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Steve Ott returns after long recovery from hamstring surgery

Josh Cooper

Pesky St. Louis Blues forward Steve Ott returned to the lineup for his team in Game 3 of their first-round series against the Chicago Blackhawks after a long battle with injury and illness.

Ott underwent surgery on his hamstring in early December and was slated to miss three months of action. Ott described the severity of the injury in a video produced by the Blues.

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“I was diagnosed with a full avulsion of my hamstring, meaning it ripped off where your hamstring attaches to your pelvis area underneath your buttocks,” Ott said. “It was laying down in the middle of my leg. The procedure is to basically cut you and re-anchor where it’s supposed to be at again.”

Then on April 6, the Blues announced Ott was diagnosed with colitis. MedicineNet defines colitis as “inflammation of the inner lining of the colon.”

The hamstring injury was most troubling for Ott. He suffered the problem going in for a hit on Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf on Dec. 5.

“The steps you start at when you have to come from the couch, to shuffle-stepping to learning how you get your gate back, to starting to run, light jog to having a little bit of setbacks to getting forward to putting on your skates to show you’re a hockey player again, it was a little bit emotional,” Ott said.

The 33-year-old Ott had two assists in 21 games played for St. Louis, to go along with 34 penalty minutes. In 2014-15, his first full year with St. Louis, Ott had 12 points and 86 penalty minutes in 78 games. Ott is a veteran of 795 NHL games.

“It’s going to probably feel like my first game on the ice again, meaning I’ll probably have an abundance of energy,” Ott said. “It’s something that myself, personally I don’t want to take for granted.”

Ott replaced the hulking Ryan Reaves, in the Blues' 3-2 win over the Blackhawks.

“He’s been hounding me forever,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He just wore me down. I don’t know what I can say. He’s such a pain. I just said, ‘Might as well go and play. I’m tired of you barking in my ear all the time.’ So he played and I think he’s going to have an impact in this series before (it’s) done. … It’s just amazing what he’s done and what type of work he’s put in to be a player in this series.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!