CRANBERRY, Pa. -- It was out of morbid curiosity that Justin Schultz admits he wanted to see the video.
You know the one. It's one of those that comes with a dopey warning like "you can't unsee this" or "not for those with a weak stomach."
Schultz already knew that, of course. He was the unsuspecting star.
It was Oct. 13 in Montreal. There were just over 12 minutes remaining in the the first period of the Penguins' fourth game of the new season when, as he'd done hundreds -- if not thousands -- of times before in his seven-year career, Schultz took a hit to make a simple play. In the corner to the right of goalie Casey DeSmith, Schultz passed the puck around the boards hoping to find one of his forwards exiting the zone as Canadiens forward Tomas Plekanec was bearing down on him. Unfortunately for Schultz, as Plekanec finished his check, the defenseman's left skate stuck in the Bell Centre ice. As he toppled over himself, his leg bent awkwardly in a direction for which it just wasn't designed.
There was a grotesque snap followed only by pain.
"Just an unlucky play," Schultz was telling me this week. "My foot got stuck in a spot where it couldn't move and my body was going the opposite way. It was just unlucky."
Schultz didn't know yet the severity of his injury but the searing pain in his left leg let him know it wasn't good.
Writhing on the ice, he says he was in shock. Still, he somehow had the wherewithal to motion referee Brad Meier to stop play, which he did. Schultz was quickly attended to by team trainer Chris Stewart and team physician Dr. Dharmesh Vyas, who scrambled to get on the ice.
They were joined by Jack Johnson and Dominik Simon, his teammates nearest to him.
"It was brutal," said Johnson, who saw former Kings teammate Justin Williams get stretchered off after a similar injury in 2009.
Nearly four months later, Schultz doesn't recall everything that was going through his mind that moment, like "Am I going to play again?" But he does remember he just wanted to get the hell out of there.
"Honestly, I just wanted to get off the ice as quickly as I could," he was saying. "I didn't want to hold (up the game) for a stretch. Just wanted to get off there. I knew our gate was close to where we were. I was, like, 'Just get to the gate and get off and deal' with it."
Remarkably, Schultz wasn't taken off on a stretcher. With the help of Johnson and Simon, who propped him up by his underarms, Schultz made it back to the visitors bench on his right skate and down the runway to the dressing room. Diagnosed with a fractured left leg, Schultz flew back to Pittsburgh that night with his teammates. The following morning, surgery was performed on the 28-year-old.
"There's a plate in there and some rope around my ankle to keep it in there," Schultz was saying with a laugh. "That'll be in there for the long haul."
He can joke about that now. And about how the TSA better be aware he's flown commercially and has passed through airport security without his leg causing incident.
But the past three-plus months on injured reserve have been no laughing matter. He's been, as he says, "dealing with it." As a hockey player, he's suffered injuries before, including a concussion that forced him out of the lineup six games last season. But this one was different.
"I've never broken a bone before, never been a way from hockey this long," Schultz was telling me. "It's been difficult."
Not only was Schultz away from the game, he was initially kept away from the camaraderie of the Penguins' dressing room.
"I couldn't come to the rink for a couple weeks just because of the risk of infection being around all this gross gear," he says, pointing around to the sweat-stained pants, shoulder pads and jocks, that dry from hooks on the team's locker stalls at the Lemieux Complex.
It was weeks after his injury occurred that his comeback began. It has been a long and meticulous step-by-step process since. The only good to come from the injury, he says, is it happened in October and not, say, March or April. He was given a four-month time frame to return.
It's been difficult to be patient, he says. At first, he could do the stationary bike and elliptical, followed by the water treadmill just to keep himself in shape. Though Schultz was out of the lineup, he was around his teammates and attending meetings.
"He's worked so hard," Johnson was saying. "We see him in here rehabbing and working hard every day. It's exciting to see him at this point where he's out there, where he's skating with us."
Indeed, there's no training equipment that can compare or replicate the feel of skating, the feel of sharpened steel carving into the ice. That didn't happen until Jan. 5, 84 days after the injury. After participating in a few morning skates and practices, Schultz wasn't cleared for contact until this week.
"It's a little bit different," he says. "It just takes time. If anything, it's more mental. When you're out for that long and the type of injury I had, it's a little hurdle you have to get over in your head and be comfortable out there."
Apparently, he's just about cleared that hurdle. After being a full participant in practice again Wednesday, taking regular line rushes and working on the second power play, Schultz boarded the team's charter to South Florida where the Penguins will face the Panthers tonight. Whether he plays won't be known until 5 p.m. when Mike Sullivan speaks to the media. But if not, it's still another step closer.
"It's been a long run for him, obviously," said Brian Dumoulin. "He's a good friend of mine, so it' s good to see him out there and having fun again. It's not easy being out."
Obviously, there's a personal and emotional side to Schultz's long awaited return but there's also a very real hockey story for the Penguins, who have sorely missed their No. 2 defenseman and two-time Stanley Cup champion.
"It's almost a deadline acquisition," says Johnson. "It's nothing but a positive."
Schultz will give the Penguins eight healthy defensemen, forcing one player currently in the lineup into a seat in the press box. Once he's taken off IR, the Penguins will move right up to the cap ceiling.
But he's also a much-needed right-hand shot in the team's defense corps. He's a prototypical puck-moving defenseman, who can quarterback a power play and elevate the play of others around him by aiding in the transition game, according to Sullivan.
Since coming to Pittsburgh in a trade with the Oilers nearly three years ago, Schultz has 90 points (17 goals and 73 assists) in 163 games to go along with a plus-57 rating. After dropping six of their last nine, the Penguins will welcome Schultz back with open arms, whether that's tomorrow or next week.
"It's huge," Kris Letang was telling me. "He's such an important part of our team. He brings so much to the table. He's a good two-way player. We can't wait to have him back."