Lucas Punkari
It was a frustrating 10-day span for Emo’s Luke Judson as the 2010-11 OHL season drew to a close.
He badly wanted to help out his teammates on the Belleville Bulls but his body just wouldn’t allow him to do so.
Judson, who served as team captain again this season, was forced out of the lineup due to an concussion he suffered in the second-last game of the regular season on March 19 against the Sudbury Wolves.
As such, he was forced to sit in the stands for his team’s regular-season finale against the Brampton Battalion a day later—with the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference hanging in the balance.
“It’s never fun to be watching a game like that, especially when you’re injured,” said the 20-year-old Judson, who finished the season with a career-high 56 points.
“You begin to think, ‘Maybe if I had been a little bit faster or if the other guy hadn’t taken such a run, I would be out there playing instead of sitting here watching,’” he remarked.
The concussion occurred during the late stages of the third period in an eventual 6-3 loss to the Wolves when Judson was hit by Wolves’ captain Marcus Foligno.
“I had just got the puck along the half wall near the hash marks, and I was skating up the ice in a bad position, which Foligno definitely took advantage of,” Judson recalled.
“It was kind of debatable whether it was a hit to the head or not, but my head hit the glass pretty hard,” he noted.
“And while I never had a concussion before, I knew right away that something was wrong.”
It was apparent right away that Judson’s night on the ice was over once he made it back to the bench, which he did at a deliberate pace.
“I didn’t want to end up looking like Ron Frances and be crawling around all over the ice after
getting hit,” stressed Judson, referring to what happened to the Hall-of-Fame forward when he was levelled by Scott Stevens back in 2001.
“The big thing after that hit was the dizziness, and I was having a hard time trying to stay focused when everyone was talking in the room after the game,” he said.
“My personality changed, as well, to where I was really quiet. So it was quite a weird feeling for the next couple of days after I got hit.”
Despite missing their captain and second-leading scorer, the Bulls were able to pull through in the regular-season finale on March 20—winning 3-2 over the Battalion to edge out the Peterborough Petes for the final post-season berth.
“I was proud to see what the guys were doing out there, and it was just a relief to get into the post-season,” Judson remarked.
“We ended up starting the game with eight forwards, and we had defencemen jumping up to play up top, which is what you need to do in a huge game like that,” he noted.
“Our game was that afternoon and the Petes were playing that night, so to get into the playoffs through the front door and not having to watch what happened in the Peterborough game was really just a weight off of our shoulders,” he added.
With the Bulls back in the playoffs after missing out a year earlier, their next goal was set on trying to stun the top team in the OHL, and this season’s Memorial Cup hosts, in the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.
But for Judson, the bigger goal was trying to get back onto the ice as he had to go through a number of tests to make sure he was able to play.
“It’s quite a protocol that our team has,” Judson explained. “You have to get on and off the [exercise] bike a couple of times, then you have to skate on your own and practice with the team, along with taking part in some body contact drills.
“And if you can go through those smoothly without showing any symptoms, you’re allowed to get back into the lineup.”
While Judson was dying to get back into action, the Bulls’ medical and training staff made sure they kept the healing process at a steady pace, especially since they were dealing with the team captain.
“I think the training staff didn’t want to try and get my hopes way up, but they were still letting me know that there was a chance I could get back out there,” Judson said.
“By the time the series reached Game 4, I was getting back on the bike, so there might have been a chance that I could have gone back out there if the series was extended.
“But looking back on it now, it was probably better that I didn’t get back in because I would have probably been pushing it a little too much,” he conceded.
“And if I got hit once again, I could safely say that I would have suffered a lot more damage the second time around.”
Forced to sit in the bleachers once again, Judson could only watch on as his team was swept aside by the Majors in four-straight games, with goalie JP Anderson shutting out the Bulls in the last three contests to wrap up the series.
“It was really tough to watch, especially in those dying seconds when you have the goalie pulled because I would have liked to have been in the mix on those plays there,” Judson said.
“Our team was 0-for-22 on the power play, so if we could have capitalized on those situations, we might of taken a game and you never know what could of happened after that.
“But it just wasn’t in the cards for us this year,” he reasoned.
Despite their early playoff exit, the future does look bright for the Bulls heading into the 2011-12 campaign with a number of newcomers stepping up in their first year in the OHL.
“Brendan Gaunce was our second overall pick in the draft, and he jumped right into a tough position [centre] and ended up doing really well for himself,” Judson noted.
“Malcolm Subban [the younger brother of former Bull and current Montreal Canadiens’ defenceman PK] came into the season as a back-up goalie, and by the end of the season he was carrying a lot of the load for us in the playoffs.
“And he’s really reaping the benefits now by playing for Team Canada at the under-18s,” Judson added.
The netminding position will be an interesting one to watch in Belleville during the next few months as Subban, former first-round selection Tyson Teichmann, and world U-17 gold-medallist Daniel Altshuller all will be vying for the starting spot between the pipes come September.
“It’s not a bad spot to be in,” Judson said.
“I’m not sure what they’re going to do with three goalies, but I’m sure we’re going to see some tough competition for that number-one job and we’ll be happy with whoever ends up getting that spot.”
It wasn’t just the rookies who were a key cog in helping the Bulls make it back to the post-season this year as Judson and a number of veterans also chipped in along the way.
“Andy Bathgate was my linemate for the last couple of years now, and we’ve had some good chemistry and we were always relied upon to provide offence and leadership,” Judson noted.
“We acquired Joe Underwood at the [trade] deadline, as well, and that really helped us to solidify our defence, which had some younger guys this year, as he logged a lot of minutes for us during the stretch drive.”
With symptoms from his concussion preventing Judson from joining up with any minor-league organizations for a playoff run, he now is waiting to see whether or not he’ll be selected in this June’s NHL draft in St. Paul, Mn., which is the last time he’ll be eligible.
“Depending on what happens there, the next thing will be to go to a NHL camp and have a good showing there,” Judson explained.
“The best-case scenario for me would be playing in the AHL at the start of next season, but I’ll be happy to head back to Belleville for my over-age campaign if that happens,” he added.
If Judson does return to Belleville next season, he’ll still have one more shot at earning a pro contract with a big over-age campaign, which is what former teammates Bryan Cameron and Luke Pither both did in their final OHL seasons.
“I don’t know why a player would be in the OHL if that isn’t their goal,” Judson stressed.
“I want to continue playing hockey in the pro ranks, and I’ll be putting my best foot forward here over the next while in order to achieve that,” he vowed.
