\u201cI think it\u2019s the first time I got nominated for something in the NHL. So, obviously, that\u2019s awesome,\u201d Mantha said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some doubts (I could get here). I was kind of mentally preparing myself for a PTO (professional tryout contract). When it happens, and you play 13 games, and Calgary was kind of a prove-it deal \u2013 that\u2019s kind of where the head goes to. And I knew I still had some in me. Obviously, I knew I was going to work to get back. And here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Initially, the prognosis wasn\u2019t bad. Mantha did an MRI, which showed no swelling. The team told Mantha he might be out for a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then when they hit you with, \u2018yeah, you\u2019re done for the year,\u2019 that\u2019s probably the low point,\u201d Mantha said. \u201cAnd then after that, it takes couple weeks to kind of refocus and get your head right and get to work, get to rehabbing. Just working to find a deal, get a deal, and have a career year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mantha has been vocal about working with Toronto-based mental coach Matt Caldaroni for the last several years. It started when he underwent shoulder surgery during the 2021-22 season, which Mantha spent with Washington. He had the procedure that November and returned to action in March.<\/p>\n
At that point, Mantha said he had \u201ckind of lost the passion, maybe, for hockey. I was getting injured every other year, and it was just taking a toll mentally and physically. We kind of worked on loving the game again.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, when this most recent injury happened, Mantha was constantly communicating with Caldaroni throughout the entire process.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur sole focus was to be the best version of myself this year, and that was from Day 1 of rehabbing all the way to the start of this year,\u201d Mantha said. \u201cAnd obviously, I think I\u2019m there right now. Obviously, best results of my career for stats-wise, but I think just also as a person and as a dad of three now. So, it\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think it\u2019s the first time I got nominated for something in the NHL. So, obviously, that\u2019s awesome,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,40,4,118,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-548199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-penguins","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","14":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116371556110628464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}