Reimer knows all too well about the frustrating side of sport
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr,
The Nelson Daily Sports
Talk about walking around with a Murphy’s Law bull’s eye on your back.
But this time, Raymond Reimer wasn’t walking he was running. Running up a flight of stairs training to stay in shape when that bad boy Murphy, like a heat-seeking missile, struck at the knees.
It was just six games into Reimer’s third Kootenay International Junior Hockey League season when the lanky, 6’4”, 205-pound defenceman went down with a torn meniscus.
“I trained pretty hard this summer, didn’t make a Junior A team but came to Nelson,” the Vanderhoof product said following Nelson’s 4-2 New Year’s Eve win over Spokane. “I was starting to play pretty well but every year it seems I’m getting injured, which is tough to take.”
Reimer followed Nelson Leafs coach and GM Chris Shaw to the Heritage City from the Penticton Lakers. In 2009 he played for the Summerland Sting.
At the time of the injury back in September, it was thought Reimer might be lost for the season.
However, the doctor decided to perform a less complicated surgery that allowed Reimer to return to the line up for game 32 December 29 in Castlegar.
“It depends on surgery,” Reimer explained when asked if he thought the injury might be season ending. “If (doctor) would have fixed it, I would have been out for six months. But he just cut it out so it was six to eight weeks.”
Still eight weeks off the blades, watching your teammates under perform and knowing that your presence would make a difference was difficult to stomach for Reimer.
“It was really frustrating watching from the stands,” confessed the stay-at-home Reimer, who has two assists in three games. “Nelson has always been a top team in the league and seeing us not playing like a top team, and I know we can, it was really tough.”
All that sitting and walking into the dressing room between game six and game 32 in street clothes is all in the past for Reimer.
However, after dressing for his first game last week, a 9-0 shellacking at the hands of the Castlegar Rebels, Reimer may have pushed his return back a game.
“This team needs to come together,” Reimer exclaimed. “We can’t have one person per game trying to carry the team on its back. We need the whole team to come together and if that happens, we’ll start to win.”
Reimer admits to being in less than perfect shape during his first weekend back in spite of all the roadwork he did on the stationary bike.
However, it shouldn’t take too long 19-year-old rearguard to get back into tip-top shape.
Which should help as the Leafs begin a stretch run to the playoffs.
ICE CHIPS: Nelson, 19-15-0-1 for third in the Murdoch Division of the KIJHL concluded the month of December with a 3-4 record . . . . Nelson takes to the road for a trek into the East Kootenay. The Leafs face the Ghostriders, Golden Rockets and Columbia Valley Rockies during a three-game swing against Eddie Mountain opposition starting Friday in Fernie.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
