Fiset Grows Frustrated With Rehabilitation

He spent all summer getting ready for the season, then had the best training camp of his life.

For as long as it lasted.

That was about two weeks for King goalie Stephane Fiset, until his skate tangled in the net at the Arrowhead Pond during an exhibition against the Mighty Ducks, and the bottom of his leg refused to go along with the top when he stretched to make a save.

The verdict was a strained knee ligament, status week-to-week.

An MRI later told him it was much worse: three weeks to three months for a Grade II strain.

He had given up one goal in almost 75 minutes in exhibitions and couldn’t remember when he was playing so well or was so optimistic about an upcoming season.

“This is frustrating,” he said Sunday. “I’ve never had this with the knee before, so I don’t know what it takes. Am I supposed to play with pain? Or no pain? I just don’t know.”

“It’s hard because you think you are making progress, and then you think you aren’t,” he said of rehabilitation. While the body recovers in stages, the psyche rides a roller coaster, often with wife, Isabelle, for company, whether she likes it or not.

“You try not to take it to your family, but sometimes you do because it’s so frustrating,” he said. “She’s so understanding.”

He chafes at only moving laterally but not yet up and down in ice drills conducted by goalie consultant Don Edwards.

“It’s hard because I want to be out there right now,” he says. “Tomorrow might be too late. I want to be there right now.”

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The Kings held their Superskills competition on Sunday, and Jason Blake was the fastest skater, turning a 14.024-second lap, only a fraction ahead of Lubomir Visnovsky’s 14.024.

Rob Blake had the hardest shot, at 97.9 mph, just ahead of Mattias Norstrom’s 96.6.