Banged up Komisarek chomping at the bit

[Habsfan84]

Mike Komisarek clearly remembers being 100-per- cent healthy this season.
"First game of the year," the Canadiens defenceman joked, or didn't, yesterday.
"Since then, it's just been a laundry list of bumps and bruises that are part of the game. Every player fights through things all season that very few people beyond our training staff know about.

But almost never is Komisarek so banged up that he can't suit up. When he was scratched from the Canadiens' March 22 match against the Boston Bruins, so ended his streak of 196 consecutive regular-season games, a string that began on Jan. 19, 2006, in Calgary vs. the Flames.
"Really?" he said upon hearing the date. "That was my (24th) birthday."
The good news - and the Canadiens will take any they can get this morning - is that Komisarek will resume skating this afternoon before his team practises then buses to Ottawa for tomorrow's game against the Senators.
It will be his first time lacing up since he was knocked out of the Canadiens' March 20 game in Boston, having absorbed a couple of awkward checks on his fourth shift.
Montreal's Masterton Trophy candidate has sat out four games thus far, and is expected to miss the final three of the regular season.
The prognosis was for him to be sidelined for three weeks, almost precisely the period from his injury to when the Canadiens will open their postseason. And Komisarek will, he guarantees, be in the lineup for Game 1 of the playoffs, the same rugged, crashing player he was before he was shelved - but one who's stronger, fitter and better rested. He still leads all NHL defencemen in hits and blocked shots.
"I'm ahead of the game and I'm going to be ready," Komisarek said. "I'm doing everything I can treatment-wise."
It was a groin injury that put him out of commission 11 days ago. No, wait, that was speculation. It was his lower back. No, that also was a bad guess. The Canadiens finally said, with a declaration as clear as springtime slush, that he was dealing with a "lower-body injury."
Last Friday, bowing to an NHL directive that they be less vague, the Canadiens somewhat more specifically said it was Komisarek's hip that was hurt, a definition better painted with a roller than a fine-tipped brush.
The hardest part for Komisarek hasn't been the gruelling, two-a-day rehabilitation sessions. It's been watching his team from the press box or a sofa.
"This time of year, you want to be with your teammates, contributing and playing, earning those wins together," he said.
"In the press box, there's definitely been a lot of oohs and aahs and maybe some French words you don't want to repeat too loud.
"You work so hard all season to get to this point. It's the best time. We've extended our season and we want to make a run."
But Komisarek is hardly wallowing in self-pity, being on the sidelines now. It's been full-time work, and then some, healing the hip area with treatments, intense stationary bike sessions and water-resistance work to prepare him for today's return to skates.

"They're throwing lasers and machines and everything possible at me," he said of the Canadiens training staff. "They've got electromagnetic patches on me to help me heal quicker."
Just as importantly, Komisarek has been scrupulously watching his diet - "eating press-box food will only set me back further," he said, likely having observed some of its consumers - and getting more quality rest than had he been playing.
"It was hard the first few days, sitting around not able to do much of anything," he said. "But I feel really good. You take the positives out of something like this. I have the time to recharge for the playoffs and be ready to go, mentally and physically."

He knew he was in trouble when he skated off Boston ice that night. And that still didn't kill his instinct to get back into the game, especially when he studied another hardrock competitor.
"I'm in the dressing room getting treatment and (Tom) Kostopoulos comes in after having been hit (in a fight)," Komisarek recalled. "His eye is shut, it's already black, and all he's yelling for is an ice bag so he could get back in the game as quickly as possible.
"I know when I come back I'm going to be 100 per cent. There will be no doubts or worries in my mind. Everything with trainers today is to build certainty and confidence and strength. When I come back, there will be no second-guessing."
For now, Komisarek has a front-row seat to watch playoff fever sweep Montreal.
There is a lightness in the step of this town when the Canadiens are headed for the postseason; when the club has exceeded all expectations and is fighting for a conference championship, Montrealers dance more than they walk.
"The (CH-logo) flags seem to be on every second car," he said. "We feel the whole city behind us. But no one in that dressing room is content just making the playoffs. Now we want to make a big statement. A big splash."