Rats Off-Season Q&A With Defenseman Casey Borer

Published on May 28, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


Each week during the off-season, Albany River Rats broadcaster Owen Newkirk will catch up with a member of the 2007-08 River Rats to find out how their summer is going and what training preparations they are doing heading towards the Carolina Hurricanes and Albany River Rats 2008 training camps and the 2008-09 hockey season.

May 28, 2008

Let's start right off with your injury. After such an abrupt, and very disappointing, end to your season how are you doing right now and what've you been up to in the last few weeks?

I've just been waiting for my train to pick up a little bit. As far as the rehab with my knee goes its kind of a down period right now. I'm caught in between moving ahead and being where I was before, so I'm just kind of waiting for that to pick up.

What are some of things you can do in the gym right now?

I have no limitations on my upper body; I can do whatever I want. With my lower body I'm coming along pretty well, but I am taking some precautions to avoid re-injuring anything. I am not doing lower body work with weights; it's just a lot of body weight stuff, no pivoting, jumping, or running yet. But I can ride a bike and do lunges and wall squats and other body weight exercises. It is kind of limited, but at the same time I do have some leniency as far as doing stuff to keep in shape and mapping out a plan with my therapist here and my therapist in Raleigh as well.

Albany's coaches commented during last season's River Rats training camp that you had made significant physical strides during the 2007 off-season. Do you feel that you've really turned a page from your college days and that you're a completely different pro athlete now?

I think that I still have a lot to learn about being a pro, but it definitely helped to come to Albany at the end of my senior season and then coming into Albany this past year and working with Geordie and Tom. To be honest with you, there were some question marks on whether I would even be able to stick in Albany, but I think Tom and Geordie were really instrumental in my progress. They definitely helped lay the foundation for me as far as knowing what it takes to go through the grueling season and to be a consummate professional and to learn the ins and outs of how to carry yourself on and off the ice. It also helps when you've got great guys in the room, guys like Gillies, Aucoin, Conboy, Leighton and others. It's not their first rodeo, (laughs) so they can help you pick up on little things. I tried to be a sponge, watching those guys carry themselves and pick up a lot from them.

You made your NHL debut with the Hurricanes this season. How much of a confidence boost was it for you? Did playing in the NHL change you at all as a player and a person?

I hope it didn't change me as a person; I wouldn't like that. If it did, hopefully only for the better. If I sit back and think about it, it's a pretty neat accomplishment, but at the same time it was just a couple games. Obviously it's everyone's goal to play for a long time and play full seasons in the NHL, so that's something for me to keep working towards. It definitely gave me a little faith and something to strive for. Whenever it's a nice day out, you might not want to go into the gym and train, but it's a little motivator in the back of your mind. I think as a player it gives you a little bit of confidence, but at the same time if you run with it too much and think you've got it made, it'll probably come back and haunt you. It's so competitive to get to the NHL, because as soon as you take your foot off the pedal there's a guy right in the rear view mirror trying to catch you. It's definitely a proud moment for me in my career thus far, but there's still a lot of work to do.

Is there any different reaction from people back home now that you've played in the NHL?

Not really, just more of my buddies harassing me. The guys I live with are all over me all the time. They constantly give me a hard time, saying stuff like: "Aw you're so sweet, but are you sure you could even be talking to us now that you play in the NHL?" or "Oh, sorry we're not in Carolina right now." They have all sorts of those little bad jokes, but it's all in good fun.

How hard was that for you to have your season cut short like it was with your injury in March?

Very frustrating. I was more shocked than anything. ‘Knock on wood' I've never had any big injury like that before. It was even more frustrating because of the way it happened, the way that game in Syracuse was going, and the importance of that game. As soon as it happened I had a gut feeling that I was done for the year, but I tried to be optimistic about it. Then when I got my MRI after the weekend, I was kind of in shock a little bit. It hit me hard, because it really sunk in that all summer I'd be going to rehab five days a week and would not being able to skate at all. Above all else, at that point we were close to locking up a playoff spot, so the main thing was not being able to play in the last eight games of the regular season and into the playoffs.

How would you rank this injury in terms of the biggest challenges that you've had to face as an athlete?

Probably number one. I think this is something that can go one of two ways: you can either feel bad for yourself and not try to recover quickly or on the other side of the coin you can rehab, work really hard and hopefully not have any other issues with it. I talked to Wade Brookbank and Ryan Bayda, both of those guys have had this injury, and they haven't had any lingering problems. That has been very encouraging to me, knowing that I should be alright as long as I do the rehab, which I've been doing, and I keep working hard.

Do you think it would have been hard for you to sit in the stands and watch your teammates go through that grueling playoff series with Philadelphia or would you have been into helping out the coaches like Mark Flood did?

It was tough. I was just checking the box score from my chair at home and even from that distance I still got the feeling of "Oh my gosh I can't believe what these guys are going through." Even from home I wanted to be out on the ice and doing something, but it would've been a pain to watch that and not be able to do a darn thing about it. I'm not sure I would've been able to help the coaches anyway. I could've kept the best stats around. (Laughs) I guess if I brought that to the table and it would've helped, right?

Maybe you could have made your debut as a River Rats color commentator.

Yeah! I would love to do that actually. That would be awesome.

Ok, lets work on your radio color analyst skills. Can Pittsburgh rally from being down 2-0 against Detroit in the Stanley Cup Finals?

I think that they need to start scoring some goals or they can't win. You can't win hockey games if you don't score! (Laughs) But seriously, I think that they could. Pittsburgh is going to have to get the puck away from Detroit and the Red Wings are showing that they don't like the share the puck. I think the Penguins have some work ahead of them and it's going to be an uphill battle, but they have the personnel. They got a St. Cloud boy on their team, so maybe he'll put the team on his back and get them back in the series.

Let's talk about the AHL playoffs. Who's your pick in the Calder Cup Finals?

Chicago. They have Krog and Haydar and don't those guys score around five points a night? But Wilkes-Barre is a good team too, and they could easily be the winner also, they play really good systems. I don't really know anyone on Chicago, but I'll take a shot in the dark and pick them.

Are you a Minnesota Twins fan?

I like to tell myself that I'm not, but I find myself watching them quite a bit.

So you're not in the same realm as Tim Conboy?

No, not even close. He LOVES the Twins. I can take or leave the Twins. I get more and more into them as the summer goes on, but I just don't have the need to watch all 162 games. I do get excited when they win or if they get on a roll, so I guess I'm sort of a bandwagon guy.

I know you go fishing a lot with your teammate and Twins counterpart Mr. Conboy. What kind of fishing do you guys like to do?

I like fishing for Walleye; I think he does too. There's a little lake by his house in Lakeville (Minnesota) and we go there and throw minnows off the dock and cast-and-reel. We're going to go out in the boat once my knee gets a little bit better. I don't know if you're even eaten Walleye, but it's great. So we usually go for them, but usually manage to pull in some other stuff too.

Do you two get competitive about fishing?

Timmy sent me a picture the other day. He was in Kansas and he caught a small-mouthed bass and it was a good size. So he had someone take a picture of it with his cell phone and sent it to me. It was a picture of him this really big small-mouth bass and he was basically showing off. So I sent him a text message back and I said, "What grocery store did you get that from?" (Laughs).

What other activities will you do once you can start moving a little more?

Well, golfing is out for at least a few more weeks and I'm going to try to start shooting some pucks; those are the two things I've been looking forward to the most. I've been working on my hands playing football a little bit - just throwing it, not actually running or anything. Right now it's stationary football throwing, shooting a basketball, and other stuff without any running. There are a lot of like little things that you take for granted until you can't do them anymore.

I spoke with Mark Flood last week and he said he really likes playing recreational softball during the summer. I could see the two of you going head to head and really trash talking each other.

Yeah, no question! He loves to blow wind, so I'd be giving it right back to him, but I bet his buddies do too. His buddies like to talk just as much as he does, so I'm sure it would be pretty difficult to get a word in on the island.

Of the guys on the roster last year, do you think Flood would be the biggest trash talker in a summer softball game?

I would say yes. But he's also probably the most harmless, as far as trash talking goes. I could also see Carson coming out of his shell a little bit, throwing subtle little chirps and getting under a guy like Angie's (Mike Angelidis) skin. Now that I think about it, I'll have to go with Mo (Joey Mormina). We played baseball up in Albany and Mo was always yapping.

What's the best movie you've seen lately?

There Will Be Blood has been the worst, I did not like it. I liked We Own The Night. I realize that movie came out in theaters probably around two years ago, but I just watched it and I thought it was awesome. I haven't watched as many movies as you might think, because the closest movie store is probably 25 minutes away, so I usually just rent the On Demand ones and the options have been slim lately.

As you look back over the last year, your first full season as professional, do you enjoy being a pro hockey player?

Oh definitely. The opportunity to be a professional is unbelievable. You play hockey for basically 19 or 20 years to get to that point and you make a lot of good friends along the way. But a lot of friends go out and try to get a job after college, and we're putting that on hold for a little bit to play a game. You realize that you're really fortunate to be in this situation. It could be in middle of February after the fourth game in five nights and you're worn out, but no matter how bad it gets, you have to keep it in perspective that you're really lucky and that a lot of people would love to do this. I only have one year under my belt, so it's not like I'm a seasoned veteran by any stretch of the imagination. I've just scratched the tip of the iceberg as far as learning how to be a pro. Hopefully in the future, if things go right, I'll just keep learning more and develop into a better person and a better player as time goes by.

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American Hockey League Stories from May 28, 2008


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