FEATURE: Healthy, Rejuvenated Shaw Ready to Return

Just before Thanksgiving, Andrew Shaw loaded up his family and hit the road back to Chicago. It was almost a year to the day earlier that the nine-year veteran suffered his latest, and most grueling, concussion that had forced him to put hockey on the back burner almost ever since. But now, over 13 months later, Shaw is ready to give his NHL career another shot.
"The first day of camp on the ice, I watched the first (group) practice for a bit and it caused a lot of anxiety just seeing how exhausting it looked and knowing that I hadn't been in a practice in over a year," he said Wednesday after his third full practice. "I was a little nervous. But once I got out there, things went smooth. Felt great, confident. Felt pretty good getting out there with the guys."

The return to normalcy -- a life he's known as a pro hockey player for the last decade -- was the culmination of a year's work, not only physically healing, but learning more about himself as a person, not just a hockey player.

Whether or not to return to the ice was a subject he didn't want to broach in the first few months of his recovery, explaining, "Obviously feeling down and sore and in pain and having headaches, it's tough to love the game at that point." But when his physical and mental healthy were in order, the long, hard conversations with family, friends and medical professionals about the future of his NHL career began.
In the end, with their full support in whatever he decided, Shaw knew that he wasn't done. Watching his teammates compete in the playoffs last August sparked his love for the game all over again and only cemented his desire to be on the ice with them this week at Fifth Third Arena.
"It was tough being away from the game and the guys in the room, but to be able to spend that time with my family I think helped me push through this, helped me get better," he said. "It let me see life without hockey and knowing that if anything happened to me injury-wise, I'm ok without hockey. I'll survive. Andrew Shaw is not hockey. I have a life outside of hockey. I have a family. I have friends. But I missed it. I'm going to play as long as I can just knowing mentally that Andrew Shaw's going to be ok with life without hockey. It was nice to feel that. I think it drove me to be a little bit hungry to play hockey as long as I can as well, knowing that life after hockey is going to be pretty amazing."

"We had a lot of talks through this process. He wants to play and I understand that all too well myself," said head coach Jeremy Colliton, whose own career
was ended by a history of concussions
. "Taking the time off that he has, he seems to be very confident in his health and he's put a lot of work in off the ice and on the ice to prepare himself as best as he can to be a big part of our team. That makes me happy. I'm happy for him. I'm proud of him."
Now, as he and the Blackhawks get set to start the 2020-21 season in less than a week's time, not only is Shaw in a better place off the ice, but physically he's in perhaps the best shape of his career, too.
"To have almost 14 months off, I actually really got to work on rehabbing my entire body, not just my head," he said. "Back, shoulders, neck, legs, hips -- everything. It was kind of nice to reset, start over, start fresh, get my posture to where it needs to be and work on my diet… I was in the gym six days a week, two hours a day. I started doing yoga and pilates. I worked on my mental health as well as my physical health. I feel great.
"I'm excited for this year and can't wait to get out there and play some more hockey."