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RALEIGH —
For most of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the game-day skate on Tuesday was just one more practice, one more day of going through the ritual of getting undressed, putting on their hockey equipment, practicing, getting undressed again, showering and getting dressed again, with one more session of that in store for the game in several hours.
But for Carlo Colaiacovo, the Leafs' oft-injured defenceman, the skate in preparation for the game against the Carolina Hurricanes was pure pleasure. He has not participated in a full practice since last spring, shortly before he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee. The recovery from his latest injury is almost at the eight-month mark and Tuesday marked the first time he was able to practice with his teammates.
"It was great to get out there with the guys, to move the puck around and just be part of the group again," Colaiacovo said. "I think this whole trip is going to be a great experience for me, just to get back and be a hockey player again."
Leafs head coach Paul Maurice said Colaiacovo's recovery has to come in stages. The first was to skate alone with the team's power-skating coach until he was pain-free, then with the assistant coaches until he was pain-free. On Tuesday, it was to get through a game-day skate pain-free, means he can participate in a full practice on Wednesday in Tampa when the Leafs move on for a game against the Lightning on Thursday night.
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"Yes, as far as I'm concerned, I'll be practicing," Colaiacovo, 24, said. "I had two really good, hard skates back to back, especially [Monday] after not skating that hard for that long."
He is not as definite about the next step. There have been too many other occasions when coming back from one injury meant skating into another, which is why Colaiacovo has played just 73 NHL games over four seasons.
All he will say is that he hopes to get back in the lineup by the end of the month.
"It's too unpredictable to put a date on it," he said.
Not even the presence of teammate John Pohl as a guest interrogator could coax a more definite response from Colaiacovo. Pohl stepped in to volunteer to ask the questions after some byplay between Colaiacovo and a couple of reporters about their questions being the same.
Pohl, who once considered taking broadcasting during his days at the University of Minnesota, proved to be an able questioner.
Naturally, he asked his teammate if defenceman Bryan McCabe's broken hand, which will keep him out of the lineup for six to eight weeks, made him consider coming back even earlier.
"No, it doesn't change my expectations," Colaiacovo said. "I'm not going to change my expectations, to try and do too much and put pressure on myself."
Then came Pohl's best question: "Once in practice they moved me back on defence. Did this make you even more worried about coming back because they could give the spot to me?"
"Oh yeah, a little bit," Colaiacovo said.
In the meantime, Anton Stralman will take McCabe's spot on the playing roster while veteran Pavel Kubina will take up a good portion of his ice time. Vesa Toskala will make his 10th consecutive start in goal for the Leafs.
The Leafs also called up rookie forward Jiri Tlusty from their farm team on Tuesday. He was sent down to finish his recovery from a shoulder injury.
Like the Hurricanes, the Leafs are worried about an outbreak of flu, which is why Tlusty was called up. Matt Stajan missed Monday's practice with the flu but is expected to play against the Hurricanes. Tlusty will not play unless someone falls ill before the game.
