Quote:
“I look back now,” he admits, “and wonder ‘What if I hadn’t hit my head like that?’ Because I was off to a pretty nice start there when I did get my cup of coffee, so to speak. You wake up in L.A., and you just don’t feel right anymore. I was never a big believer in making excuses but it just never was the same after that. The team’s just starting to count on you, you’re starting to feel part of it, then you wake up and can’t even stand up anymore. I remember flying to L.A. after the (Phoenix) game, getting up in the hotel to pee and I couldn’t stand. I was wobbly, like ‘Whoooooa ...’
“That’s just the nature of concussions. You can’t work harder. You can’t do more physio. Maybe in 20 years, there’ll be something more that can be done. But at the time ...
“So that was it. I never saw the NHL again. A lot of players get two, three chances. But no real doors opened up for me after that.”
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Such a crappy way for Tkaczuk to end his career in the NHL. I was so over the moon when he fell to the Flames in that draft......he was everything the team could use: smart, good two-way player, good character, heart and soul kind of player. That was a fantastic pick at the time, nobody knew his career would be so short due to the concussions. Such a shame.