The Okotoks Bisons’ most dedicated spectator this season was getting a little sick of his role in the cheering section.
One can’t blame third-year Bison and the team’s reigning top defenceman Michael Savage for finding his hockey life a little empty after missing the first 24 games of the season with a broken right wrist.
“It sucked, it wasn’t fun at all,” Savage said. “Coming to games every day it was starting to get boring in the stands.”
Resigned to the sidelines as his teammates rallied for a 21-game unbeaten run also got old fast for the Okotoks blueliner.
“I felt like I started to drift away, started to feel out of it,” Savage said.
“Especially when we were doing so well and I can’t really say I’m contributing to it or a part of it.”
The 20-year-old is a part of the winning tide now after re-joining the Bisons in his season debut on Friday, a 4-3 win over the Strathmore Wheatland Kings.
“The doctors said it was over 50 per cent healed and the break had started to bridge,” said Savage of his wrist ailment. “They said I was good enough to go.”
Savage injured his wrist on an innocuous collision in a pre-season tilt with the High River Flyers. Through three months off the ice, he was relegated to cardiovascular and leg exercises.
“I couldn’t lift anything,” said Savage, who registered eight goals and 25 points in a terrific sophomore campaign with the Bisons in 2011-12. “I definitely got a lot weaker and I’m trying to (lift) now that the cast is off.”
Bisons general manager Jay McFarlane said the third-year Bison showed no signs of rust in his weekend return to the Murray Arena.
“He hasn’t missed a beat at all,” he said. “Coming back you can just see the composure he has back there. (Savage) doesn’t make a lot of mistakes.”
Savage’s return also allowed the Bisons to shuffle their backend and put the
all-Okotoks dynamic duo of Savage and Dylan Griep back together.
“It gives you some familiarity from the last couple years,” said Griep, whose playing experience with Savage extends all the way back to Peewee.
“That first shift back together we went down to (Strathmore’s) end and scored.”
Griep said in the absence of the reliable two-way defenceman the Bisons’ blueline corps as a whole elevated its play all season.
“We all had to,” Griep said.
“Anyone of these guys is a pretty top defenceman in this league. We missed him, but we stepped up for sure.”
The statistics back up the claim, as the Bisons sit second in the Heritage Junior Hockey League standings in goals against.
The Bisons established themselves as the class of the league without Savage. Now, with a healthy roster the possibilities look endless for the two-time defending champions.
“Hopefully, if we keep playing the way we have we can now improve even more,” Savage said. “Hopefully we can accomplish more than we did last year.”
