During an appearance on the Cam and Strick Podcast, Montour discussed his injury and his plan for returning to the ice
During an appearance on the Cam and Strick Podcast, Montour discussed his injury and his plan for returning to the ice
Florida Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour is back home in Ontario, enjoying the offseason with his family, his wife and their new baby boy.
He's currently recovering from shoulder surgery and recharging from what was probably the longest hockey season of his life.
Montour enjoyed a monster year for the Panthers, finishing with career highs in goals (16), assists (57), and points (73), adding another eight goals and 13 points during Florida's run to the Stanley Cup Final.
While those numbers dwarfed his previous career highs, it's worth noting that he's finished the past two seasons with new career marks in goals and points, so there is an upward trajectory for the 29-year-old.
He recently caught up with Cam Janssen and Andy Strickland on the Cam and Strick Podcast and provided an update and some insight into his injury and recovery.
"It’s a little bit of a pain in the ass, especially with me, I’ve had a number of injuries but nothing to this extent," Montour said. "It’s a torn labrum. They say four-to-six months is the recovery. Obviously team and surgeons and everyone are very conservative, which makes sense. There’s no rush, especially with the long playoffs we had."
Montour explained that he actually suffered the shoulder injury sometime during the regular season, but he said it was only a partial tear.
"It was sore, but nothing crazy where I had to really notice about it," he said. "We left it for a little bit and then I started getting used to it."
That worked for Montour until the Stanley Cup Final.
It was there, either during Game 1 or Game 2 in Las Vegas, where the injury would go up another level.
"At that point I just said we have to figure something out here," Montour said. "I wasn't expecting it to be completely torn, we did an MRI and X-rays, then I had five phone calls coming back home (from Vegas) from our docs and trainers that we have to get surgery.
"I was just kind of confused about it, but I'm just like let's get through this series, we have five or six games left, and worry about it after."
Montour said he had the surgery the Friday after Florida’s last game, which was Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final in Vegas on Tuesday, June 13.
“I told my trainers right away, ‘Let’s get this surgery done and get this going,’” Montour said.
When the Panthers were holding their end of the year parties and get togethers, Montour was walking around with his arm in a sling, which he only recently was able to stop wearing.
"I just got my sling off and now it's just still recover for the next month before I can even probably lift weights," he said.
Montour said he's hoping to get back on the ice "sometime in September."
"It's feeling pretty good and I'd like to push it if I could, but obviously I'll be smart about it," he said.
In the time between now and training camp, Montour will be working with his trainer in Ontario.
The type of effort he's able to put in, such as weight lifting and strength-work, will ultimately be a matter of seeing how he feels and testing what he can do.
Then sometime in early September, Montour will make the trip back to South Florida.
"That's when I get back on the ice, and time will tell with that," he said.
Opening Night for the Panthers is Thursday, October 12 in Minnesota. That's four days shy of exactly four months from when Montour had surgery.
In a perfect world, if all goes well, with no setbacks and optimum testing and healing, sure, its possible Montour is ready to play by then.
While that shouldn't be the expectation, the mere idea that its within the realm of possibility is an encouraging piece of information.
On the other side of the spectrum, should Montour's recovery take a full six months, he'd miss around 20 games, which is a quarter of the season.
Florida plays its 18th game of the season on Dec. 16 in Edmonton, six months to the day from when Montour went under the knife.
When Montour arrives in Coral Springs for training camp, how much he's able to do will be an early indication into how close he may or may not be to returning.
For now, it's good to hear things have been going well after surgery.