After a freak accident left him with a fractured skull and severed temporal artery, John Carlson had to overcome several mental hurdles to return to the Washington Capitals. Ultimately, fatherhood kept him sane as he waited to draw back in.

ARLINGTON, V.A. -- Just two nights before Christmas and in the third period of an Alex Ovechkin-centered tilt between the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets. John Carlson was lined up for a defensive zone face-off and shifted to the slot when the puck dropped.

Seconds later, he was on the ice, bleeding profusely.

He had known that a Brenden Dillon one-timer had struck him in the head, but he wasn't absorbing the gravity of the situation. Then, the blood started rushing out, turning his visor red and staining the ice.

"I couldn't believe how much blood there was," Dylan Strome, who was right next to Carlson when it happened, recalled.

The 90 mph slapshot had hit Carlson straight in the side of his helmet. That impact pushed the helmet into Carlson's head, which severed his temporal artery and fractured his skull.

Strome and Ovechkin grabbed Carlson and rushed him to the bench, where Erik Gustafsson was ready with a towel. Carlson pressed it to his face and made his way down the tunnel under his own power.

He couldn't imagine what was coming next as the medical team got to work.

"You don't know what's happening at the time," Carlson told The Hockey News in an exclusive 1-on-1 before the season came to an end. "Honestly, for me, I was just thinking that it was a pretty big cut and getting stitched up. It's not like they were telling me, 'Oh man, this is a bad artery here.'"

That was exactly the case, though. Jason Serbus and the team's medical staff had to rush to stop the bleeding before Carlson was stretchered out of the arena and taken to MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Laying in the hospital bed, several thoughts went through Carlson's head. He was thinking of his wife and children -- three boys and a girl on the way -- and then thinking about his team and processing what had happened.

"They're just doing their jobs and I'm just sitting there taking it. You're just kind of laying there hurting... you're obviously hoping for, 'Everything looks good. Let's just [close] the wound, blah blah blah,' which obviously wasn't the case. From that standpoint, you're disappointed. After realizing the complexity of it all and here I am, that's pretty good."

Carlson was kept overnight for further evaluation and observation. Around midnight, he was in pain --  he hadn't really felt pain at the moment of impact due to the adrenaline rush, though he was in survival mode -- but overall feeling a lot better as he realized that he would be able to play hockey again. However, that was never a major concern as he was confident that no matter what, he'd take the ice again.

"Of course, that's what you know, and kind of by the time I got to the hospital, within an hour, we knew, 'Okay, there's nothing bad, nothing crazy here,'" Carlson recalled. "There's nothing that's gonna really be out of this world and kind of in that territory of worried about playing this year, nevermind worrying about playing next year and so on... I was 99 percent sure that it was what it was and that's all it was. That's what it turned out to be."

Carlson was released on Christmas Eve and reunited at home with his family. However, the road to recovery was just beginning.

Though the 33-year-old was never diagnosed with a concussion, he had to follow the same protocol, and the primary treatment was getting rest.

"You have to sit around and do nothing and kind of wait," he said.

With over 900 NHL games under his belt and no previous major injuries since kicking off his pro career in 2009, Carlson hadn't truly experienced too much time off. Now, he had what seemed like unlimited time on his hands. Time that he didn't really know what to do with, given his teammates were on the road and travelling quite a bit at the start of his rehabilitation.

Without hockey or a set schedule, Carlson recalls being tired and not being too interested in movies or television to pass the time. But there was a silver lining, a plus side to being home: he got to further embrace fatherhood and spend more time with his kids while truly getting to be an average parent for the first time in his life.

"A lot of family time," he smiled. "A lot of things that I don't ever normally get to do... not that it was what I would rather be doing, but it was nice to be able to see a lot of my son's hockey, to take my other kid to hockey, to spend real time with them doing things that otherwise, I wouldn't get to watch, I wouldn't get to see. I was a hockey dad; I was taking the kids to school and picking them up from school and being more of a full-time parent because my schedule allowed for that."

Eventually, Carlson was allowed back on the ice. It was a lengthy rehabilitation process as he worked his way back from a one-in-a-million injury.

"It hit the spot in the side of his head. That doesn't really happen all that often. Pretty scary moment," Conor Sheary, who was also on the ice when Carlson was struck, pointed out.

He started out slow, skating in a tracksuit and feeling the puck before getting in full gear and working early in the morning with skating coach Wendy Marco. That in itself worked wonders for No. 74.

"My ears and eyes are always open and I'm trying to get better no matter what I'm doing, whether it's by myself or getting instruction and practice. I believe in all her stuff... I think you take it like that to try and get better and try to work on things. You're gonna come out of it in a better spot."

Carlson was also offered counseling to discuss any mental hurdles or trauma that could have arisen from the incident, though he was able to cope with his recovery on his own. Still, having that support played a major part in his recovery.

"No problems reaching out to anybody if I'm going through anything. And certainly, if I did return and something was happening and even in practice, if I thought it was going to be better and it wasn't and I was battling something, absolutely," he said of counseling. "But just the normal progression and stuff was great. It was seamless.

"It's big," he added of having that support system. "This is a high-octane, high-stress environment, and the last thing you need to be worrying about is being a professional hockey player afraid to get hit by a puck. Just thinking about it like that, there's a lot of things that can alter any professional, and that's why we have the resources we do."

Eventually, Carlson was back skating with his teammates, getting back into drills, the ebbs and flows of the game and taking contact. Still, the waiting game continued, as Carlson still had to get a green light from doctors before returning. And though there were no setbacks earlier on, he was held out longer as the team elected to play things safe.

"That's when you start to get a little antsy, start to get like, 'Well hey, if I'm doing this, I got another month? I feel like I could be out there right now,'" Carlson said. "You know, that's difficult, but that is what it is. There's nothing you can do."

Then, on March 23, Carlson got the news he was waiting for. He'd return to the lineup exactly three months to the day he was hit with a puck and start on the top pairing against the Chicago Blackhawks. He made the most of his return with a multi-point performance, one that inspired his teammates.

"He defines resilience. It's a tough injury to come back from. With where we're at in the standings, I think he really wanted to come back at this time of year," Strome said. "It's a credit to his ability and his perseverance to get back out there and try to help us win, rack up some games, and you can see what he does to our team when he gets back in there."

Still, admittedly for Carlson, there are still some nerves to overcome and jitters when the puck ramps up. However, that'll go away with each game and repetition.

"The first game, there's a few parts early on, there was definitely some [nerves]... you have to expect that. I expected that going into practice and stuff," Carlson noted. "When more guys are on the ice, it was a little more difficult, and then you kind of just work through it.

"Obviously, you don't want to get stuck on something. And if you do, you gotta get help. For me, it was just kind of a nice progression of time with the team on the ice and then now in games, it's getting better all the time."

Now that he's back playing, Carlson has taken extra precautions. Though the puck did not impact his ear, which he confirmed while gesturing to the scar on the side of his head, he now wears an ear guard on the right side of his head in games as an extra layer of protection.

"It's not going to hurt, so that's why it's in there," he pointed out.

"To come back from that, it's probably pretty scary to step on the ice... He came back from that not knowing kind of the risks of what could happen. We're really happy to have him around the room," Sheary said. "He's a big personality, he's a character in the room, he's a leader in the room and he does a lot of things for our team. Just having him around in general, not only on the ice but off the ice, is a huge boost for our team."

This summer, though, Carlson's starting things off with a return to full-time dad life. He and his wife just welcomed a baby girl, Bella, and he's coaching little league and cherishing the extra time with his kids.

Come September, though, Washington will be happy to have him back full-time. Ovechkin called Carlson's injury the turning point of the Capitals' season, which saw the team struggle with inconsistency and miss out on the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

And for 74, it's all part of the job.

"To come back from that, it's probably pretty scary to step on the ice... He came back from that not knowing kind of the risks of what could happen. We're really happy to have him around the room," Sheary said. "He's a big personality, he's a character in the room, he's a leader in the room and he does a lot of things for our team. Just having him around in general, not only on the ice but off the ice, is a huge boost for our team."

"I think I'll learn as much from him as he will from me," new assistant coach Mitch Love, who will work primarily with the defense, added.