Eleven days after the collapse in practice, Calgary Flames Defenseman T.J. Brody was on the ice with the team in the league on Monday morning before playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins. According to Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson on Sunday, it must be cleaned by medical personnel before it can fit.
Derek Wills of Sportsnet reported that Brody with Mark Giordano in the league’s top defensive pair and looks set to return to the lineup.
Brodie returned to the Philadelphia team during the Flames’ current road trip for four races with a game-making determination for Monday’s game.
On November 14, Brodie appeared to faint on ice during a group exercise and rushed to the hospital. The team said that all medical evaluations and tests performed on him over the past 10 days proved reassuring, but the defender was placed in injured reserve retrospectively on the date of the incident.
MORE: Brodie informs: “It’s good to be back . I feel good”
Flames has confirmed that Brodie, 29, is practicing herself on Thursday, November 21, under the supervision of medical staff and has been working for several days before – relieving Brodie’s health worries after last week’s frightening condition.
The day after the incident, the team held a press conference with GM Brad Treliving and team doctor Ian Auld to explain what they knew about Brodie’s incident at the time.
“All the first indications are very likely to be more related to an episode of fainting than to something important and inside the brain,” Auld told reporters.
Team leader Mark Giordano told reporters that Brody said he felt “a little too far, maybe snowed” shortly before he collapsed and saw the ice crack. According to Auld, the ice medical team arrived in Brodie in a matter of seconds and an ambulance was called “in about 45 seconds” to take Brodie to a local hospital. These convulsions, Auld said, can be common with just fainting episodes – and not necessarily signs of anything more serious.
“Basically, the purpose of fainting is to eliminate gravity and allow your heart to get blood into your brain,” Auld said. “If there is a time when this is not the case, the brain can go into over-stimulation, and that may come with some of the kinetic movements we have seen.”
Treliving and Auld confirmed that Brodie did not answer questions when medical personnel first arrived, but soon became aware and was able to communicate as he was transported to the hospital. Calgary GM said Brodie was sore and didn’t remember the whole episode, but otherwise he did well.
“Hopefully it will go well and it’s back sooner rather than later, but that’s not the focus now,” Treliving said. “The focus is on making sure we pass every test. Overall, it’s in good shape.”
Gilbertson reported that Brodie’s teammate and neighbor Sean Monahan tried to contact his wife Brodie Amber while on the way to the hospital – Monahan’s girlfriend eventually went to Brodie’s door to alert his family.
#Flames C Sean Monahan on D TJ Brodie’s visit to the hospital: “We saw him on the ice and then saw him go to the ambulance, so you want to see him in better shape. Going to see him in the hospital was good. we saw her smiling and happy to see the children. “
– Wes Gilbertson (@WesGilbertson) November 15, 2019
Auld told reporters that lack of sleep, overwork, some medications, stimulants and dehydration are some of the reasons why a person may experience a fainting episode. Treliving added that he and Auld spent all day in the hospital and the whole team visited Brodie at some point.
While he and several Flames players repeated how frightening the incident was, seeing Brodie awake and in good spirits seemed to ease the mood during an unusual and emotional state for the team.
“We joked with him – it doesn’t take guys too long, they say ‘if you needed the day off, you could have made it a lot easier, but thank you for giving us the day off,'” Treliving said.
In the absence of no. 7, The Flames recalled AHL Stockton defender Oliver Kylington. They also put Juuso Valimaki, who broke his ACL during the summer during training, into a long-lasting injury reserve.
