Guerin Slezak working his way from bad knee injury

CEDAR RAPIDS - The pain wasn’t that bad. That was the thing.

Not anything close to what Guerin Slezak expected it to be.

When the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders defenseman was tied up with an opponent along the boards in a United States Hockey League playoff game at Muskegon last April, he felt a pop in one of his knees. That’s never good.

But he figured tearing your ACL would feel worse. A lot worse.

Maybe he just has a higher pain tolerance. Maybe the adrenaline flowing in his body at the time masked some of the pain.

Just weird.

“It wasn’t what I thought it would feel like,” Slezak said.

The surgery and subsequent rehabilitation has been what Slezak thought it would be. It’s coming to an end as well, as the 19-year-old from Arlington, Texas, has begun to skate again and is close to being cleared for contact.

He’s eyeing a November return to the lineup, specifically a game Nov. 21 against Muskegon, ironically.

“I’ve been skating for almost two months. Some restrictions at the start, but now it’s no restrictions. It’s just no contact,” he said. “Just to be able to build it up and hit those milestones has been a blessing. Been pretty humbling. Just kind of put things into perspective a little bit. How much you take little things for granted: being on the ice, being with the guys, being able to walk. Just different things.”

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When he comes back, Slezak will give the RoughRiders an experienced physical defenseman. This is his third USHL season and he has 111 league regular-season games under his belt, including 61 last season, when he scored three goals and added 11 assists.

He also had 151 penalty minutes and a plus-minus rating of plus-12.

Slezak was last season’s captain and his leadership in the locker room is immensely important. As an example, he attended C.R.’s preseason tryout camp over the summer with his parents, even though he was on crutches and recently out of surgery.

“Excellent leader,” RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson said last season. “Plays like a RoughRider, leads by example on and off the ice.”

Slezak said he expects to come back a better player than when he got hurt. He said he has been able to focus on improving his upper-body strength, which has increased.

He’s a Princeton University commit and named after Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin. Slezak’s parents are long-time season-ticket holders to the NHL’s Dallas Stars and Guerin was one of their favorite players.

“It’s easy to get a bad mindset, but that’s not going to do anything positive for you,” Slezak said. “I mean, I was devastated when it first happened, but I’d almost say I’m glad it happened. Because it’s a good opportunity to grow as a person, learn some discipline, be mindful of diet, sleep, things I can control. That’s been good.

“Would I like for it to happen all over again? No ... But it happened. Here it is. You deal with it.”

The RoughRiders won their only game last week, smoking Omaha at home, 9-1. They are 2-0-0-1 in the very early going.

Home games are on tap Friday night and Saturday night against the Lincoln Stars. Opening faceoff is 7:05 each night.

Head coach Mark Carlson needs one win this weekend to set the USHL’s career record for regular-season victories. He has 778, tied with P.K. O’Handley.

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