Return from injury gives Badgers freshman Anthony Kehrer chance to show his resilience

Anthony Kehrer’s 2020 has been on brand for the year as a whole.

But since the Big Ten Conference put a projected date on the start of the men’s hockey season two weeks ago, the University of Wisconsin freshman defenseman has been reinvigorated.

The same goes for his new Badgers teammates, he said.

“Before, we were just training. Now that we have that goal in mind that the season’s going to start, it’s real,” Kehrer said. “It’s there in a few weeks. Training for a goal, practicing toward that goal to be ready when the time comes just gives us that much more motivation to get going.”

The Big Ten hasn’t announced a revised schedule but said earlier this month that teams will start play as early as Nov. 13.

That target date is big for Kehrer, who has been subjected to a series of rough moments over the last nine months that have tested his resilience.

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On Feb. 1, he tore the medial collateral ligament in a knee playing for the Sioux City Musketeers in a United States Hockey League game. He returned home to Winnipeg, Manitoba, to go through rehabilitation before heading back to Iowa in early March.

Kehrer said he was about 2½ weeks away from returning to play when the USHL shut down the rest of the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It took a while for him to get back on the ice in Winnipeg to work toward his next challenge: moving into a college environment where he’ll be in the lineup regularly.

And while other Badgers freshmen arrived on campus in July to start an offseason workout plan altered by the pandemic, Kehrer stayed back in Canada on recommendation of coaches. Players were going to be returning home for a few weeks before the start of the school year, and for Kehrer that would have meant a quarantine period and no on-ice workouts.

Not long after he got to Madison, he was one of a group of Badgers players who tested positive for the coronavirus. UW hasn’t released the identity of those who have contracted COVID-19 or how many were from individual teams.

Coach Tony Granato said when team activities were temporarily paused in September that there was a “spike, just like what’s going on in our community.” Returning Big Ten freshman of the year Cole Caufield said in an interview with Recrutes.ca that he had COVID-19 a month ago and was one of six Badgers players affected asymptomatically.

Kehrer said he was out of team activities for two weeks after his positive test but has since returned. His knee, too, is 100% after an offseason of building strength.

It was no surprise to his junior coach, Luke Strand of the Sioux City Musketeers, that Kehrer has bounced back.

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“The resilience of that kid is unbelievable,” said Strand, a former Badgers associate head coach. “It’s one of his gifts. … I don’t think he finds many things as big problems. They’re speed bumps, they’re not mountains.”

The extended preseason has given Kehrer and five other Badgers freshmen more time to acclimate to college, even though their class has entered school in a way that no other group has in the past.

Most of their classes are virtual. Practices started in small groups with a focus on skill development.

Freshman forward Mathieu De Saint Phalle said the different trajectory was stressful for a few weeks but now he sees it as an opportunity to find an edge over others.

“I think a lot of people are going to sit down and sulk and ask why is this happening,” De Saint Phalle said. “I’m a big believer in just getting better every day. And no matter what the situation is or circumstance, there’s always a way to improve and work on your game and find use of what you’re doing and find meaning in what you’re doing.”

For Kehrer, that has meant working individually with associate head coach Mark Osiecki on being ready for Big Ten hockey.

Kehrer, 18, plays a game that reminds his coaches of Badgers captain Ty Emberson, with the same high confidence level in his abilities but with a little more speed and a little less strength at this point.

In practice, Granato has seen Kehrer display an elusiveness against forecheckers because of his strong skating traits. Being able to handle mental and physical challenges goes along with the package.

“Great athletes and great players are able to respond and find ways to get better even though situations become harder for them to do so,” Granato said. “Just watching him practice and get around the ice, his confidence just continues to grow.”

Kehrer is expected to be part of the regular rotation of defensemen this season and has good on-ice role models in UW’s Emberson, Tyler Inamoto and Josh Ess, Granato said.

There have been unexpected twists since Kehrer last took the ice for a game on Feb. 1. All of it adds to the anticipation for his first game with the Badgers.

“The last month, in the summer, it’s all been skill work and development, speed, all that,” Kehrer said. “Now we’re actually getting into defensive concepts and more team stuff. Being able to quickly learn that from these coaches and soak it all in before the season starts, these five weeks are pretty crucial for that.”