VANCOUVER — Sami Salo has been hurt so often, it’s become a comedy routine in these parts.
There are all kinds of lines about the snake that bit him on that golf course in Finland, and a year ago when he took that Duncan Keith slapshot below the belt, a sympathetic Facebook page emerged called, "Sami Salo’s Ruptured Testicle."
Semi Salo, they were calling him then.
But a few months later, when he ruptured an Achilles tendon while playing floor ball — a European form of ball hockey — there were no yucks to be had.
Salo, the longest serving Canuck after the Sedin twins, had a long, painful road of rehab and recovery ahead; one that would wind its way to Sunday afternoon in San Jose, where he stepped into two lovely Henrik Sedin passes for bullet one-timers that helped the Canucks to within a game of the Stanley Cup final.
If anyone would have told him in September that he’d be standing where he is today, "I would have taken that offer, right away," Salo laughed on Monday afternoon inside the Canucks dressing room.
"It was so unclear, my future at that point. There was not real progress with my injury. I knew it was going to take a long time, and there was no guarantee I’d come back. If someone would have said that, I’d have taken it for sure."
An Achilles tear is one of the worst injuries a hockey player can suffer.
If it’s a clean slice, the tendon often rolls up the back of the calf. The surgeon has to pull the tendon back down, and sew the two ends together. A rupture can be messier because it’s not a clean tear.
He has been hurt so often the rest of the hockey world is quick to turn the page on him. But at 37, he began a very painful rehab, thinking he could make his way back into the game, but never absolutely sure.
"It is like climbing Mount Everest," he said. "Very small steps from Day 1 after the surgery, all the way up to the time in December when I started skating. You didn’t see any progress on a daily basis, even sometimes on a weekly basis.
"When it actually happened it wasn’t painful at all. It was just a weird feeling."
How did it happen?
"It’s a routine we have.We play every Thursday floor ball (in Finland), a very popular sport in Scandinavia. All the guys from all over Europe. I got a D-to D-pass, took a hard sprint, and just flew face first. Nobody was even close. I just fell down. The Achilles had ruptured. Somebody said it sounded like a shotgun.
"Went to the private clinic, where the doctor said it was most likely completely torn."
On every good team there is a veteran like Salo; a player who has struggled through injuries, who when healthy is a better player than many of the young guys, but can’t always maintain that health, and as such, that spot in the lineup.
But every time he gets healthy again, he earns that spot back, as he did even in these playoffs where he is paired every night with Alex Edler, Vancouver’s top blue-liner.
Salo was here when every single player but the twins first walked through the dressing room doors, and teammates know that he has bled for this organization.
After rupturing that testicle last year, Salo played the following game, as if there is any more overt example of a teammate willing to play through pain.
The third last pick (239th by Ottawa) in the 1996 draft, he’s a pro’s pro on the ice, and off it, that quiet Finn with a hilarious side who once told reporters asking about an injury, "It hurts when I pee."
What would it be like to win a Stanley Cup, at this stage of his tenure here?
"It would be awesome," he said. "Thirteen years from when my career started, and it was a dream come true to play my first NHL game in Ottawa. Moving on to Vancouver, and playing with great players like Markus (Naslund), Todd (Bertuzzi), Mattias (Ohlund)…
"It just seems like this team has grown up during these past years, losing twice to Chicago. We knew what kind of mistakes we made in those series, and we’ve grown past that."
With the Canucks needing to sign Kevin Bieksa and Christian Ehrhoff this summer, it’s a good bet that these are Salo’s final days as a Canuck. Whether he’ll stay and play for cheap, find another NHL team or head home to Turku is yet unknown.
But the Canucks are one win away now, from what they all play for. What this late draft pick has played 13 seasons for.
What he was ready to give his left testicle for.
