VOORHEES, N.J. — For Kevin Hayes, a game means everything to him.
He's hoping it will mean something to Flyers fans again, that the ugliness and dread of the team's 2021-22 season will soon be lifted.
That the game will look and feel better again.
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Hayes, trudging through unforeseen obstacles and arduous recoveries, is feeling better again.
Abdominal issues have wreaked serious havoc on the 29-year-old since last season. Despite the Flyers' season being well lost in early March, Hayes will experience an important victory by playing Saturday for the first time since Jan. 17.
A little over three weeks ago, general manager Chuck Fletcher said the second-line center had a 50/50 chance to play again this season. Hayes having a fourth surgery and being shut down for the season was on the table.
"It definitely means something," Hayes said Friday. "You guys have a job, I have a job, I get paid to play hockey and it's the thing I love most in my life besides my family. It sucks when you don't play. It's boring, it's sad, it's frustrating. I feel like I owe it to my teammates, I owe it to the city, I owe it to Chuck. It's important that you do what you get paid to do. I don't want to jeopardize anything later on like for next season or anything, that's why we took so much time to figure out what was going on. It took a while, but I feel good."
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It took a while because Hayes needed a procedure Jan. 18 to address an infection that had developed in his groin area. Prior to the start of this season, he had to undergo two abdominal surgeries in fewer than four months. He made his season debut Nov. 13 and was forced out one game later. He returned Dec. 1 and played through pain until mid-January, when he came back out — and for good — because of the infection.
"It's been a lot of ups and downs for me," Hayes said. "Tried playing, still didn't feel too good, tried coming back again, tried seeing a bunch of people, still never felt so good. Found out that I had a real bad infection in my groin that kind of spread through the whole upper leg on my left side. Got to a point where surgery was needed, we did that, waited for the infection to get out and waited for this lump that I had to settle down. Feel pretty good now.
"I don't think anyone can tell anyone that something's not going to happen. But the infection's gone, I've met with infectious disease people and they kind of cleared that whole part out. Said my blood's all clean, it's a lot smaller than what it was, so that's good.
"They did a little debridement, took out some stuff and I've been rehabbing since. You guys see me out there every day. Feel pretty good. It gets pretty repetitive when you skate by yourself every day. Unfortunately we had some injuries along the way and I got to skate with some guys, but I'm just excited to get back."
Hayes said they don't know when or how the infection started. But following the procedure and a lot of rehab, he recently had a positive doctor's appointment that highlighted healing and progress toward a return.
"A week or two would go by and I'm like, 'Oh, I feel amazing.' Then another 10 days would go by and I'm like, 'I need surgery next week,'" Hayes said. "Just a lot of ups and downs and you don't really know what's going on. We figured out what was going on.
"We kind of did a final MRI that was going to kind of decide whether or not I was going to have a chance to play or probably lean toward getting surgery and sitting out and getting ready for next year. I didn't have really high hopes that it was going to be good news. We left, the trainer called me and got good news."
Hayes has been rehabbing, practicing and feeling much better. He said this is the best he has felt "in a while."
"I can just feel it skating up the ice pre-practice," Hayes said. "When you're striding and you don't feel a tug in your leg or a pain in your upper groin, it's nice. When you actually skate full speed without pain, it feels nice.
"Saw a bunch of different people, saw a bunch of doctors, took a bunch of blood work and I think we figured it out.
"I feel like I'm at a point where this is the best I will feel. I do feel 100 percent. Luckily I didn't need to get another surgery and I don't think playing is going to force me to get another surgery, as well."
As the Flyers host the Blackhawks on Saturday (3 p.m. ET/ABC), Hayes will start the game on the third line with Oskar Lindblom and James van Riemsdyk.
"Certainly a guy that's going to bring some enthusiasm and some joy," Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo said. "A guy who's going to try to make plays, obviously a big body, a guy that can help you at both ends of the ice, a guy that's going to help you on special teams, a guy that's going to help you in the faceoff circle.
"It's going to be interesting to see kind of where he's at. He played through a lot of pain and injury earlier in the year. I'm hoping that we can get a fully healthy Kevin Hayes back because that would do an awful lot for us."
Hayes has fought frustration because the Flyers are enduring one of their worst seasons in franchise history and he hasn't been able to help. The Flyers enter the weekend at 16-28-10. They've been hit hard by injuries to critical pieces, Hayes being of them. The 6-foot-5, all-situation piece has been limited to 20 games in the third season of his seven-year, $50 million deal.
"It's obviously frustrating when you see the season that the team's having and you're supposed to be one of the key players to help your team win. Even when you were playing, you weren't doing too much to help your team win," he said. "I take a lot of pride in helping this team win and being the best player that I can be. I love playing for this team, I love this city. It's been a tough year for that stuff, but hopefully that stuff's in the past and starting tomorrow, we can kind of start trending in the right way."
Fans have expressed their frustration with stomaching such a down season for the franchise by boycotting games.
Hayes was asked what his message would be to the fan base.
"A lot of guys in this organization love this city. It's a fun city to play for. The fans are really invested, good and bad ways I guess," he said with a smile. "It's tough seeing the way the team's played. You guys have seen the crowds, it's been tough this year.
"But I know everyone in this organization wants to turn it around and be a team that people dread coming to Philly to play, and that involves the players, the coaching and the fans. I'm sure we'll get there.
"The season has gone the way it has, but we were there two years ago and we have a very similar team that we did then. There's not a doubt in my mind that we'll be there soon. Just bear with us and it'll be a fun ride."
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