Article content

Senators defenceman Mark Borowiecki was reluctant to go into details Wednesday, but he sincerely thanks the organization for allowing him time off to deal with what is being described as a “personal health” issue.

Borowiecki didn’t travel with the team to Sweden last week.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Borowiecki returns following "personal health" break Back to video

Instead, he spent time between Ottawa and the club’s AHL affiliate in Belleville, where he skated with Bobby Ryan in his recovery from a dislocated right finger.

“I’m feeling a lot better, I’m just excited to get back around the guys and get back into things,” Borowiecki said. “I’m going to keep things private for now. I don’t really want to get too far into it.”

Borowiecki, who has one goal, one assist and 25 penalty minutes in nine games this season, has alluded to having had anxiety issues in the past.

Whatever has been troubling him, he says “there are certain things that take precedence over hockey,” and he’s grateful for a team that has “bent over backwards” to give him some time away. He also said Ryan’s positive nature helped him deal with the fact he wasn’t along for the ride when the Senators swept a pair of games in Stockholm.

“It was difficult,” Borowiecki said. “I had a lot of things on my mind, so I tried to maybe play not as much attention to hockey as I might normally have. But not being around the guys is tough. That’s your identity right now, at this stage of my life, and to not be around the guys, sucks.”

kwarren@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren