The Philadelphia Flyers forward, who was injured blocking a shot against the Washington Capitals on March 4, has been getting X-rays every 10 days and consulting with doctors, which has continued since the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.
"I haven't touched a stick yet," van Riemsdyk said Tuesday. "I'm not cleared to lift anything that weighs more than a pound, so just doing more passive-motion stuff and taking my time with that. Then they'll give me the go-ahead at some point when I can start progressing in that sense."
The diagnosis was van Riemsdyk would be out 4-6 weeks, and Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher said Monday he believed van Riemsdyk would have been ready for the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (originally scheduled for next week) or at some point during the first week of the postseason.
One of the tough parts for van Riemsdyk during his rehabilitation is missing out on skating, which a finger injury would have allowed him to do during a usual season. Now it's more difficult because he and his wife are living in the basement of his in-laws' home and he doesn't have access to much exercise equipment.
"My house in Minnesota is not quite finished yet, so I'm dealing with trying to scrap together some things from my gym at my house to bring along there, to be able to put together my routine," he said. "Most of my routine anyway nowadays is mostly with bands and body weight, doing different movements. Been able to do a lot of that sort of stuff, stay on that. You're trying to make it work the best you can in these circumstances."
Van Riemsdyk remains hopeful the season will start again at some point and he'll do his best to be ready when it does. The Flyers (41-21-7) went 9-1-0 in their final 10 games to get within one point of the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals before the season was paused.
"We seemed to be doing a lot of good things, we were on a nice run there," he said. "But that momentum comes to a halt just with everyone else. We realize this is about stuff that's bigger than sports. ... We're all trying to play our part and doing the things we're supped to be doing. But it's definitely disappointing in the sense of we felt good about what we were building. We want to get a chance to continue that at some point."
