THN Archive: To Hell and Back (May 9, 2006, Vol. 59, Issue 33)

* This article was originally posted in the THN Magazine on Sept. 6, 1991 Vol. 44, Issue 41. Written by: Rich Chere *

Scott Gomez was one of the first Devils to visit teammate Patrik Elias in New Jersey last summer. It had already been two months since Elias was released from a hospital in the Czech Republic, but his battle with a severe case of hepatitis A was far from over.

Although Elias was frail, still unable to do much physical activity at that point, it was a photo from when the left winger had just left the hospital that stunned Gomez.

Gomez. “That was scary,” Gomez recalled.

“He was really thin and a weird color. See that yellow hockey stick over there? That’s what he looked like.”

Elias said it’s true.

“Too bad I don’t have more pictures of the way I looked,” he said. “Horrible.”

Elias contracted hepatitis A, a viral infection of the liver, while playing in Russia during the NHL lockout. It is usually spread because of poor sanitary conditions. Although it is almost never fatal to people his age, especially a professional athlete, it could have ended his NHL career.

After recovering in a Czech Republic hospital and then coming back to New Jersey to be treated by doctors, Elias missed all of training camp and the first 39 games of the regular season. Then came a grueling workout regimen in which he pushed himself through tremendous physical pain. He played his first game of 2005-06 Jan. 3 and sparked a Devils turnaround by scoring points in each of his first four games back (two goals, eight points). New Jersey won all four contests.

“When he came back he was a big help,” said Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. “It was like we were waiting for him.”

Elias collected points in nine of his first 10 games and his leadership and timely goal-scoring were instrumental in the Devils turning their entire season around with a pre-Olympic nine-game winning streak.

Ironically, Elias was sidelined yet again during the Olympics, when he sustained bruised ribs in his first game representing the Czech Republic in Turin. The ailment would see him miss four games after the break for the Devils, a time in which they went 2-2, with the losses both coming in shootouts to the lowly New York Islanders.

Despite that, Elias finished the regular season with 45 points, including 16 goals, in 38 games.

Elias still undergoes regular blood tests to monitor his liver, but there have been no setbacks.

The impact of a completely healthy Elias was evident when the Devils opened the playoffs with a 6-1 rout of the Rangers. He had a hand in all six goals, scoring twice and assisting on the other four. He was two points short of the NHL single-game playoff record shared by former Devil Patrik Sundstrom (1988) and former Devil-killer Mario Lemieux (1989).

“I still look back a year and I couldn’t really move much,” Elias recalled.

“I’m very happy I can do what I love to do. Playing hockey is my job.

“It just shows you that there is nothing more important than health in life. I take my job as seriously as I did before, but I don’t think I get too upset, too down on myself anymore.”

.737

The Devils won 27 of 38 games in which they had Patrik Elias in the lineup this season (27-9-2), for an impressive .737 points percentage.

.511

When Elias wasn’t in the lineup, the Devils won only 19 of 44 games (19-18-7) for a pedestrian .511 points percentage. They wouldn’t be in the playoffs at that pace.