Ducks’ left wing Sonny Milano makes most of his return to the ice

ANAHEIM  — Sonny Milano played lone six games for the Ducks past season, the past connected March 3 against the St. Louis Blues astatine Honda Center. He recorded zero goals, zero assists and lone 8 shots connected extremity portion playing an mean of 14:44 per crippled earlier the Ducks unopen him down for the remainder of 2020-21.

Milano wasn’t right.

Forget astir hockey, the Ducks were acrophobic a caput wounded mightiness interaction the remainder of his life. So they told him to enactment disconnected the ice, stay distant until helium felt right, until the headaches, dizziness and different symptoms related to post-concussion syndrome yet went away.

When the symptoms did easiness this past summer, past and lone past could Milano see returning to the Ducks, rejoining them for grooming campy astatine Great Park Ice successful Irvine. He saw Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, a neurologist successful Brighton, Michigan, successful August, and was cleared to be camp.

Coach Dallas Eakins past teamed him with Ryan Getzlaf and Troy Terry implicit the archetypal 3 days of practice, and again for the Ducks’ accumulation opener Sunday, a 6-3 triumph implicit the San Jose Sharks astatine Honda Center. Milano acceptable up Bo Groulx for a second-period extremity and Terry for 1 successful the third.

“I don’t retrieve exactly,” Milano said of feeling similar himself again. “But it was sometime successful August, I believe. That’s erstwhile I benignant of started pushing it, too. I was mostly doing off-ice enactment successful June and July. Sometime successful August, I went to Michigan and saw a specializer and things were starting to spell well.

“That’s erstwhile it each happened.”

Skating, practicing and feeling good were 1 thing.

Playing successful an existent crippled and contributing were rather another, though.

“It’s a bully archetypal step, and the archetypal measurement is to get done the crippled and play and get the assurance backmost into your caput and the content successful yourself that you tin bash this,” Eakins said. “After missing that overmuch time, there’s ever going to beryllium possibly a small spot of aforesaid uncertainty coming into camp.”

Nothing was promised to Milano, 25, 1 of a fig of skillful players successful hunt of crystal clip and a important relation connected a rebuilding team. Playing arsenic helium did Sunday against the Sharks could assistance his pursuit of a spot connected near helping erstwhile the regular play begins Oct. 13 against the Winnipeg Jets.

“It took maine a period,” Milano said of feeling comfy successful crippled conditions again. “We were playing five-on-five this summer, but erstwhile you get successful a crippled it’s wholly different. It takes a play oregon a play and a fractional to get utilized to it. Once that happened, I felt fine.”

DISJOINTED START

The Ducks played a archetypal play to forget, according to Milano, Terry and Eakins. But they began to click successful the 2nd and past utilized a precocious flurry successful the last minutes of the crippled to interruption a 3-3 necktie and easiness to a triumph successful the archetypal of 7 exhibitions earlier the regular play begins adjacent month.

Kodie Curran scored the tie-breaking extremity astatine 12:03 of the 3rd period, assisted by Terry and Buddy Robinson. Terry made it 5-3 with a power-play extremity astatine 15:32, assisted by Alexander Volkov and Milano, and Greg Peteryn sealed the woody with an empty-net extremity astatine 18:23.

Curran, a 31-year-old defenseman, played his archetypal NHL accumulation crippled aft spending each of past play with the Ducks’ AHL team, the San Diego Gulls, and playing successful Europe for the erstwhile 3 years. He has ne'er appeared successful an NHL regular-season game.

Lukas Dostal stopped 13 of 14 shots earlier yielding to Olle Eriksson Ek midway done the crippled successful a planned divided of the goaltending duties. Eakins said it was imaginable each of the six goalies successful campy would play successful astatine slightest portion of 1 accumulation game, but it was undecided, arsenic of Sunday.

MCTAVISH UPDATE

Mason McTavish, the 3rd wide prime successful the NHL draught successful July, sprained his ankle during the Rookie Faceoff Tournament successful Scottsdale, Arizona, and could not articulation his caller teammates for the archetypal 3 days of grooming camp. Eakins said he’s resumed skating but wasn’t acceptable to signifier oregon play.