Senators' Clarke MacArthur Played In His First Game Since 2015 And His Post-Game Interview Was The Highlight Of The Night
Clarke MacArthur missed the entire 2015-16 season with post-concussion syndrome. It’s always tough to see guys being held out of the game for health reasons and especially when it’s dealing with the brain. It looked like he was all ready to go this season until he got blindsided during an intra-squad scrimmage in September. Some no-name kid trying to make the big boy club making a gutless decision in the corner on a defenseless player who just spent all of last season sidelined due to concussions. And that hit has kept Clarke MacArthur out of the game for this whole season so far until last night. When he was finally able to suit up for an NHL game again for the first time in nearly 2 full seasons. Now cue all of the emotions.
At the very core, NHL players are just like the rest of us. They love the game more than anything and feel like they are doing what they were born to do while they’re out there on the ice. Now the major difference between guys like Clark MacArthur and guys like you and me is that he’s actually great at the sport while the rest of us couldn’t hack it. But still. I think we all know the feeling of playing your last meaningful hockey game. It’s probably one of the worst memories you have. And for Clarke MacArthur, he’s been in this weird limbo stage with his career for the past 2 years. Guy spends his entire life dedicated to the game of hockey and he’s not sure if he’s had it completely ripped away from him or not due to head trauma. I’d have to imagine that for the better part of the last 2 years, he’s felt like he’s had his identity taken away from him and that’s a shitty situation to be in. So it’s great to see him get another chance to get out there with the boys and it’s great to see all that emotion hitting him after the game. That’s the kind of shit that makes professional sports so unique.
Sidenote: what a sack of shit that TSN reporter is. Dude is pouring his heart out talking about coming back to the game and you go ahead and ask him about how much his wife means to him? Cut the man some slack.