‘He’s hungry to play’: How Noel Acciari sped up his rehab to return to Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers had just finished practice on Sunday, but Noel Acciari remained on the ice with a mini-sized teammate.
The youngster, Acciari’s 19-month-old son Greyson, wore a black No. 55 jersey with the word “Daddy” written on the back. He had a stick in hand, skates on his feet, a beanie on his head.
Like father, like son.
“First time on the ice for him,” Acciari said. “He loves watching it. I think he was a little intimidated with the noise, but I asked him after ‘Did you have fun?’ He said, ‘Fun! Fun!’ It was good.”
The childlike joy could be seen on the 30-year-old Acciari’s face throughout practice, too.
The hard-nosed, defensive-minded forward is on the tail end of his road to recovery after a freak and fluky preseason injury required surgery and sidelined him for the entire season to this point.
The desire to get back in the lineup is evident.
Acciari watched from a distance as the Panthers rose to the top of the standings in the Eastern Conference and overcame adversities of their own — a coaching change, an extended stretch without some of their top players, a COVID-19 outbreak.
He feels ready to get back and make his own imprint on the team and play a role as Florida keeps making its playoff push.
“Seeing how well they’re doing,” Acciari said, “I just want to join in on that. Just being out there and being with them has helped me heal quicker because it makes me want to be back out there with them as quickly as possible.”
The ‘pop’ and the rehab
How the injury happened is still sometimes difficult for Acciari to fathom.
A scrum broke out early in the third period of the Panthers’ preseason game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 5. Acciari dropped his gloves and tried to pull a Lightning player off the top of the pile. Pat Maroon charged toward Acciari, who gripped at his left arm as he fell down to the ice.
But as Acciari recalls it, the injury occurred as he was trying to break up the skirmish, not when he got hit by Maroon.
“I just felt a pop,” Acciari said. “I didn’t know what it was. I’ve never had that feeling before, never dealt with that. I knew something was wrong; I just didn’t know to what extent.”
He suffered an apparent pectoral injury that required surgery.
“I was bummed out,” Acciari said. “No one wants to hear surgery.”
The Panthers initially said Acciari’s recovery would be “month-to-month.” The hope was that he would return at some point toward the end of the regular season.
They never anticipated he would return as quickly as he has.
Acciari said he couldn’t move his left arm the first two weeks after surgery and wasn’t allowed to do any physical activity the first month.
By mid-November, he was back on the ice, albeit in non-contact situations.
Nevertheless, the competitive juices were flowing again.
“Once I stepped foot in the rink and saw everyone, it just gave me the itch,” Acciari said. “I want to be back out there with the guys.”
He followed the trainers’ instructions. He went for treatment and strength workouts every chance he could without overexerting himself with the goal of getting back on the ice as soon as possible.
Acciari has been a full participant in practice since right before the All-Star Break and got a few tune-up games with the Panthers’ AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, at the beginning of the month.
“I was just happy that he was able to play some games and feel the puck and get some live battle,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “He’s really worked hard at coming back. We didn’t expect to have him back this early. He’s hungry to play.”
Even though he was sidelined with the injury, Acciari found solace in at least one area of the months-long rehab process: The extended family time.
He got extra time with wife Kaitlyn, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child. He watched Greyson’s love for hockey grow as they watched games together.
“He was just as into it as I was,” said Acciari, who noted that Greyson’s favorite Panthers players (outside of Dad, of course) are Aaron Ekblad and Frank Vatrano. “He’s yelling at the TV, ‘Shoot! Shoot!’ Those memories, I wouldn’t probably usually get. That was special.”
When will Acciari return?
The next moment for Acciari will come when he’s back on the ice for the Panthers in a live game, a chance that could come in the not-so-distant future.
When that time actually comes, however, is up to the coaching staff.
The Panthers resume their schedule Wednesday on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes, but there’s no guarantee he’s in the lineup when the puck drops at PNC Arena — or any of the Panthers’ games on that road trip that continues Friday against the Minnesota Wild and concludes Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Panthers are deep at forward and are fully healthy at the position right now, too. They had 16 forwards on the ice for each of their practices since returning from the All-Star Break and can only play 12 on game day.
Acciari is one of five Panthers players on injured reserve, along with forwards Patric Hornqvist and Maxim Mamin as well as defensemen Olli Juolevi and Markus Nutivaara. Hornqvist is expected to be activated for Wednesday’s game against Carolina, which would take the Panthers’ 23rd and final roster spot. For Acciari to be activated, the Panthers would need to clear a roster spot either by sending someone on the active roster to AHL Charlotte, putting a player on waivers or trading a player.
“Whenever I slot back in,” Acciari said, “I’m ready to go.”
And when Acciari does return, he will provide a spark among the Panthers’ bottom two forward lines.
At 5-10 and 209 pounds, he’s a physical presence who’s not afraid to get scrappy. His 212 hits over the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 season led Panthers forwards and he’s a staple on the penalty kill.
But he has also shown the capability to be a scoring threat. He scored a career-high 20 goals in the 2019-2020 season.
“He’s going to be inserting himself into our lineup here with a lot of time to show his stuff and hopefully be a force for us,” Ekblad said. “We know he’s a fantastic player.”
.JPG)