Exclusive interview with Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, Part Two

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
April 20, 2017

BRANDON, Fla. For five months, Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos spent countless hours working his way back from knee surgery that cost him all but 17 games of the season.

For most of that time, Stamkos worked behind the scenes and out of the public eye, doing extensive rehab with the medical training staff of Tom Mulligan and Mike Poirier. As the season came to a close on April 9, Stamkos did not get back to full health and was unable to find his way back in the lineup.

So with the season now in the rearview mirror, Stamkos is zeroed in on putting everything that happened this season behind him and focused on getting ready for the 2017-18 season. The rehab will continue all through the summer and he will be back to 100-percent when training camp comes around.

Before leaving for town for the summer, Stamkos granted LightningInsider.com an exclusive interview where he touched on a number of subjects. In this second part of that interview, Stamkos addresses just how close he was to returning this season and some of the inner-battles he has the last two weeks of the season, what his summer training will look like and his feelings on the NHL (presumably) not going to the Olympics.

You can find the first half of the interview here.

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Lightning Insider: There was a lot of optimism that you might have come back before the end of the season, but that never happened. Were there any setbacks experienced that changed that thought process?

Stamkos: “To be honest, it was kind of, we got ahead of ourselves, myself wanting to come back. You just kind of envision yourself coming back for those games. But physically, you kind of take a step back and realize that it probably wasn’t as close as it was made out to be.”

Lightning Insider: But there was an overly optimistic feel, at least from the outside?

Stamkos: “That’s the thing, nobody really knows what is going on unless you are in this room every day and talking to myself or the training staff. That’s the power of the media these days, depending on who says what on the merit that they have can get the ball rolling pretty quick, and I understand that. But it to know where it is now compared to where it was at the end of the season, how I feel on the ice, it’s way better than what it was two weeks ago. So it definitely wasn’t ready to go. Maybe if the playoffs started, I may not have been completely ready to go. It would have had to be a decision we made, if we were in the playoffs and how it went. But with what has happened and us not being in it, it makes the decision easier and you can just make sure you are 100 percent when you return for camp next year.”

Lightning Insider: How many times in the last few weeks did you have those inner battles with yourself debating if you were ready or not?

Stamkos: “There was probably one really good inner battle that I had, but then once you think it out and remove yourself from the competitive nature of where we were at the end of the season – unfortunately I’ve been through something like this before and I know what I feel like when I’ve come back from the leg, to coming back to play in Game 7 of the Conference finals last season, to know where you have to be both mentally and physically to come back to play, I think I had a pretty good gauge of where I needed to be and after I removed myself from “Yeah, of course I want to come back and help this team’’, you realize that it wasn’t ready and you make that decision and you live with it. I think once you put that information in and process it, it makes the decision a little easier.”

Lightning Insider Are there any more benchmarks you need to pass in regards to the knee?

Stamkos: “The issue is not so much the repair itself being healed, which it is, it’s the effects of everything else that went on due to that. It’s the loss of muscle, the loss of strength, loss of stability, the scar tissue now. It was a big procedure and there is a lot of scar tissue which then effects the flexion in your knee. So I’m still working through that stuff, and it’s by no means perfect yet, it may not ever be. We talk about new norms when you have injuries and “this is what it will feel like for the next year or year-and-a-half’ so it’s working through that. So even the last 10-14 days, there has been improvement. As long as we remain on that path I can see myself going through this summer and really having a great summer of skating and training and being back to normal for the start of next year. That’s the plan, any way.’’

Lightning Insider:Will you watch the playoffs?

Stamkos: “I’ve been watching. It’s frustrating at the start when you are watching these teams knowing that if we were in that position we might have had a good chance to win or make it a fun series. But there really is nothing better than playoff hockey and the games this year have been so exciting to watch. And, again, it’s a little extra motivation to get back because you start reminiscing of all the great playoff series you’ve played in – that particular game where you scored in Montreal and Madison Square Garden – it just brings back all those memories that are some of the best hockey memories that I have. It just makes you want to get back there thinking that it should be us right here and playing. So it’s tough to swallow, but playoff hockey is one of the most exciting sports to watch.

Lightning Insider You have not been able to represent your country in the Olympics, and while nothing is done until it’s officially done, but how disappointing was it to hear that the league has no plans to participate in the 2018 games in February?

Stamkos “It was disappointing and I know a lot of the guys were not pleased about it, but there is a strong sense among the players that it’s not over yet. Whatever ploy (the league) is using to try to get out of (the players), there is just a strong sense that just because they said that doesn’t mean it’s actually going to happen. I think there is still a lot of work to be done. Whether they are true to their word or not, the players have never strayed from the path that we want to go. We made it pretty clear from a player’s perspective that if you are lucky enough to be selected by your country to go, that you are going to want to go. That’s a once in a lifetime experience. Guys have stuck to their guns on that one. It’s a waiting game, I know time is running out, but I just think there is a sense that, in my personal opinion, there is still some wiggle room there.

Lightning Insider Because of the broken leg, you were not able to participate in the 2014 Olympics after being selected, but after getting the chance to play for Canada at the World Cup of Hockey, did it give you more of a hunger to want to play in an Olympics?

Stamkos “I took (the World Cup) as my first taste of playing at that level against the best players in the world, it’s not the Olympic stage and I realized that pretty quick. I would still love to be a part of the team that competes for the Olympics, but I just took (World Cup) as a great opportunity, I had a ton of fun playing in my first taste of that type of hockey. It was a great experience and I would love to be able to come out and have a great start to the year and if we do go, get the opportunity if I were selected to go that would still be an unbelievable honor and a dream. But we’ll see what happens.

Lightning Insider What will the rest of the summer training schedule be like for you?

Stamkos: “I wouldn’t say I’m heading in to the summer like I normally do, there are still lingering effects that need to be continued to be worked on. It’s just part of the process to get through, it takes time where you are going to get to the stage were, if any, where there is zero lingering effects. I know with the leg it took a while before you don’t even realize it’s there any more, the effects of the injury. It’s going to take some time. There are some certain things they have to change or alter in training, just continue to strengthen the leg and the muscles around it, there are still some areas to improve on that. Maybe just, for me, this summer there will be a little more on-ice stuff than off-ice stuff. In the past you focus a lot after the season, you take a little time off, then you go in the gym for a month or two before you go back on the ice. Without having played a game in a long time, I’ll be on the ice more just focusing on getting the feel and the explosiveness and little things like that back. So it will be a long summer in regards to not having had a summer like this around here in a while here, but I think under the circumstances, for me personally, it’s just going to give me some more time to get back to the level I know I can be at.”

Lightning Insider You still doing summer work with Gary Roberts?

Stamkos: “I’m still with Gary, we’ve been in contact through this whole process and we’ll sit down when I get back home, and whether we alter some things or change some things, we’ll work it out together.”

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