r\tStory from the Kelowna Capital News
r\t
r\tKelowna Rockets forward Evan Bloodoff is going to need to tap into what has become an almost legendary work ethic.
r\tBloodoff, 19, will have surgery next week to repair a torn ACL and is expected to be out of the Rockets lineup until late February or early March.
r\t“It’s going to be a big hole for us to fill,” said Rockets general manager Bruce Hamilton. “He’s been a really good penalty killer for us and his speed has been a huge asset.”
r\tBloodoff originally injured the knee late last year. An MRI done on the knee upon the Rockets return to Kelowna after the Memorial Cup showed a small tear but not enough to require surgery. This summer it must have gotten worse, according to Hamilton, because Bloodoff failed a physical at the Phoenix Coyotes training camp.
r\tA follow up MRI showed a full tear of the ACL.
r\t“It was a tough break for his first training camp,” said Hamilton.
r\tSo now the work has begun as Bloodoff gets set for surgery. Bloodoff has already begun a fitness program to strengthen the knee prior to surgery.
r\tHis work out habits have become well known around the team and he’s going to need every bit of effort as he prepares for rehab, said Hamilton.
r\tRegardless, it will be the long road back from a surgery that can take four to six months to fully recover from.
r\tBut Hamilton says Bloodoff's work ethic will help him get back.
r\t“He’s a pretty unique athlete so his rehab will likely go better than most,” said Hamilton. “He is a fitness machine. We’ve started him on a program already. The stronger that leg is before the surgery the better off he will be.”
r\tMeanwhile the Rockets are still waiting for a handful of players to return to Kelowna from various training camps.
r\tGoaltender Mark Guggenberger is also battling an injury and his return is also unknown.
r\tKelowna wraps up the exhibition season tonight against the Vancouver Giants at 7 p.m. at Prospera Place
r\tKelowna opens the WHL regular season this coming Thursday against the Vancouver Giants.<\/p>\n
r<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
r\tStory from the Kelowna Capital Newsr\tr\tKelowna Rockets forward Evan Bloodoff is going to need to tap into what has become an almost legendary work ethic.r\tBloodoff, 19, will have surgery next week to repair a torn ACL and is expected to be out of t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"post","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[595],"tags":[{"term_id":279,"name":"Latest Stories","slug":"latest-stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":284,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":283,"filter":"raw","term_order":"352"}],"class_list":["post-3665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-latest-stories","category-595","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":null,"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.chl.ca\/whl-rockets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}