You’ve got to hand it to Bobby Ryan. He isn’t going to let the latest in a string of hand injuries keep him down.
The Ottawa Senators’ winger missed only one game after the latest mishap with his right hand in a Dec. 20 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He returned to the lineup Wednesday night against the Boston Bruins after getting the hand frozen so he could play.
“I’m back to the freezing that we’d gotten away from until it calms down all the way again,” Ryan said Thursday following a skate at Canadian Tire Centre. “You feel like it’s one step forward and three steps back with it. You can’t get anything out of it.
“(The freezing) makes the most sense. To be honest, I’m so used to it, it doesn’t bother me anymore. I don’t mind the needles. It’s the burning when it’s getting around all the nerves and stuff. That’s not fun.”
Ryan said gripping a stick had been difficult.
“Sometimes it feels like you don’t have bottom hand on the stick,” he said. “You’re trying to do something. It’s the most important (index) finger for all the turning of the stick and stuff. You know the puck is on your stick, but you can’t really get that feel out of it.
“You’re trying to push it ahead of it and push it forward, but, honestly, there’s no pain when I’ve frozen it, so that’s nice.”
Sitting isn’t really an option because Ryan wants to play. He will also change to gloves with more protection when a new pair arrives next week.
“You feel like you may not be playing to the best of your abilities when you’re not 100 per cent, but you don’t feel like you have the right to come when we’re going through this,” said Ryan, who has four goals and nine assists in 26 games this season. “You have the right to get healthy while everybody else is trying to weather the storm that we’ve been in.
“I can’t speak for guys, but they know what I’m going through to play and that I want to be part of the solution here as opposed to a guy on the sidelines. I’ll let everybody else decide whether it’s helping me or hurting me, but I’m here for the long haul.”
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
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