Cole Caufield would have liked to have continued, but in the end we made him understand that it wasn’t a good idea.
Here the “we” refers to an army of medical specialists that Caufield wanted to consult before making a decision regarding his right shoulder.
The young Canadian striker used three separate medical reports before deciding to end his season a few days ago.
Among the doctors consulted: surgeon Peter Millett, specialist in shoulder surgery. It is he who will have to operate on Caufield in Colorado next Wednesday. This is the doctor who also operated on Josh Anderson’s shoulder in 2020.
According to Caufield, his shoulder problems started last summer, but it was a crash in the Dec. 23 game in Dallas that really led to this situation.
“I had a bad fall and replaced my shoulder myself a few seconds later,” said the man wearing the number 22 at the Bell Center on Friday morning. It was not so bad. The second time, the same thing happened in Nashville [le 3 janvier]. It was a bit more painful this time but the medical staff did a good job of getting me back in shape and I felt almost 100% my normal condition.
“If the club were looking for a place in the playoffs, I would have no doubt that I would still play. It wasn’t my decision to stop. »
But under the circumstances, I believe so [arrêter est] the best long-term decision. It’s hard to come to that conclusion, but it’s the reality.
Cole Kaufield
Optimistic
In the near future, the young Canadian forward is confident he can make a full recovery from this labrum tear and is turning to players he knows well – Anderson but also Zach Werenski of Columbus Blue Jackets – for optimism. who have undergone similar shoulder surgery.
Recall that Anderson was originally scheduled to be off the ice for four to six months after this surgery, but ultimately the veteran was kept off the ice for a seven-month period.
Such a scenario would allow Caufield to return just in time for September training camp.
“I spoke to Josh about this recently… Everyone is different, I’m younger than him so hopefully I’ll heal faster. I hope to be 100% in shape by the start of next season. It will take a long time but I want to get back to 100% as soon as possible.
I didn’t want to stop playing, but we did some testing and the conclusion was that another fall could have made the situation worse, so a risk factor had to be considered.
Cole Kaufield
“I didn’t want it to get any worse and you had to see that over the long term […] But I think everything will be back to normal,” added the striker.
Despite everything, the young man remains optimistic. He estimates he’ll be able to throw pucks again in three months and says that tragedy won’t alter his business talks with the Canadian, who is on the cards without a contract, next season. “You already know what type of player I am… I think that will eventually sort itself out,” he added.
Whether this injury will affect Cole Caufield remains to be seen. Of course, Martin St-Louis would have preferred to avoid this bad news, but he still tries to see a positive side of it.
“Even if you can’t do something physically, it’s always possible to improve mentally,” said the coach. I spoke to Cole about it; it wasn’t often that he had to watch games from the top of the press box! I listened to it, matches, from above, and I liked seeing that angle of how the game moves. You can see the holes, the space. If you look from the top down, the game slows down, and at some point in a career, the game also slows down, and a career can suddenly skyrocket…”
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