Articles
- In Breakaway Magazine - Vol. 2
- Last Updated on 02 July 2012
- By Imran Javed
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By Elizabeth Casey
Nathan Oystrick Has Been Holding On Tight During a Roller Coaster Year
Chicago Wolves defenseman Nathan Oystrick won’t be planning a trip to any amusement parks this offseason. The ups and downs and dips and dives of the rides there would pale in comparison to the real-life roller coaster he has been on for the past year.
The last 12 months have seen the Wolves blueliner wrap up his first full season in the National Hockey League; get married; meet his biological mother for the first time, 26 years after his adoption; be assigned to the American Hockey League out of training camp; suffer the first major injury of his professional career, which required his jaw to be wired shut for more than a month; and get traded.
Those mechanical loop de loops aren’t looking so exciting anymore, are they?
Oystrick has had to hold on tight, but that hasn’t stopped him from enjoying the ride.
“It’s probably been the weirdest year of my life,” he laughed. “There have been a lot of ups and downs.”
Let’s start with an up: after winning the Calder Cup with the Wolves in 2008, Oystrick hit the gym hard over the summer and earned himself a spot on the Atlanta Thrashers roster out of training camp. He wound up spending the entire 2008-09 campaign with the Wolves parent club.
“Nathan always had the talent, but he didn’t put the time in during the summers,” Wolves General Manager Wendell Young recalled. “Once he realized that hockey is a year-round job, he reaped the benefits right away. He and I worked together one summer and he made the Atlanta Thrashers right out of training camp. It takes some guys longer than others to learn the importance of conditioning, and some never figure it out, but Nathan understands that now and he saw the difference it made right away.”
“It was pretty cool being able to finally make it and play my first game in the NHL,” Oystrick said. “It was exciting and kind of nerve-racking but I definitely learned a lot of things playing in Atlanta last year. You’re playing against the best players in the world on a nightly basis. I think I grew up a little bit up there too.”
The Thrashers failed to make the playoffs, which was a bit of a down coming off a championship season, but Oystrick packed an impressive amount of life-changing events into his summer – the first of which was finding and meeting his biological mother (see sidebar). The second of which was marrying his college sweetheart, Lindsay, on July 17 in Marquette, Mich.
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Then came a down. Free agent signings led to a surplus of defensemen in Atlanta this fall, and Oystrick was assigned to the Wolves out of training camp.
“This year it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to and the way I planned, but its hockey and that’s just the way things go,” he said. “I came back down here and just tried to be as positive as I could and bring what I learned last year to the team this year and try to help some of the younger guys.”
The 27-year-old’s good attitude and experience led the coaching staff to name him an alternate captain early in the year, which gave him an added sense of responsibility.
“Being an assistant captain, I have to watch what I do and say and make sure I’m always positive,” Oystrick said. “If we’re down and we’re losing or something’s not going right, I can’t come in the room throwing things around or yelling at people. I’ve got to make sure that I keep everyone positive and happy and get everyone back in the game. I’m older now and I’ve been around a little bit more and some of the younger guys look to me for some leadership.”
Oystrick was trucking along at his usual pace when there came a big down, in the form of a slapshot to the face that would sideline him for 20 games. Up until that point, Oystrick had been something of an iron man, never missing a game (to the tune of 201 consecutive matchups) in his first two seasons with the Wolves. The injury tested his resolve.
“It was probably the first time in six years that I’ve had any type of injury like that where I missed games and missed a lot of time,” he said. “I had hurt my thumb earlier in the season, but that wasn’t so bad. I was still able to work out every day and come to the rink and be with the guys and be as much a part of the team as I could be while I wasn’t playing, but the jaw, that one definitely took a toll on me.
“The first few days I was pretty depressed. Just kind of down,” he recalled. “Not being able to eat or open your mouth or just do little things like talking or being able to go to the fridge and grab something to eat quickly was tough. The month and a half that I had my jaw wired shut I had to blend everything and eat milkshakes, soup, Ensures and protein drinks. It was definitely hard. I lost 10 pounds during that time. I lost a couple teeth so I have to go have surgery again this summer. It was not an experience I’d wish anyone to have. Luckily, I had Lindsay at home to kind of keep me sane and make my food for me.”
On the night of March 1, Oystrick’s roller coaster took another sharp turn.
“I was sitting at home watching a hockey game and I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize, so I didn’t answer it,” he said.
The voicemail was from Atlanta’s assistant general manager, Larry Simmons, so he called right back.
“I thought maybe Atlanta was just calling to check in on me but Larry told me I’d been traded to Anaheim,” he said. “I wasn’t really expecting it because I was hurt and I wasn’t going to be skating for another month.”
The blueliner took the news in stride – his concerns about having to pack up and move assuaged by the assurance that he could remain with the Wolves, as Anaheim does not have an AHL affiliate.
“It’s obviously a good situation for me because anytime you’re going play in the AHL you want to be in Chicago; it’s the best place in the American league to play, so I was happy about that,” he said. “We have a good team here, a good group of guys and a good coaching staff, so that kind of calmed me down to hear that I could stay.
“I’m always thankful to Atlanta for giving me the opportunity to play, I’ll never have a bad thing to say about them. At the same time, I think from both standpoints it was time for me to move on and do some different things. It’s weird because Atlanta is the first organization I played in as a pro, but I am excited. It’s good to have a new team and a fresh start.”
But Oystrick still had a lot to overcome before he could take advantage of his fresh start, with weeks of recovery from his injury still ahead.
“Coming back working out, I couldn’t open my mouth. They were scared for me to go too hard cause I couldn’t take a deep breath yet, so I couldn’t push myself as much as I wanted to,” he explained. “But as soon as I got the wires off, I went to Anaheim and worked out there, and then came back to Chicago and started skating with (Skating and Skills Coach) Kenny McCudden before practice. That was good because he works on a lot of stuff with your hands and your feet and getting your brain to work - little things you might not be able to work on during practice - and that helped me a lot.”
Oystrick made his return to the Wolves lineup on March 26 and was called up by his new NHL club six days later – just another high in his year of ups, downs and all arounds.
Through all the chaos and distractions, Oystrick says his wife and family have been the constants keeping him focused.
“I think at times it gets in my head a little bit, but Lindsay is always there to keep me sane and my parents are there for me to call any time,” he said. “My sister is really good with stuff like that, too. She’s good at calming me down and just saying ‘relax, things will work out.’ I’ve got a great bunch of people around me to keep me sane and keep me going and keep me going towards my goal of getting to the NHL again.
“It’s been a weird year,” he marveled, after reflecting on the list of monumental events that make even his head spin. He isn’t done though. Oystrick already is looking ahead to the next turn.
“Hopefully we can end it on a good note and win a Calder Cup.”
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