Ex-Hawk Sullivan returns to standing ovation in Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - While Steve Sullivan was pretty cool as he met with reporters following the Nashville Predators' morning skate Saturday, his dad, Kenn, was a different story.

"It's almost like a second coming, like a dream come true again," Kenn Sullivan said as he waited for his son outside the Predators' locker room. "We're a lot more nervous now than we ever were when he first played his first game."

And why wouldn't he be?

After all, it has been nearly two years since his son made an unfortunate twist of his body while going for a loose puck. Sullivan felt his back seize up, and he hadn't seen game action since.

The former Blackhawks forward, who accumulated 158 points in 150 games for Nashville since coming over in exchange for a pair of second-round picks in February 2004, has missed 153 games since that fateful twist.

That streak came to an end Saturday night against the Blackhawks when he took the ice at the 18:30 mark of the first period to a standing ovation and chants of "Sully, Sully."

"I'm glad that I'm getting a chance to do this again," Steve Sullivan said. "Looking back on it, it might have been hard work, but the final goal was being able to be here now. You love to do this so much that you never give up the dream.

"I believe this is what I was here to do, and I didn't want to stop doing it."

For the low-scoring Preds, Sullivan's return couldn't have come at a better time.

"It's huge," coach Barry Trotz said. "We're a team that doesn't have a lot of natural goal scorers, a team that has let a lot of guys go the last two years. Getting him back is almost like getting a free-agent signing."

Yet, Trotz did his best to downplay expectations.

"If he walks into the locker room with an "S" on his chest, it's for Sullivan, not Superman," the coach said. "You have to be realistic. Steve coming back after almost two years, that is the story. How he performs (early) is almost secondary to me."

Just the fact that the 34-year-old Sullivan made it back into the lineup - on the day his wife, Kristen, celebrated her birthday and in front of about a dozen family members in from his hometown of Timmins, Ontario - is a tribute to his dedication.

"He really worked his rear end off," Kenn Sullivan said. "We always thought he'd be able to do it, but we never realized how tough it is."

"To be honest, at the end of last year I didn't know if he was going to be able to come back," Trotz said. "Steve got really determined around training camp and said, 'I'm coming back this year. I'm going to make it.'

"There was a different tone in his voice."

Though Sullivan admitted his back probably will never be fully healthy, just being back on the ice is worth the pain.

"There are a lot of people in the world that live daily with a bad back, and I don't think I'll be different than they are," he said. "I'm just going to keep doing what I love to do."