other parts are also ready to play a full game — that you don't lose the cardio, strength, timing and everything else that keeps a player performing at optimal levels.
We’ve seen injured players do interval sprints during their rehab time that will make you sick just by watching. During one skate session for Krejci in Ottawa, he eventually maxed out to the point where he appeared to be skating in slow motion. We saw it last year with Lucic, too. Talk about keeping players honest about their injuries — these workouts just might be harder than practices.
Krejci is convinced he is ready to go, and couldn’t understand why I was having a hard time believing that the human body could recover so quickly from such major surgery. But the body is resilient, and having a full lineup in place will provide a boost for the Bruins as they kick off another season.
