KINGSTON — Big John Erskine, as rough and tough as they come in the National Hockey League, tugs open the top corner of his shirt and reveals a five-centimetre scar, a permanent reminder of the spinal surgery he underwent last autumn, a delicate procedure that has left his career in limbo.

After 491 big-league games (the last 350 with the Washington Capitals), a 35th birthday sneaking up and no contract come season end, the bruising blue-liner has reasons to be concerned, all of which revolve around that zipper on his neck.

“As much as I love being at home, this is not where I want to be this time of the year,” he conceded from the airy kitchen of the spacious Erskine home just north of Kingston. “I’m sick of watching games on TV.”

He’s home this winter — joined by children Madison, 8, Paxton, 6, and pregnant wife Karie — because last October, in a 2 1/2-hour operation at a medical centre in Bethesda, Md., a surgical team successfully inserted an artificial disc between Erskine’s C6 and C7 vertebrae. He hasn’t been on skates since.

“If I move my head quickly, I can feel it,” he pointed out. “Same thing if I sneeze.”

Feeling discomfort following a sneeze is one thing, getting stapled into the boards by Ryan Getzlaf or caught in the train tracks by Zdeno Chara quite another.

Make no mistake, Erskine is at a crossroads in a professional career that began at the turn of the century with the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League.

He returns to Washington this weekend to see surgeon Dr. John Starr and hopefully get clearance to resume skating.

“Obviously if I can’t do contact and play my style, if I can’t fight, can’t hammer guys, I’ll have to think hard about preparing for life after hockey,” said the Kingston native who was selected the Ontario Hockey League’s top defenceman with the London Knights one year after the Dallas Stars plucked him in the second round (39th overall) of the 1998 NHL draft.

The neck surgery is the latest and by far the most serious medical procedure Erskine’s had in his career. “Neck, knee, shoulders, hernia … I don’t feel young anymore,” he lamented through a thin smile.

In Capitals’ colours, he remains a crucial piece of the team’s makeup, as integral, it can be argued, as superstar Alex Ovechkin, albeit in vastly different ways. The former fills the net, the latter fills in foes who take liberties against a teammate.

“Ersk’s impact is unbelievable,” Washington forward and close friend Michael Latta noted over the phone from his condo in Arlington, Va., across the street from Erskine’s rented pad. “He commands so much respect out there on the ice and he’s also a great locker-room guy. Players look up to him because he puts it on the line every game with his commitment and the way he sacrifices himself.”

Latta, 11 years his teammate’s junior, mentioned the economy-sized rearguard’s “intimidating presence in pads.” Erskine stands six-foot-four and tips the Toledos at two-and-a-quarter.

“Nobody wants to mess with him because he’s big and mean on the ice and he can really throw ‘em,” Latta lauded. “Off the ice, though, he’s a soft-spoken, big-hearted guy.

“He’s been a great mentor for me, especially with my style of play,” he added. “I’m not as tough as him, but he’s taught me a few tricks. Our guys love having him on the ice because they know if some big guy on the other team starts bothering them, big John’ll come knockin.”

Erskine, never a candidate for the Norris Trophy, has totalled 15 goals and 54 points along with 865 minutes in NHL sin bins. He’s gone toe-to-toe 143 times since his junior days. A few of his NHL scraps are legendary TKOs, as fellow heavyweights Colton Orr and Milan Lucic can attest. (He decked both with stiff rights.)

Clearly, he is a fan favourite of another K-Town product who earns his keep in the puck game: Ol’ Highcollar himself.

“He’s the guy who can put Washington over the top,” Don Cherry trumpeted from his private pulpit in Mississauga. “They’ve got Ovechkin going, they’ve got the goalie (Braden) Holtby going, they’ve got everything going. But they’ll need John in the playoffs, that where the toughness comes (into play). He’s gotta get better and be ready for the playoffs.

“There’s nobody better than John,” Grapes added. “I used to just love watching him protect guys. He’s one of my favourites, a real beauty.”

The feeling is mutual. “No matter where I am or what I’m doing,” Erskine noted, “when I hear (Cherry’s) voice, I stop and listen.”

Whenever he’s put out to shinny’s pasture, Erskine plans to return to this area and remain in the game that’s been his life and livelihood. (He’s in the final year of a two-year contract worth just shy of $2 million per season.)

“I’d like to coach at some level,” he said. “I think kids can relate to me, you know, been there, done that.”

Those are plans for the future, however. For now he’s acutely focused on again manning a big-league blue-line, bouncing back from a serious injury.

The first step is seemingly small but significant — a pain-free sneeze.