Rush manages to avoid injury bug - so far

By Jim Holland, Journal staff | Wednesday, November 26, 2008

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RAPID CITY — A sprain, a strain, pulls and pains. Throw in a stitch or two here and there, a few bells rung and a couple of nice shiners.

For the most part that’s been the extent of the maladies suffered by the Rapid City Rush thus far in their first 13 games of Rapid City’s inaugural Central Hockey League season.

Being a first-year trainer with the Rush, Nicole Hahne has no past history in hockey to compare to, but she said most of her medical attention has been directed at the usual dents and dings associated with a pro sports team.

“I’ve got a pretty good feel for hockey now from being around other trainers,” Hahne said. “We haven’t had much more than the ordinary (injuries) so far.”

Although the regulars have been relatively injury free, two players wound up on injured reserve during training camp because of injuries sustained in preseason games.

Brady Olsen, a rookie forward from Enterprise, Ontario, Canada, and the first player signed by the team back in May, lost the first six weeks of the season to a hand injury suffered against Colorado on Oct. 11.

Defenseman Eric Nelson remains on IR after getting hurt in another preseason game against the Rocky Mountain Rage on Oct. 10.

And the nature of Nelson’s injury? Rush coach Joe Ferras would just as soon keep that under wraps.

Some players, he said, have been known to zero in on an opposing player’s injury during a game.

“You never want to think that a player would hurt another player, but you never want to give them the opportunity,” Ferras said.

So injuries are usually listed only as “upper body” or “lower body” Ferras said.

Olsen said not traveling with the team was the toughest part of his rehab period

“The longer I was on IR the further away I was getting from the team,” Olsen said. “It tested the mental side of my game and my drive to be here in Rapid City. I wanted to be in that lineup so badly.”

Once back on the active roster, Olsen scored his first professional goal on his first shot during last Friday’s 8-2 loss to Colorado, then added a second goal the following night in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Rocky Mountain Rage.

Making the trip to Arizona the previous weekend smoothed the transition.

“I didn’t get to play, but it was nice to get to be with the guys and watch a game in the arena and get a feel for what I was getting myself into. I think that may have contributed to the Colorado weekend,” Olsen said.

“Brady played great, showing us what we had expected from him when we signed him,” said Ferras. “It was unfortunate that he got hurt like he did, but he did a great job keeping in shape so he was ready to go for us when he finally got cleared to play.”