Carrick eyes Entry Draft after unlucky break
BRAMPTON, Ont. – Watching the Brampton Battalion battle in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs hurt Sam Carrick more than the injury that knocked him out of action.
Centre Carrick broke his left collarbone in the third period of the first game of an Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Barrie Colts.
“Watching was really tough,” Carrick said via telephone Thursday. “I hadn’t been injured all season, and I was really trying to step up and help out the team. It’s part of the game, but it’s something I had to work through. If it had happened in September, it wouldn’t have been so bad.”
Carrick scored the first Battalion goal in an eventual 5-3 loss at Barrie. The Colts swept the series in four games.
“I love playing against the Colts, and we really wanted to prove something to them. That’s what made that injury so unfortunate.”
He hit Barrie’s Dalton Prout and immediately knew something was wrong.
“It was a freak accident. It was at the end of my shift, and I was skating to the bench. Prout had the puck, and I went to finish my check and got a little too low. He leaned into me, and I fell. I make hits like that a couple of times a game. For some reason this time it went wrong, but I guess things like that happen once in a while.”
Carrick immediately headed to the dressing room.
“I could feel it burn, and then I acted like there was nothing wrong because I didn’t want to miss the rest of the game. I was going to try to play with it, but obviously I couldn’t.”
Carrick, examined by one of the Colts’ doctors, was told surgery might be necessary. But after visiting Dr. Pardeep Alexander, an orthopaedic surgeon on the Battalion medical staff, Carrick was assured that wasn’t the case.
“The doctor in Barrie looked at it and told me the break looked like it would need surgery,” said Carrick. “But Dr. Alexander told me if it shifted then surgery would be considered. But that didn’t happen.”
Carrick returned each week to have Dr. Alexander monitor recovery.
“I had a weekly appointment with him and he’d take some x-rays, and every week it was getting better. I tried to take it easy and not aggravate it so it wouldn’t slow down my recovery.”
Carrick said he has started working out with Gary Roberts, a former National Hockey League forward, in preparation for next season.
“The collarbone is doing well now. There’s still a big bump there, but that’s expected. It’s better than having surgery. I’m trying to strengthen it now. Soon I’ll be 100 percent.”
An 18-year-old resident of Stouffville, Ont., Carrick is first-time eligible for the NHL Entry Draft in June. Ranked 90th among North American-based skaters by the league’s central scouting department, he said he’s talked to a number of NHL clubs.
“The guys I’ve been talking to ask me how the injury’s been coming along. Some of the scouts who were at that game asked how it happened, because nobody saw it.”
A first-round pick in the 2008 OHL Priority Selection, Carrick had 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points in 61 games in 2008-09. He scored 21 goals and added 21 assists for 42 points in 66 games last season. He has three goals and two assists for five points in 29 career playoff games.
