TORONTO – Seven years of bad luck.
For seven consecutive seasons, the frequently injured Mike Cammalleri has failed to reach the 70-games-played mark.
That streak should end in 2016-17, the New Jersey Devils forward believes.
Cammalleri hasn’t played a game since Jan. 26, and his 42 games of action in 2015-16 signify his fewest since he was an NHL rookie battling for playing time 14 years ago.
Training, as he does every recent summer, at BioSteel Camp in his hometown of Toronto, Cammalleri tells Sportsnet he feels great. He is 100 per cent healthy, finally.
“That’s been the really positive thing. I had some anxiety over that with the way last season went. It took a while to resolve a [right] hand issue I was having, and it’s all resolved now,” the 34-year-old explains.
When Cammalleri hit injured reserve at the beginning of the calendar year, he was the Devils’ top scorer, producing 14 goals and 24 assists in half a season’s work.
New Jersey lingered in the playoff hunt but finished the season with the fewest goals scored in the league (182).
Despite the addition of super wing Taylor Hall and the expected emergence of 2015 first-rounder Pavel Zacha, New Jersey’s offence desperately needs Cammalleri’s contributions if it is to contend for the post-season.
Generally, Cammalleri says, a few games in the press box allows a player to step back and gain perspective on his team’s strengths and weakness. But that wasn’t the case for him.
“I was gone for so long this year that you almost feel too removed. You’re not getting a great feel for things,” Cammalleri says.
Still, the father of two young girls says the injury bug hasn’t dampened his spirits and he’s hopeful the Devils’ new personnel will make them more competitive.
“I try to concern myself with things I can control. I try to take care of myself first for performance and second for injury prevention,” he says.
“The kinds of injuries I’ve had aren’t things you can worry about or control. You just do your best to prepare every night. I hope to play a few hundred in a row here without having to worry to about it.”
