Hall hoping for quick recovery

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The form chart says the earliest that centre Mark Hall will rejoin the WHL’s
Kamloops Blazers is sometime in March.
Don’t bother trying to tell that to him, though.
“The regular recovery is six to eight months,” said Hall, who will undergo
surgery this week to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his
right knee. “My goal is to be back for the end of January or the start of
February and go from there.”
Hall was injured in the Blazers’ workout room on Aug. 20, two days before
the start of training camp.
“I was doing a little workout and my knee popped,” said Hall on Saturday
night after watching the Blazers post a 4-2 exhibition victory over the
Vancouver Giants at Interior Savings Centre. “It buckled . . . collapsed on
me . . . I couldn’t get up. I didn’t hear anything; I just felt it.”
At first, the Blazers said Hall had a sprained medial collateral ligament
(MCL), but . . .
“There was swelling,” Hall said of the first knee injury of his career. “It
was decided to get an MRI. Then came the news.”
Hall said the MRI showed some previous damage “that maybe was the start of
something and this kind of finished ’er off.”
When first told of the injury’s seriousness, Hall said, “I was pretty
disappointed. I didn’t know what to do. But I thought about it and there’s
not much I can do now. It happened . . . it happened . . . and now I have to
move on.”
The plan, then, is to have surgery and jump into rehab. Or, as Hall puts it,
“Rehab like crazy and, hopefully, six to eight (months) turns into four to
five.
“I’ll be around the team and do whatever I can to help the guys out. But
it’s going to be a new experience. It’s going to be tough sitting up there
watching the guys go to work every night.”
The 18-year-old Hall was the only Kamloops native on last season’s roster.
The 5-foot-8, 185-pounder has 15 points, six of them goals, and 94 penalty
minutes in 99 games with the Blazers over the last two seasons. Obviously,
he’s not going to score a lot, but he will do his utmost to drive the
opposition batty.
“I don’t have any advice for him,” said defenceman Mark Schneider, who
fought through three separate injuries (wrist, face, knee) last season. “I
feel for him. It’s a tough injury. I can kind of relate to it, but I can’t.
He’s a good guy and he’ll work hard to get back in the lineup.
“We desperately need him.”
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca