Milton Oscarsson, 20, has started the season strongly for successful Örebro side.
It is a complete contrast to a year ago when the great striker was covered in bacteria, lost ten kilograms and needed a wheelchair to get around.
– It was a difficult time at the time when it happened, Oscarsson says.
The second half of last season had it rumored that six-foot-tall Milton Oscarson was on the cusp of making it big in the game as well. It started with a good JVM over Christmas and New Year and ended with a really good playoff in SM, where he scored six points and ran Örebro’s best series with Leo Karlsson on one edge.
On the other hand, the goal last fall was to get the strength back and find the game again after a few really tough summer weeks in the hospital.
Right at the end of the season, during the J20 finals in Nyköping, bad luck struck.
-I got beat up and I thought I tore my hamstring or something. “It was hurting around my hip area and the pain wouldn’t go away, so we went in and got checked out,” Milton Oscarson said last winter.
It turned out that the pain was caused by bacteria entering his body.
For three weeks, Milton Oscarson was bedridden in the hospital, kilos and muscles falling off his massive body.
– He says: Yes, I lost about ten kilograms.
A wheelchair was required to proceed
When he left the hospital bed, he sometimes needed a wheelchair so he could move forward.
– Walking was a bit difficult at first, sometimes a wheelchair was needed and sometimes not. I was pretty crazy at the time, but the important thing is that now I’m back and I can play hockey, says Oscarsson, who prefers to look forward.
– It was a hard time at the time when it happened and I ended up in the hospital, but now I’ve had a whole summer with real training and it feels good.
Before last season, basic training didn’t start until a week or so before the team skated on the ice.
Have you noticed a difference now compared to last fall, I guess?
– It’s a completely different level now. This year, I got all of my summer training and all of the preseason on the ice with practice games, and I was able to build muscle in my body and all that. It feels much better than this time last year.
Chicago instead of a sick bed
Just like all over Örebro, Milton Oscarsson has had a fantastic start to the season. He leads the real “Power Line” with Emil Larsson and Axel Sandberg (recently William Wickman). Totaling nearly 300k of power and speed.
Against Oskarshamn, the first goal of the season came to the 98-kilo Kumlakelen, who was one of Örebro’s best players during the SHL opener.
– I handled it well, I brought some confidence from last year’s qualifiers. When our chain drops the puck in their zone and catches them, we become difficult and difficult to counter, as he says himself.
Instead of spending the summer in the hospital, Oscarsson spent this summer at a junior camp in Chicago. The Blackhawks drafted him in the sixth round and also everyone’s first pick and then took the super-talent Connor Bedard.
– It is very interesting to be there and see all its facilities and the city itself and meet all the people around it. It was really cool,” says Oscarson.
1/2Photo: Johan Bernström / BuildBerron
A teammate with the first draft and a friend with the second pick
Did you have time to hang out with Bedard then?
-We had a few different groups and then I talked to him a little bit, but it wasn’t a private hangout or anything like that.
What impression did you get of Bédard?
– Very modest. It could easily become like a number one where you have a little bit of water on your head, but he wasn’t really like that without his feet on the ground, he talked to everyone and was nice.
After Connor Bedard, who went second in the draft, went one of Oscarsson’s best friends, Leo Carlson. The former teammate is currently in Anaheim training camp and is expected to take a spot on the team for the NHL’s first bid.
-We communicate a little via light chat and ask each other how things are going etc. I’ve seen some highlights with him on social media. Great fun for Leo and all the best to him.
Do you think he will return this season?
– No, I don’t think so and I hope it’s not for him. I want him to be as successful as possible there.
