Filip Hallander said that it "wasn't as bad as it looked."
Hallander, 22, suffered a pretty devastating-looking injury near the end of a game on Jan. 6 against the Charlotte Checkers that had him stretchered off the ice and taken to a hospital. The injury happened when Hallander and a Charlotte Checkers defenseman got tangled up in the corner. Both players were upended in the collision and Hallander's head and neck appeared to take much of the impact as he fell to the ice:
"I think all the people in the stands and my teammates and family watching were more nervous than me," Hallander said on Wednesday, downplaying the severity of the injury.
Four weeks later, Hallander was back in Wilkes-Barre's lineup for the Penguins' 3-2 loss to the Springfield Thunderbirds. And while he was certainly happy to be back, he was pretty hard on himself for the way he played.
"It's been a couple of weeks so it's always great to be back and playing again," Hallander said after the game. "It's not fun being on the side and watching the guys play. I'm happy to be back, but a tough loss and a bad game for me. It's fun to come back, but at the same time it was bad."
Hallander played on the left side of the Penguins' third line in his return, a slightly smaller role than his usual spot on the second line. I couldn't tell you how many minutes he played because the AHL in the year 2023 still doesn't believe that ice time is an important stat to track publicly, but it didn't seem like coaches were managing Hallander's minutes. He was taking regular shifts and was utilized heavily on the power play and the penalty-kill ... when he wasn't the one in the box,
Hallander took two hooking penalties in the third period that proved to be costly. The first came 1:29 into a five-minute power play after Ty Smith drew a major penalty. Springfield scored on the ensuing 4-on-4 situation, giving the Thunderbirds a 2-1 lead until Alex Nylander scored the equalizer less than a minute later. With the score tied, Hallander took his second hooking penalty with 4:55 left in regulation. The Thunderbirds scored 54 seconds into the man advantage that followed, a goal that stood to be the game-winner.
"Today I had two bad penalties and not a block on the PK that cost us the game. I was pretty devastated about that," he said. "It's just stupid plays by me. I need to move my feet more and not use my stick. I don't take penalties too often, so to take two in the same game and then they score on both, and then being on one for the PK, is maybe not the greatest comeback ever."
Coach J.D. Forrest wasn't nearly as hard on Hallander.
"He's a terrific player for us and we're happy he's back," Forrest said. "I thought he played really tonight. He helps us in so many different ways. He gives a shot of energy to the guys. It was great to see him out there back in the mix. Couldn't be happier to have him back."
One of the areas in which Hallander provides a massive boost is off the ice. Hallander is young at 22 and only a second-year player in the AHL, but he's one of the leaders in that locker room. He's very mature for his age -- Forrest has said a couple of times even going back to Hallander's rookie season last year that it's easy to forget how young Hallander still is just because of his demeanor.
"Just the way that he carries himself, he really leads by example," Forrest said of Hallander after Wednesday's game. "He does everything the right way. He's a young guy, but you'd never know it. He's so dialed in with the extra work that he puts in away from the ice to prepare for games, the extra work that he puts in on the ice during practices and also the intensity and consistency that he does it, it just rubs off on everybody. It forces guys to be better and rise to that same level of dedication that he has. Whenever you have a guy like that around the locker room, it adds a lot to the mix."
The hardest part of the rehab process for Hallander wasn't anything physical. Rather, he said it was the "useless" feeling that comes from being on the sideline and not being able to be in the locker room with his teammates when it mattered the most.
"You try to be around as much as possible," he told me. "The first week or so it was staying at home and taking it easy, being with family. You appreciate that too, but hockey is your job and you want to get back as soon as possible. It was nice when you're able to come in and join the squad and talk a little bit, and progressing from there. Taking it day-by-day with how I'm feeling, It's been a good recovery. It took a little while, but you don't want to stress these things."
Hallander was playing really well before he was hurt. In addition to his strong two-way game and work on the penalty-kill, he was producing at nearly a point-per-game rate with eight goals and 17 assists in 27 games. Even after missing nearly a month of play, he's still No. 4 on the team in scoring.
"I was playing pretty good," Hallander said. "But these things happen, it's just bad luck. You can't think about it too much, it's just a weird play happening and it ends up being a couple of weeks with rehab. You could think about it that it's bad for me and maybe I would have an opportunity to play up (in Pittsburgh), but I feel like I can hopefully get back in stride pretty quickly and then I can help the team. That's what I want, to help the team to win."
