from Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times,

Michal Rozsival never saw his ankle wrenched 180 degrees, his toes pointing backward for a brief, horrifying instant. After he caught that rut in the neutral zone while backtracking at Minnesota’s XCel Energy Center and went flailing to the ice — his left foot gruesomely torqued under the weight of his falling body — Rozsival’s only instinct was to get up and try to chase down Thomas Vanek.

“I tried to get up and chase the puck, and I realized I basically didn’t have a left leg,” Rozsival said. “It was like I had no leg at all. That’s when I knew something was very, very wrong, because I had no control over my ankle. It was just loose down there. At that point, I knew I was pretty much done for the season.”

Not just the season. Given Rozsival’s age (he turned 37 last month) and the severity of the injury, most fans, teammates, coaches and front-office personnel had to wonder if he was done for his career. The thought crept into Rozsival’s mind, too.

continued

Watch how the injury occurred below...