Philadelphia Flyers' defenseman Chris Pronger returns to skating, feels confident –NHL News Update
The last time Philadelphia Flyers veteran defenseman skated on the ice and practiced was during game-one of the teams’ Eastern Conference playoffs semi-finals against Boston Bruins in which he was taken out after a hard hit on the boards.
Pronger never knew he would be out and later on undergoing surgery for a herniated disc in his lower back on May 12, but unfortunately, that was exactly what happened.
Now that Pronger is done recovering and ready to get back on the ice, especially after going through a season in which he faced four different surgeries, including one on his wrist, foot and knee for various issues.
“Having not skated and done anything on the ice in 4 1/2 months, you have to take it slowly and see how you feel day to day”, Pronger said.
Due to the different body parts involved, Pronger has been ever since going through a step-by-step recovering process which had him working out each individual muscle group before skating.
"Its different muscles", Pronger said of skating in an interview with NHL.com. "It doesn't matter what you're doing -- Stairmaster, bike, treadmill, whatever. Skating is a completely different motion. You use a lot of different muscles you don't normally
use. You can't simulate it (skating) -- you have to go out and do it”.
The former second overall draft pick during round-two of the 1993 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft by Hartford Whalers, will be playing his 17th consecutive season in the major league in October, but currently at the moment, he is more
focused on getting back in shape so a last season repeat does not happen.
At the age of 36, Pronger is confident that he still has a good number of years left in him to play the sport he has dedicated his life to. With a few more weeks of strength training and skating, Chris Pronger is hopeful that he will be able to return on
the line-up and before much better than ever.
Philadelphia Flyers begin on-ice training camp on September 17, less than a month before the 2011-2012 regular season begins on October 6.
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