WILD TRAINING CAMP: Playing for fun again
BYLINE: BRIAN MURPHY Pioneer Press
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 1D
LENGTH: 763 words
Saint Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota)
September 20, 2002 Friday
Mike Crowley used to get stressed trying to determine whether he had a future in the NHL. He would pore over this roster and that depth chart during training camp and sweat his chances for making a team by comparing statistics, experience, height and weight until he could recite the numbers. Heading into his second camp with the Wild, Crowley said he wasn't going to allow himself to get bogged down by the numbers. It was impeccable timing for such an approach because the numbers were stacked against Crowley before he could take a shift.
Crowley, a standout defenseman for Bloomington Jefferson High School and the University of Minnesota, was one of five players the Wild sent to the minors Thursday before the team departed for a three-game exhibition season road trip. The move hardly was a surprise. With eight defensemen returning to the Wild and only eight jobs available, Crowley was a long shot to make the opening night roster, and being slowed by an Achilles' injury didn't help.
Forgive him, though, for not throwing a tantrum on his way to Houston and another season in the American Hockey League. Despite the inevitable demotion, Crowley has found inner peace after a tumultuous year in which his career was almost ended, his mother was diagnosed with cancer and his country was attacked -- all in the same September week.
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On the eve of his first training camp with the hometown team last year, Crowley learned his mom, Ann, had ovarian cancer. The next day, hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a rural Pennsylvania field. A week later, the Wild opened their exhibition season in Edmonton, and Crowley was inserted into the lineup at the last minute because another player was sick. During his final shift, he got tangled up in the neutral zone with the Oilers' Michael Henrich, who accidentally stepped on Crowley, slicing his right Achilles' tendon through the back of his skate. Surgery and six months of rehabilitation followed, essentially ending his season.
Although Crowley played in 11 games with Houston, he was barely skating at 70 percent strength and he wouldn't walk without a limp until this summer. Although he didn't play an NHL game last season, Crowley didn't miss a single chemotherapy treatment, either. Crowley's recovery allowed him to stay home in Bloomington and be near his mother.
"I was able to go to her treatments. If I would have been sent to Houston or if I had stayed here (with the Wild), I wouldn't have been around during that time," he said. "That was one positive out of the whole thing... Everyone made such a big deal about my injury, and it was a big deal. But it's not the end of the world," he continued. "Six days before, my mom found out she had cancer, and the day after was Sept. 11; it's not like it was my head or my heart that was injured. I can play again. It just puts everything into perspective."
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Coach Jacques Lemaire said Crowley should use his time with the Aeros to increase his foot strength and regain his confidence to be ready for a recall if defensemen start falling like tenpins as they did early last season. "And if he plays well, he's going to stay. That's how it works," Lemaire said. Either way, Crowley vows no more hand wringing.
"I'm older now. I've been around long enough," he said. "... You've just got to be ready, even if that means playing in Houston."
