Blackhawks' Alec Martinez finally feeling better after fluky neck injury sent him to hospital

DETROIT — When Alec Martinez scored his first goal in a Blackhawks sweater on Dec. 7, he certainly didn't expect he would end the night in the hospital.

But that's the way it worked out.

Early in the third period that afternoon, Martinez went stick-on-puck to block a shot by Jets forward Adam Lowry, and the puck deflected strangely up and hit him in the right side of his neck.

It didn't look like much to the untrained eye, but the 37-year-old defenseman said doctors were "very worried" about the possibility of blood clots or other vascular problems, presumably due to impact to his jugular veins.

They sent him to the hospital in an ambulance, and they proved right to be worried. It has taken him more than a month to overcome the residual effects.

"I had some complications," Martinez said Thursday. "[It was] just an unlucky bounce. That's what you get sometimes for doing what you're supposed to do, and then take a puck to a very bad area of your neck — not that there's a good area of your neck. But [it was] a particularly bad spot."

He attempted to practice with the Hawks on Dec. 11, just four days later, but left early and was subsequently placed on injured reserve. There he has remained, despite skating for several weeks and participating in practices for the last week, until this point while waiting for his veins to heal.

He's now finally "feeling a lot better," and his return seems imminent.

"[When] you go stick-on-puck, [if] I do that 100 times, it's not going to hit me in that spot. But it did," he said. "It was not ideal."

Making Martinez's life even more stressful and complicated during the past month was the fact his wife, Emily, gave birth to their first child, a baby boy named Jack. The childbirth didn't go smoothly — nothing has for the Martinezes lately — but Jack is healthy now, Martinez said.

"Just as a family, I’m proud of them," said Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen, who was coaching his very first NHL game the day Martinez got hurt.

Thus ends a vexing first half of the season for Martinez, who also missed 12 games in October and November with a groin injury and made only 15 total appearances, tallying one goal and three assists while averaging 20:05 of ice time per game.

The composition of the Hawks' defense has changed markedly since they signed Martinez (and T.J. Brodie) in free agency on July 1, when they intended for it to be a fairly veteran-heavy group. The last few games, four of the six dressed defensemen have been 23 years old or younger: Alex Vlasic, Nolan Allan, Wyatt Kaiser and Louis Crevier.

Martinez's experience, calm demeanor and puck-moving ability will be welcomed back gladly. His presence could help compensate for Brodie's struggles and Connor Murphy's lengthening absence due to a groin injury of his own.

Martinez will be a free agent again at season's end, and it's inconceivable he could garner some interest around the NHL's March 7 trade deadline. He's not thinking about anything right now except getting back to normalcy, though.

"Obviously, I'm a little disappointed with the way that first half has gone," Martinez said. "But hopefully I've got a little karma in the bank so I can maybe not take [more of] those unlucky things.

"[I'm hoping to] find a rhythm, help the guys win hockey games and try to be a mentor. It's no different than what it was at the start of training camp when I signed here. I want to be a good example. I want to work hard, help guys individually, help the team as a whole, defend well, try to contribute on the other side of things and just be a stable, reliable defenseman."