Wild lifer Jared Spurgeon eager to get back into games — and the playoffs — after torturous lost season

ST.

PAUL, Minn.

Its been nearly 14 years since Jared Spurgeon made his NHL debut on his 21st birthday, but the Wild captain and his wife, Danielle, havent forgotten how hard training camp can be for a player on a two-way contract.

These players, and in some cases their families, will arrive in town weeks before camp and could be living in a hotel for upwards of a month.

Advertisement So last weekend, after years of hosting Halloween, New Years and Super Bowl parties and Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for teammates, the always-welcoming Spurgeons invited the entire team to dinner at their home in Edina, including roster hopefuls and potential minor-leaguers.

At the end of a night in which Jared and Danielle entertained more than two dozen people, there was one couple Danielle really fell for a free agent pickup named Reese Johnson , who has 141 games under his belt with the Chicago Blackhawks , and his new wife, Tyler.

They left, and I was telling Jared how I really enjoyed Reese and his wife, Danielle said, laughing.

I was talking to Jared about how great they were, and Jared laughed and goes, Thats the guy who actually hurt me in the preseason.

I go, Oh, thats so funny.

I didnt know that.

But anyway, love them! I mean, as Jared even said, Who cares? No one means to hurt each other.

That shoulder injury, sustained in Minnesotas final road exhibition game last year, was a real bummer for Spurgeon.

Nobody wants to get hurt on the eve of the season, and Spurgeon was anticipating a fresh start after a long offseason and the buildup of a full training camp.

Instead, the injury knocked him out of the Wilds lineup for the first month of the season kicking off a lost season full of injuries and setbacks.

Spurgeon was limited to 16 games, and the Wild missed the playoffs for only the second time since 2012.

He ultimately underwent hip and back surgeries a month apart after enduring pain and numbness in one of his legs and feet throughout the season.

It got really bad, to the point where my toe and everything would be fully numb whenever Id get into physical activity, Spurgeon said.

You start toe-picking.

It got to the point where during games, in between shifts, I would untie my skates to try and see if that would give it relief and make it go away.

But it never did.

Advertisement Danielle, who began dating her high school sweetheart as a teenager, remembers after one game in December when her husband returned home as despondent as shed ever seen him.

He felt his body was betraying him, Danielle said.

He was just so mad.

He described it as his leg and foot not really doing what he wanted it to do.

So hed pivot and would expect his body to do what it should, and it wouldnt.

Or hed put himself in a weird, vulnerable position because he was doing different movements to compensate or to relieve the pain.

It just wasnt going away and it seemed to be getting worse.

If Spurgeon took a car ride for more than 10 minutes, hed go numb.

If he bent down to untie his kids skates, his back would lock up and it would take him forever to get back up.

He was not in a good place mentally.

This was agony for a perfectly fit athlete somebody used to being a reliable NHL player, being active in his kids lives, playing with and picking up his three rescue dogs (70 to 125 pounds).

Finally, after several frustrating weeks and months of seeing different doctors and getting treatments and injections that provided some relief but were Band-Aids atop a gunshot wound, Spurgeon finally exclaimed, I cant play like this.

Im not helping the team.

Theres no point anymore.

Im more of a liability than anything.

He opted to go under the knife ...

twice.

Nobody looks forward to that, but for Spurgeon, there was a weight lifted off his shoulders.

He was taking action to get healthy and pain-free again.

The hip surgery required a month on crutches.

As his wife says, Spurgeon is such a freak of nature that he was off the crutches in two weeks and was told his range of motion was unheard of for somebody in that stage.

He progressed so quickly, but those first couple days were hell, Danielle said, laughing.

My mom flew in for that one.

The problem with Jared is he doesnt sit.

Like he will not watch anyone do anything for him and the kids.

He wants to do everything.

So I told him, You are so annoying right now, just go sit down.

Thats it.

Just go sit.

Were all fine.

Advertisement But he would not do it.

So it almost felt like you were constantly forcing him to sit or go lay down.

Im like, Relax! Spurgeon, 34, laughs when thinking about what his wife and four kids, ages 14 to 5, had to endure.

I give them a lot of credit because I wasnt the happiest person all the time, Spurgeon said.

Months after the surgeries after staying in Minnesota all summer rather than returning to the familys offseason lake home outside Edmonton Spurgeon will be on the ice Thursday when the Wild open training camp.

Having rehabbed and skated four days a week since the spring, he is convinced that last seasons ordeal is behind him and hell return to being the same ol Spurge the guy who has the third-most assists (274) in Wild history, is their all-time record-holder for defensemen with 110 goals and 384 points and is 443 minutes from passing Mikko Koivus team record of 19,718.

Hes in good spirits, even when talking about the recent loss of his beloved, Lady J.

Just 10 days after celebrating her 100th birthday, Spurgeons grandmother, Joyce, died Sept.

2.

When the grandparents would babysit Spurgeon and his brother, Tyler, when they were kids, Joyce would throw on the goalie pads and fend off balls and pucks from the boys in her basement.

Joyce treated all of Jareds friends like her own grandkids, especially his childhood best friend, Tyler Ennis, the former Wild center who retired from hockey Tuesday.

Her and my grandpa, Paul, were the ones that had the season tickets to the Oilers and would divvy them up between the grandkids, and youd get to go to one or two games a year, and thats really where my love for hockey began, was going to the Oilers games with them, Spurgeon said.

To make it to 100 and be living on your own for the most part was pretty spectacular.

Joyce would watch every Wild game.

One of her greatest joys was watching Jared play games in Edmonton.

She stopped coming to games in recent years because of how loud it was and all the commotion, but in 2020 when Spurgeon scored a dream-come-true natural hat trick during the Wilds father-son trip at Rogers Place, Spurgeon immediately heard from his elated, then-96-year-old grandmother.

Advertisement Spurgeon was so close with his grandparents, when he began dating Danielle at age 16, one of their first dates started at their house.

I remember it was a Friday night and we were going to hang out, and he said, Lets go to my grandmas house first, Danielle said, laughing.

I was like, Pardon? But we would always go over to his grandma and grandpas with a group of friends, and shed make us food and snacks, and wed go and hang out in the basement and play pool.

At first, I was thrown.

I never did that before.

But we used to hang out there all the time.

Like, all the time.

And after Paul died, every Sunday she hosted dinner still.

And during their offseasons after they turned pro, after Jared and his brother would work out, theyd go over to her house every day on their own to have lunch with her.

It was very, very sweet.

He loved her very much.

Hockey is Spurgeons job and livelihood, but his family is his life and hes looking forward to a more normal existence now that hes healthy.

His oldest child, Zach, just started high school and is trying out for the Edina hockey team.

Hes almost as tall as Spurgeon and his feet are bigger.

His youngest child, Myer, is 5 and just started kindergarten, so the Spurgeons are finally out of the baby phase.

Colbie is 10 and Jayce is 7.

Its crazy how time flies, Spurgeon said.

Its been a busy summer of kids sports.

And of course, there are the three dogs.

The family has a close relationship with the Bond Between, which used to be Secondhand Hounds, and has fostered many dogs over the years that have been locked away in shelters or in bad situations.

I was a kid that always wanted a dog growing up for Christmas, he said.

That was my dream, getting a dog for Christmas, but we didnt get a dog until we were older and moving out for junior hockey.

And so once we were here and married and had our own place, we had Bernese Mountain Dog for our first family dog, and then unfortunately, he passed away pretty young.

Advertisement After that, we were just set on rescuing others.

All the kids love them.

Their newest dog is 125-pound Simon, a St.

Bernard.

The injured dog was being fostered but was quickly brought back to the shelter, which needed someone to nurse him back to health before it could put him on the website for adoption.

The Spurgeons volunteered.

Since last Christmas, Simon had two knee surgeries and a facelift, so he rehabbed with Spurgeon.

He turned out to be so easy and such good friends with their other giant dogs, Cohen and Teddy, that the Spurgeons adopted him themselves.

I think it was part of Danielles plan, Spurgeon joked.

I think if she could, she would have 100 dogs.

Spurgeons been wanting to pick up Simon since they got him, and once he got cleared by his doctors, he finally scooped him up for a photo.

Life is getting back to normal.

And Spurgeon is ready for the same on the ice.

Last March, Zach was playing a AA Bantam state tournament in Grand Rapids, Minn.

Spurgeon has never been able to attend his kids out-of-town tournaments during hockey season, but the Wild gave the injured captain permission to attend.

The first night, he went to a sports bar to pick up dinner for the family.

The Wild were playing on TV.

It was so weird and everybody at that bar looked at Spurgeon confused as to why the heck he was in town during a Wild game.

The next night, the Spurgeons returned to the bar for bingo night.

Spurgeon won two games, and the packed bar of patrons raucously cheered each time he showed off his prowess by screaming, Bingo! As word got out during the four hours that Spurgeon was there, residents would arrive with jerseys to sign.

It was just such a weird season, Danielle said.

When youre hurt, youre not really part of it anymore.

Youre really out of the loop.

Even for me, I didnt even know when road trips were anymore, so I felt disconnected, too.

Id be talking to the girls about something and theyd be like, Well, no, the guys are gone.

It was a very odd season that way.

Advertisement Spurgeon would watch every home game from the press box, but when youre not going through the battle with your teammates, its awkward to go into the locker room, even as captain, and give pep talks.

Youd try and have little conversations with the guys, just to ask what they were seeing, what the feel in the room was and try and bring some energy that way, but it is hard because youre not in the game, Spurgeon said.

It was definitely, definitely hard, but I tried my best to always be around if guys wanted to talk or to tell them what Ive been seeing, if they had any questions, and just try and keep positivity in there.

Hes done all he could to make sure he can be more hands-on this season.

Rehab was grueling, working to regain his mobility and strength, especially in his operated-on hip.

He skated first on his own, then with skills and skating coach Andy Ness, just relearning techniques and just getting back on the edges and stuff like that.

Youre pretty much working to reteach yourself to skate, Spurgeon said.

The numbness is gone.

He still gets some burning sensations, but doctors tell him thats normal as nerves regenerate.

Calder Trophy runner-up Brock Faber said Spurgeon was flying during captains practices in the weeks leading up to camp.

People dont really understand how good Spurge is, I feel like, and what it did to us last season not having him in the lineup, Faber said.

Having him in the lineup makes a world of a difference for the whole entire team, not even leadership-wise, just like the player he is.

Hes that good, and he affects the game a ton.

Ill be honest: We were all worried about him last year.

He kept it out of the room, from me at least.

But when you hear about numbness and the pain he was in, thats scary.

Outside of hockey, thats scary.

So having him back is gonna be awesome.

Advertisement Spurgeon admitted that he thought he was closer than he was earlier this summer until players like Matt Boldy returned from the World Championship.

He started skating with teammates who were still playing at a higher pace and thought, Maybe Im not as close as I thought.

But the last month, its been a lot better, he said.

And now its just continually progressing to hit those little checkpoints so that we can keep pushing it to go farther and farther so that were ready for the season.

Spurgeon, too, is interested to see if hes the same old Spurgeon.

His role may change a bit.

For one, Jonas Brodin and Faber will likely be considered the first pair with Jake Middleton and Spurgeon manning the second pair.

But that could be a good thing if John Hynes can lessen the load on Faber, who logged the sixth-most ice time in the NHL last season, and Brodin.

And with Faber and Declan Chisholm likely occupying spots on the Nos.

1 and 2 power plays, Spurgeon knows he could mostly see penalty kill time this season as the Wild attempt to shore up last seasons biggest weakness.

It doesnt really matter where Im at, Spurgeon said.

As long as were winning, I could be playing PK only and Ill be happy with that and take pride in that.

Spurgeon just wants to help the Wild get back into the playoffs and beyond the first round for the first time since 2015.

Missing the playoffs is obviously something you never want to do, and the first-round thing is the first-round thing, Spurgeon said.

We fing hate it as much as everyone else does, and its so hard to win in the league now.

The teams are so good and everyones so close that youve just got to be the team thats playing the best at the right time and also be consistent.

But for us, I think its imperative just to prove to ourselves and to everyone that last year was a one-off and that we can be that team that were expected to be and get to where we want to be.

Obviously, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, as well, in that room to get to where we want to be, which is at the end, being the last team standing.

At the same time, you cant be looking ahead to the end of the season.

Weve got to start with the start of the year and get it off to a better start.

(Top photo: Mark Blinch / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.