Berard helped Malhotra value fresh perspective
/Carolina Hurricanes forward Manny Malhotra explains to The Vancouver Province how determined he was to come back from his serious eye injury.
“There was never an issue in my mind about playing. I always knew I wanted to play and I could play again,” Malhotra said. “But the question was whether I would be given the opportunity after what was said about my health and the way some people viewed it.
“I was wondering if that had scared off everybody. Once camp started and then exhibition games, I started wondering. It weighs on you quite heavily, so when that opportunity came with Charlotte I was itching to take it.”
To further the point of the value of others having a fresh view of him and his health, he continued the point.
“For me, it’s a non-issue now,” Malhotra said. “I’m comfortable with what I see and how I am out there. I spoke with Bryan Berard (who also suffered a serious eye injury) though this whole process. He told me that eventually you just get back to feeling normal. But, more the point, he knew he had to leave Toronto because they’d always see him as having that eye injury. He needed that clean slate in New York.
“I think that really helped me with Carolina, that (the injury) was talked about early on, but after a while I was just another guy coming into the locker-room.”
Source: Jim Jamieson, Vancouver Province