CANTON, NEW YORK—He is a little sore, and his timing may be a little off after having been sidelined for over a year after suffering a knee injury, but Michael Laidley (of Manitoulin Island) has now returned to action with his St. Lawrence University hockey team.
“I saw Michael play this weekend on home ice,” stated Shane Laidley of his son. “He had played the weekend before as well when the team was on the road. Since he hadn’t played in over a year he wasn’t sure he would get a regular shift, but he played all his regular shifts, and scored a goal in the Saturday game (January 13).”
“He was playing a regular shift and was on the power-play and penalty killing this weekend,” said Mr. Laidley. “He is pretty sore, he says his timing is a little off, but this should be expected after being out as long as he was.”
Michael, who is a junior forward and assistant captain on his St. Lawrence team, sustained a knee injury early last season that required surgery and has been recovering ever since. He only played six games in the 2016-2017 season, and then this past summer he suffered a minor setback and didn’t play in the team’s first 20 games this season.
Michael Laidley told the Watertown Daily News in its Friday, January 19 edition, “it feels awesome to be able to be playing again, for sure, it’s definitely exciting to be back. It has been a long road and a lot of time spent in the gym doing rehab and stuff. It’s finally nice to put it all together again.”
He acknowledged it has been tough being out of action. “I wasn’t expecting to be out for this long,” he told Watertown Daily News.“But things happen and I just had to try and work as hard as much as I could and was finally lucky enough to get back last weekend.”
St. Lawrence coach Mark Morris told Watertown News that people don’t realize what a grind it is when you’re injured and how mentally taxing it can be going through the regimen of trying to get yourself back health. But to his credit, he’s stuck to his rehab and for him to be out there playing for us is something that we’re realizing we’ve been missing for quite a while.” He said Michael is a really solid player, leader and he provides stability, size and experience. We’re real happy he’s getting back into the fold here.”
St. Lawrence played “Dartmouth on Friday and lost 3-2 and then played Harvard Saturday, tying the game with 37 seconds left in the third period, but they lost in overtime,” continued Shane. “The coaches were telling me they are really happy to get Michael back in the line-up.”
