Five minutes into describing on Monday his tumultuous recovery from sports hernia surgery, Colin Blackwell broke down with emotion.
The Blackhawks forward had just been asked how he has psychologically handled his absence, which will reach eight months this coming weekend. He began thinking about how much others have helped him get through it, and suddenly tears couldn’t be withheld.
“It has been pretty draining, to be quite honest with you,” Blackwell said between pauses to try to gather himself. “Basically, my family, [my] wife…they’ve been awesome. A lot of the guys, too. Yeah, they’ve been unreal.”
His last appearance for the Hawks came on Feb. 27 last season. Over the ensuing few weeks, he determined he needed surgery to repair a hernia in his groin, which he underwent March 23 — just days before his 30th birthday. His recovery timeline was supposed to be 12 weeks, which translated to roughly mid-June.
But as Hawks coach Luke Richardson pointed out Monday, everybody responds to things differently, and those timelines are mere estimates.
“When you get something surgically repaired, then you’re always thinking that you’re going to be perfect,” Richardson said. “But it takes a lot to come back, for a body to recover — especially [at] a pro-athlete level.”
June turned to July and July turned to August, and Blackwell still wasn’t comfortable enough to resume skating. He did get married this summer, providing a much-needed bright spot to his rough 2023, but there were a lot of lonely days hanging around Fifth Third Arena with only Connor Murphy and Alex Vlasic also present.
When he tried to resume practicing during informal skates in September — as more teammates filtered into Chicago — he suffered another setback.
“It was very frustrating,” he said. “It has just been one thing after another.”
At last, while skating individually with injured forward Philipp Kurashev over the past few weeks, Blackwell felt like he “got over the hump.” This week, he realized he finally didn’t feel pain when walking his dog, Bexley, without taking any anti-inflammatory medicine beforehand.
“For the first time in a long time, I feel close to being like myself, [like] I used to be,” he said. “That’s a big step for me.”
Although he has resumed practicing with the team, it doesn’t seem like he’s anywhere close to being ready to play in a regular-season game. Even once he does eventually get cleared, his spot in the Hawks’ depth chart looks much less clear.
After all, he struggled last season before the hernia, producing only two goals and 10 points in 53 games with the Hawks — down from 10-plus goals and 20-plus points each of the previous two seasons elsewhere. He was occasionally a healthy scratch, and his 40.1% scoring-chance ratio ranked 11th among 16 regular team forwards.
The Hawks’ offensive depth has improved significantly since then, and the other depth guys have enjoyed plenty more opportunities to show what they can do. That means there might not be any NHL roster spots available when Blackwell returns, unless other injuries pop up. Rockford might be a possibility for him, via either waivers or a conditioning stint (or both).
But it sounds like simply playing hockey again — wherever that may be — would represent another moment worthy of emotion.
“I’m a realist: I’m pretty behind schedule,” Blackwell said. “But at the same time, I’m a gamer. So whenever I get thrown in there, or if I get that opportunity, I’ll be ready.”
Added Richardson: “Getting back on the ice with the guys, it mentally gets you more motivated. You [sometimes] make that last step the quickest. Hopefully that’s the case for him.”
