Music: {allcanada} HEALTHY GIONTA RARING TO GO

Thursday, September 27, 2012

{allcanada} HEALTHY GIONTA RARING TO GO

The Montreal Gazette indicates the torn bicep that knocked Brian Gionta out of the Canadiens' lineup has long since healed. But two weeks shy of when the regular season is supposed to start, a healthy Gionta is in the same hockey limbo as everyone else because of the NHL lockout. "I missed 50-plus games last year, so it's obviously tough to be delayed even more," Gionta said this week.

"You want to be playing, you want to be out there — and getting going at the start of the year."

Instead, Gionta is training with some of his teammates on the South Shore, working out, lifting weights and hitting the ice about four days a week. As the team captain, he also has a leadership role to play during the lockout.

At the Canadiens' golf tournament last week, head coach Michel Therrien said he spoke to Gionta on the eve of the lockout about making sure that players who are in top physical shape don't get discouraged by the missed time. Therrien also spoke to Francis Bouillon.

Gionta and most of his teammates who are in the area plan to suit up Thursday night for a game at Châteauguay's Centre Multisports that's part of La tournée des joueurs, a series of exhibition games that is the brainchild of South Shore natives and Philadelphia Flyers teammates Maxime Talbot and Bruno Gervais. The proceeds will go to charity and minor hockey associations.

"It seems like a good event and it's a nice way to give back to the kids or smaller communities that don't see us all the time," said Gionta, who'd like to play in as many of the games as he can, schedule permitting.

After being the only Hab to play in all 82 games in 2010-11, Gionta took part in only 31 last season, the fewest in his NHL career.

"Any time you have a long-term injury like that, it takes a lot to try and be patient and try to make sure that you rehab it the right away and get the correct strength back," Gionta said.

While the surgically repaired bicep had basically healed when the season ended, Gionta worked on strengthening it over the summer.