This year’s NHL preseason has been a time of frustration and uncertainty for Dennis Seidenberg.
As his Boston Bruins teammates readied for an exhibition matchup with the New York Rangers last Thursday, Seidenberg made a trip to the operating room, undergoing a surgical procedure on his back that’s expected to sideline him for the next eight weeks.
“What timing,” the veteran defenseman told reporters Monday, via BostonBruins.com. “You work out all summer, especially if it’s a long summer like this, and then you get ready to get started and you’re out for eight weeks. But again, there’s nothing I can do right now. All I’ve got to do is stay positive and go from there.”
Seidenberg suffered the injury before the start of Bruins training camp, but he remains unsure of how it actually occurred.
“Usually, when something like that has happened, you’re like, ‘Oh my God,’ during a movement or exercising somehow,” he told reporters. “But I woke up that morning (Sept. 14, three days before camp opened) — just feeling that nerve pain, I had a feeling in the back of my leg, and then eventually shooting down my calf.”
The 34-year-old won’t be logging ice time for the Bruins until mid-November at the earliest, but the decision to undergo surgery before his muscles began to atrophy — which happened to teammate Chris Kelly after he suffered a similar injury two seasons ago — should shorten Seidenberg’s recovery time.
“We kind of nipped it in the bud pretty quickly,” said Seidenberg, whose exercise is limited to long walks for the time being. “So, hopefully that helps in the recovery.”
Seidenberg enjoyed an injury-free 2014-15 season, playing in all 82 games for the Bruins after tearing his ACL and MCL midway through the 2013-14 campaign.
