NASHVILLE, TN -- When referee Mike Hasenfratz of Regina, Saskatchewan steps onto the Bridgestone Arena ice for Thursday night's game between the Nashville Predators and the Tampa Bay Lightning, he will be working in the city he has called home for the last 11 years.
Hasenfratz is thankful that he has the opportunity to actually be back out working in the different NHL cities again. For the last two years, this was not the case.
Five years ago while working out, Hasenfratz noticed that his heart rate was higher than normal. The league has the officials wear heart rate monitors when they put them through their physical tests, so Hasenfratz got in the habit of wearing one each time he exercised.
"So I went to a doctor and said something is wrong," he said. "They sent me to a cardiologist where they did an echocardiogram. They determined that my descending aorta was wider than it should be. The aorta I guess is 1.7 cm on average and mine was 2.3cm."
His doctors told him the numbers were not enough to cause concern and that they would continue to monitor his status. A couple of years later, the descending aorta was measured at 5.3 cm.
"If it busts, you die," Hasenfratz said. "So he said stop everything, and I ended up going to the Cleveland Clinic. They replaced my aorta with a synthetic aorta."
The recovery from that surgery was long and meant that he would miss all of the 2009-10 season.
"There were lots of times I was wondering what I was doing," Hasenfratz said. "When I first had the operation, I couldn't lift anything over ten pounds for three months. I felt useless there for quite awhile."
His persistence over the physical and emotional hurdles paid off when Hasenfratz finally passed the league's exercise requirements, allowing him to return to refereeing this season.
Hasenfratz has a slightly different look for this season. He used to wear the number 30, but has now switched to the number two.
"I had two surgeries," he said. "I missed two years. This is my second chance, so I thought it was appropriate to go with number two.
"I probably have the second best job in the world," Hasenfratz said. "The best job in the world would be playing. I wasn't good enough to play. Being on the ice, there are only 33 referees and 34 linesmen, so we know everybody. The adrenaline rush when you have 20,000 people yelling at you, it is a good thing."
It's like he is back home again.
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7 comments:
Mike is a class guy and I really hope he has both a long career and a long life.
Best of luck Hazy...you do a great job representing the Queen City...
What an amazing story. Thanks for sharing on your blog Rod
Never thought his heart was too big! but in all seriousness mike is a pro and a pretty good guy. hope he is past the problems.
Great to see you back on the ice last week Hazzy. Here's hoping you have a fantastic season.
I had season tickets in what was the old section CC for 9 years in the 90s. To this day I can still hear the old guy in our section going ballistic everytime a call went against the Pats..."AHH COME ON HASSENFRATZ!!!"
That was priceless. Glad to know he's doing better.
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