But what about starting one without him?<\/p>\n
\u201cWould I love to start in Game 1? Of course. Will I start Game 1? I don’t know. Not sure yet,\u201d Hyman said this week. \u201cI\u2019ve got another month-ish to get there, which is a long time in the rehab world. Or a short time, depending on how you look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyman is speaking over the phone from Toronto, where he is still fully engaged in rehab after surgery to repair the dislocated wrist and damaged ligaments suffered in the Western Conference Final against Dallas.<\/p>\n
He has not yet reached the stage of his rehab process where he can shoot a puck.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m progressing through all the check points,\u201d he explains, likening this process to the major surgery he had on his ACL as a Maple Leaf back in 2019. \u201cAny time you get injured and you have surgery, you have different progression points and marks. So you\u2019ve got to knock off one before you get too excited and go to the next.<\/p>\n
\u201cShooting is the last progression for me, but I’m feeling really good out there and doing everything that I’m supposed to be doing. Stick-handling, passing, all the fun stuff. So all is on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyman is a 33-year-old veteran of over 650 NHL games. He\u2019s been through enough that \u2014\u00a0assuming the rehab progresses properly \u2014\u00a0missing October\u2019s 12-game slate should not be fatal to his season.<\/p>\n
What it won\u2019t help, however, is his bid to make the Canadian Olympic team. There are a finite amount of games between the Oilers’ Oct. 8 opener and early January, when rosters will be finalized.<\/p>\n
So Hyman, a master at finding a silver lining in a rough situation, will use his Olympic dream as a motivator both to find his game post-injury, and to lend some urgency to a second straight regular season dedicated to trying to figure out how to win a couple more games in late June.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, (the Olympic team) brings motivation,\u201d he said. \u201cInherently, whatever team you’re on \u2014\u00a0the Oilers in my case \u2014they’re going to get a more motivated player, per se. Every year you\u2019re going in with motivation, but this obviously adds another level of motivation. Your Olympic tryouts are your NHL games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s no training camp or anything to make this team. It’s a \u2018watch what you do on the ice\u2019 type of evaluation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here in Edmonton, goalie Stuart Skinner boldly informed the media in his first scrum that one of the goals this season was to make the Olympic team. Hyman is a step closer, having made the initial long list, and a stellar opening half of the season on Connor McDavid\u2019s flank might just punch his ticket to Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust going to that (Olympic orientation) camp was a motivator, seeing the players that were there,\u201d Hyman said. \u201cIt’s a dream of every player to play for their country at the highest level, best on best, and unfortunately my generation has never really had that opportunity. Connor has never gone to an Olympic Games, which is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearing his mid-30s, Hyman\u2019s plan of Stanley Cup success in Edmonton is only half-fulfilled. The Oilers have advanced to two straight Cups \u2014 he played in one of them \u2014\u00a0and now he\u2019s back at base camp, with another 82 games and three playoff rounds still to be scaled before the Oilers would have their next chance to crack the code.<\/p>\n
It was a different summer this time around, for Hyman.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, it was a lot easier for me because I had something to focus on right away, which was the rehab. I also didn’t play in the Final,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was really hard to watch, but at the same time, I had zero control over anything that was going on on the ice. I had less of a lingering feeling that you could have changed something. The year before, you\u2019d think about, \u2018Oh, what would have happened if I scored that goal?\u2019 or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every player dreams of winning a Stanley Cup. No one even considers the mental toll, however, that losing back-to-back Finals exacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s disappointing. It’s very, very difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cThe second time, I think we’ll be more prepared going into this year. Really understanding that, even though we didn’t win the last two years, there are a lot of things that you could take away that are a success.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly one team wins, and unfortunately we weren’t that team. But we were better than 30 other teams, and we\u2019ve won the West two years in a row. We’re a really good team, and let’s get back to that right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
One last try: Will he be skating with the team when camp opens on Sept. 17?<\/p>\n
\u201cDon’t know any of that stuff yet,\u201d he smiled. \u201cBut it’ll be a good question to ask me in a week from now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But what about starting one without him? \u201cWould I love to start in Game 1? Of course. Will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-123549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}