Pronger says he won't be 100 percent for camp
Daily News Flyers blog
Pronger says he won't be 100 percent for camp
Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger, who had minor knee surgery on July 27, said yesterday he would not be 100 percent for training camp and might not be in the lineup for the season opener.
When the Flyers released the news of the surgery a week later on Aug. 3, general manager Paul Holmgren said: “He will be ready for the start of training camp.”
Pronger, who turns 36 in October, was asked yesterday by Flyers public relations personnel whether he will be 100 percent for camp, which begins Sept. 17. “No. I can tell you that much,” said Pronger, who had “loose bodies” removed from his right knee. “With the amount of atrophy, it is going to take a lot of hard work to build the leg muscles back up.
“Obviously, I will spending a lot of hours in the gym trying to strengthen my knee and the rest of my body. A lot of times when you hurt your knee you walk different and you hurt your back or you hurt your other knee because you are loading that up more. It is really about your body becoming symmetrical again and you’re not overtaxing any one part of your body.”
The Flyers open the regular season on Oct. 7 at Pittsburgh. “I hope to be in the lineup . . .but it is still very early on in the process to begin guessing on a time frame,” said Pronger, who said he will not need a knee brace. “A lot can happen over the next few weeks and months but absolutely that is one of the goals."
Pronger was asked when he thought his knee would be 100 percent. “I do not have a time frame. The team knows that. I spoke to the doctor and trainer and it is really just about when my knee feels good and strong again. I don’t want to come back early and play a couple of games and then be out of the lineup and then play a few more and be out. I want to come back when the knee is as close to 100 percent as possible so I can play every single game from then on.”
Pronger said he hurt his knee in Game 1 against Boston in the conference semifinals. He played 82 regular-season games and 23 playoff games last season. He thought the injury affected his play in the playoffs. “Yes, it was a little tighter,” he said. “I didn’t quite have the range of motion. But I think my play speaks for itself. Let’s leave it at that.”
He said the injury occured in overtime. “It was a 3-minute shift to start the overtime,” he said. “About a minute in, I was in front of the net when there was a scrum. I was on my knees and I got bent backward. I heard a big crunch. It didn’t feel very good for the next 5-7 minutes. Eventually the feeling came back and I was able to get a little bit of strength back.
“But from that game on I didn’t have the usual strength in my knee. We did a lot of things through the rest of the playoffs to try and keep my strength up. I didn’t practice any more after that. I just played the games.”
Pronger had 10 goals, 45 assists and 79 penalty minutes in the regular season. In the playoffs, he had four goals, 14 assists and 36 penalty minutes.
Pronger averaged more than 25 minutes of ice time during the regular season and nearly 30 minutes in the playoffs, as the Flyers made a run to the Stanley Cup finals before losing to the Blackhawks in six games.
Doesn't Chris understand that this is a lower body injury not a knee injury— toe bee
Comment removed.- This operation should have been done as soon as the season was over.— Richardgozinya
- he should really take off til dec/jan and get ready for hopefully another good playoff run.— stanley
UncleEddie- Mark my words, your an idiot— jamarder
@Tonka wrote; "HAHAHAHAHAHAA.... Go Blackhawks Go" GO WITH WHAT?!! You clowns have dumped 30% of your regular season scoring, lost your Stanley Cup Champion goalie and don't have a full team under contract just a couple of weeks before training camp. The Blackhawks are poised to join the NJ Devils as the only team to win the Stanley Cup and miss the playoffs the following season. Now THAT is something to laugh at.— snad264- Does anyone know why he waited this damn long for surgery? Why didn't he just get this taken care of right when we got eliminated?— robm0202
- Who gave Pronger the advice to wait until August 3rd for surgery? Sounds like the same idiotic decisionmaking of the Bush Administration.— eldiablodelsol2009
- As someone with some sort of intelligence posted above, players in all sports wait to have surgery after their respective seasons are completed for various reasons, i.e. swelling, second opinions, other reasons that DOCTORS know about and not idiots like you people. Also, to Tonka and 5NOT4 regarding their comments about goaltending...neither team has any true goaltending now. And I hate to say it, but while Chicago got rid of their goaltender, they at least have the Cup in their hands...just motivation I guess for the Flyers.— aisaac
- @Uncle Eddie - You are insane to compare Pronger to Hatcher. Pronger will have another excellent season. Look at his career and tell me when he had a bad season.— Tough* Juice*
- Oh, and WTF do these athletes wait so long AFTER THE SEASON to have these types of surgeries, when they know it jeopardizes their ability to be at 100% at the beginning of the next season??!! How friggin' stupid is that?! Love me some Pronger and Flyers though!— 5NOT4
- Tonka - Go Blackhawks?? With what goalie?! LMAO at the clueless Blackhawks. We'll see who is laughing at the end of next season..— 5NOT4
- I am sure the doctors know more about when to have knee surgery than this forum- perhaps swelling needed to come down or they wanted to wait to see if surgery was necessary. I am sure Pronger just didn't forget to have the surgery and then suddenly remembered in July.— gob1234
- chham57: You say "Why waste gas in the beginning of the season save it for the end." Answer: Because you may not even make the playoffs if you don't show up at the beginning of the season. Keep in mind how we made the playoffs last year. If we took off a few games-- scratch that, one game--at the beginning of the season, no playoffs.
- Flyers loaded up on mediocre, way overpriced D this offseason. They'll be fine. They have Leighton still, he's a beast!!!!!!— jbruder02
- Tonka your an idoit!— magic_hands
- Just so the Flyers have better conditioning people than the other local sports teams.— mears
- Wow, annonymous person talking smack on the internet. Way to go!— Maximus25
- Good one. If I were you, going onto a Philly website and trash talking the Flyers in August, I would consider killing myself.— nickwu16
- Again I ask, why did he wait until the end of July to have the procedure done??? He wasted a whole month. Can anyone explain that one.— cptjoe
- So he misses the beginning of the season. It is well apparent you just need to make the playoffs in the NHL. Why waste gas in the beginning of the season save it for the end. When everybody is playing for real. Wether or not his contract is going to be valid at the beginning of the season is a bigger question.— chham57
- Flyers loaded up on D men in off season. That should help keep the minutes down for Pronger.— P Even
- Mark my words, Pronger will be terrible this season. It will be Derian Hatcher post-surgery all over again.— UncleEddie
- Comment removed.
