The Rehabilitation of Kurt Jory

Kurt Jory is a warrior at heart. And not because of the 29 games he spent with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors back in 2006-07.

In 2008, Jory suffered a life-threatening neck injury over which just a few players in the history of upper echelon hockey can bond; a severed jugular.

The now 23-year-old is just the latest member in an unfortunate group that includes the likes of Richard Zednik and Clint Malarchuk, both retired NHLers renowned for horrifying injuries now infamous in a world of instant replay and YouTube.

On Nov. 29, 2008, during a typical midseason contest between the Brock Badgers and Windsor Lancers – two Canadian university teams in southern Ontario – Jory was rushed to a local hospital following a third period dive attempt in front of the net that left him bleeding profusely in his crease.

The 6’0″, 185-pound netminder had suffered a severed jugular when veins in his neck and nerves in his right arm were deeply sliced by the skate blade of an opponent looking to score.

Jory recalls the infamous play like it was yesterday.

“The third period came around and their forward was coming down on our defenseman. Our guy got his stick in between the forward’s legs and got spun around a little bit. I went down to make the save and unfortunately his skate cut me across the jugular.”

Oddly enough, a subconsciously shocked Jory stayed unruffled as he emerged from his net, thinking it was merely a collar bone or shoulder injury.

“He knocked me into the net and I got kind of sore and thought maybe my collar bone was broken or my shoulder was out because it just didn’t feel right. [] Immediately, as soon as my teammates had seen what happened, they were not very calm at all. That’s really what signaled the red flag to me that it was more serious than I first anticipated,” said Jory.

Over two full years later, the Saskatchewan-born, Manitoba-raised goaltender is back home for the holidays as per usual – but this time without the overbearing uncertainty of whether or not he’ll be able to play the game he loves again.

“This year there definitely is a different feel. It’s a little more back to normal like it has always been and I’m thankful for it,” said Jory.

The combination of a potent support system, hundreds of physiotherapy sessions and a never dying willingness to stop pucks again has guided him back into a Brock uniform. Sept. 16, 2010 marked his return to the crease as the Badgers opened up a pre-season tournament versus the Guelph Gryphons.

Through 16 regular season matches thus far, Jory is 5-7 with a 2.77 goals against average while playing net protector for a decent, yet noticeably rebuilding, Canadian university squad.

Although hard to decipher while suited up on the ice due to his blocker side’s lack of action, Jory’s right arm is still not entirely mobile, leaving him at a personally-estimated 85 percent health.

Like many before him, the serious injury has had a dramatic effect on Jory’s daily life, both physically through an inability to write properly with his right hand and mentally. It doesn’t help that the nature of his gruesome injury is somewhat of an anomaly in the medical world.

“There were definitely days of doubt and a lot of what the doctor said didn’t really ease my mind because a lot of it was hypothetical. I was in a real grey area for a while.

“Normally I have a very positive outlook but there were the dark days when I felt so frustrated. I still wasn’t able to lift my arm for almost half a year.”

I really struggled with [having hockey out of my life]. I was less confident, wasn’t really sure why it had happened to me or what I was supposed to be doing with it.”

Luckily, Jory found the killer er, warrior instinct inside him to refresh both his mind and body. The journey’s duration was just shy of two years but if statistics are any indication, he’s doing just fine post-rehab.

His present .901 save percentage is identical to how he unexpectedly left it in 2008. Following a conventional holiday atmosphere for the first time in three years, Jory should have no dilemma keeping up with and even surpassing his previous numbers.