Miles Wood’s first question for Mike Vogt was a doozy once the Blue Jackets’ head athletic trainer reached him Oct. 13 at Nationwide Arena.
After catching a stick blade that belonged to former New Jersey Devils teammate Dougie Hamilton in his left eye, Wood could only see out of his right.
“I think my first words were, ‘Is my eye still there?’” Wood said Oct. 23 after returning to practice. “They put the stitches in, and then for probably 10 minutes after that, it started to clear up slightly … but for probably a half hour there, it was blacked out.”
Wood, 30, said it’s the scariest injury he’s ever suffered playing hockey, and he’s got a hockey smile that includes gaps from eight missing teeth. This injury required “seven or eight” stitches to the skin around his eye, but Wood’s vision was a bigger concern.
“That’s the most scared I’ve ever been,” he said. “I said to the trainers, ‘Break whatever bone you want, just don’t take my eye.’ … when I was down on the ice, I thought my eyeball was in my hand when I pulled it away.”
Luckily, it just seemed that way because his vision was blocked by blood that had pooled in his eye, which is known as hyphema. Wood said his vision is expected to fully return, but there are still a couple of “hazy” areas.
Wood may return to the Blue Jackets’ lineup soon, but that depends on his vision and stamina after having to rest for nine days to avoid setbacks. Yegor Chinakhov has played three games in Wood’s place at right wing on the fourth line.
“I had to sleep in a chair, essentially, for the last week so the blood wouldn’t rush to my head and cause a re-bleed, which they didn’t want,” Wood said. “They said I couldn’t get the heart rate up, no sauna or anything, so I haven’t been doing much. The skate today was certainly a hard one. For the guys, it was a cake walk. For me, I was sucking wind out there.”
After the injury, several of Wood’s former Devils teammates and training staff reached out to see how he was doing.
“There was a loose puck there, and my head was down,” he said. “(Hamilton) just kind of made a normal defensive play, and it was just a freak thing.”
Wood practiced with a longer visor than he’d previously worn but isn’t required to wear a full shield.
“I’m just happy that I have two eyes still,” he said. “It’s just hockey, I guess.”
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social