Occasionally, the damage does not disappear quickly.
“They don’t see you at home reading a book to your 5-year-old son with your leg elevated while you’re icing,” Walz said. “And then trying to get your foot in the boot the next day so you can play and do it again.”
Walz called Ramsey one of the “best shot blockers of all time.” The former NHL defenseman, Olympic gold medalist and Wild assistant said all players have specialties. His was blocking shots.
“It wasn’t scoring goals,” Ramsey joked.
Blocking shots is a skill, Ramsey said, that requires timing and technique. He honed his craft as a kid playing hockey with a tennis ball at Hiawatha Park in Minneapolis. Over time, blocking shots just became instinctive, not something that required a thought process.