Injured player closing in on his return.

Detail inside.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 8 years ago
Injured player closing in on his return.

Lance Bouma has had a tough year so far.

He missed a lot of games this season due to multiple injuries. After missing more than two months with a broken fibula. He runterned for a couple of game before cutting his leg during a loss to the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 11.

"It's frustrating to miss so much time. Obviously you want to be out there every shift and every game. It's been tough. I've watched a lot of hockey this year. Especially with the hunt we're in right now, you want to be playing every single night. Anyone in (the) same situation has the same mindset."

According to head coach Bob Hartley, Bouma could be back in the lineup very soon. Hartley added that his player has looked good during practice.

"Not tomorrow but most likely, we're going to see Boums in one of the final two games," the bench boss stated. "He looks good. It's just a matter of making sure that the stitches don't come off. It's just more precautionary than anything else. He's doing good, he's skating well. He's ready to go. We just want to make sure it's fully healed. Boums is a great guy. Everybody likes Boums. He's a great worker so he's very respected. He's a heart-and-soul guy, a blue collar type player that shows up to work every day. It's difficult but Lance is very resilient. Very tough mentally so he always comes back, he's eager to come back right now. He's a good soldier. You go to war, those injuries will unfortunately happen. But that's what makes him so special for us."

Hartley believes that the addition of Lance Bouma to the Flames' lineup will be a huge addition to his club' chances to win hockey games.

"He's a north-south player. Up and down, creates room, goes hard to the net, defensively very reliable. And not fun to play against. That's primarily what I like the most about Boums; he's hard-nosed. You add a few more guys and suddenly we're a bigger team, we're a team that can be in the opponents face, play hard, play smart, and create offence."

Boom says that he feels "fine" and that he is ready to go whenever the team will need him.

[pub]