From early November to mid-January, Harry Zolnierczyk, the Gulls’ left winger, was out with a left foot injury. He could not practice, and missed 24 games.

This does not mean he was away from the team.

“We had to keep kicking him out of the dressing room a lot,” coach Dallas Eakins said this week after practice. “Because everywhere we turned, there was him and his boot on his foot.”

Zolnierczyk, 28, who has four goals and three assists in 13 games for the Gulls this season, made a point to remain visible to his teammates, and coaches. He returned last week and will play his fourth game back on Friday at 7:05 p.m. against the Ontario Reign at the Valley View Casino Center, the Gulls’ last game before the All-Star break.


“I love being around the guys,” Zolnierczyk said. “That’s one of the things that keeps me playing. I love coming to the rink. I love sitting with the guys and gawking before practice or before a game or after. So I’d come in early obviously and do my work, but then I’d just hang around and just try to be a part of the meetings and all the fun stuff that goes on in the dressing room. As an older guy, and a veteran guy, you’re still a leader, you’re still an example of some of the young guys and stuff. And I thought it was important for myself to still be in the room and be a face and be a voice.”

He is, Eakins said, one of the team’s most important faces and voices. Zolnierczyk is a member of the Gulls’ rotating corps of assistant captains. A “glue guy,” Eakins called him.

“He’s just not off with maybe guys his age,” the coach continued. “He interacts with the younger guys, the older guys…He’s with everyone. But he certainly was missing being out of the lineup. He truly enjoys being a hockey player.”

Which is why, perhaps, it was unsurprising that he remained such a strong presence when he was injured. And which is why, perhaps, he had such a strong return.


When players miss an extended period of time, Eakins said, sometimes they’ll be apprehensive during their return. “Where are my hands at? Where are my skills at?” they’ll ask themselves.

But Zolnierczyk — a tenacious, “straight-line player,” Eakins said — in his second game back, last Friday, scored a goal in the Gulls’ important win over the Texas Stars. “That’s why we play the game, you know?” Zolnierczyk said.

It was like “that saying ‘You don’t realize what you’ve got until it’s gone,’” he said. “And being away from the team and not being able to contribute and help the guys win, it kills ya. And then you get a chance to feel it again. It’s the feeling we live for.”