Zach Aston-Reese isn’t very political and he certainly isn’t a doctor (I don’t believe he was Pre-Med at Northeastern) but the Penguins forward who just came off a two-week bout with Covid would like to share some friendly advice.
“I don’t want to dive too much into the whole vaccine thing (but) I believe in ‘em,” Aston-Reese was saying after Monday’s practice. “I think if maybe I didn’t have it I could have easily been in the hospital. Who knows? Who’s to say?”
The 27-year old winger has had his share of health issues in the past, mostly of the tough-luck variety. So this season he came into training camp in tip-top shape yet at a leaner 6-0, 204 pounds the virus still threw him for a loop.
“It kind of felt like I had the flu and unfortunately I had some pretty bad symptoms,” Aston-Reese shared. “I wasn’t able to work out for 12 days until I had my heart looked at.”
That’s when it got a little scary. “Seeing some of the players around the league having some heart issues they just wanted to make sure I was okay which I was, thankfully,” said Aston-Reese, who was finally cleared to play over the weekend.
He returned to his spot on the Blueger line and had an unremarkable stat line – 0 points, 1 shot and 1 penalty in 16:33 – but he did help kill off a couple of penalties. Aston-Reese also admitted that he did feel a little winded after the first period.
“Getting back has been a process and it’s something I’m still dealing with a little bit,” he said. “Kind of getting the lungs going has been a little bit tougher but I’ve been working hard and hopefully in the next couple of week I’ll feel like myself again.”
Aston-Reese, like all of us, also hopes that relatively soon this oft-times confusing pandemic will be a thing of the past or at least under control. “It sucks,” he said shaking his head. “It’s crazy to me how Jake (Guentzel) and I both get it but he was asymptomatic and I was stuck in bed for five days. Hopefully, moving forward, there’s no more cases on the team and I got it out of the way, hopefully for good. I’m hoping in the next couple weeks it’ll be something you look back and it’s not even a thing anymore.”