all right our next guest is a guy who I'm I want to take a little credit for agent Kipper not so much AER agent Kipper Lin made Kipper Thursday morning Eric lindro Skates um you know we formed a line with myself Big E and and our next guest uh Cody Hodson and uh I think that's where the the seed was planted right correct me if I'm wrong let's welcome in Cody Hodson from the Milwaukee Admirals who went eight years between wow professional hockey goals Cody thanks for joining us man how are you yo
u look great you look better than me I can tell you oh I feel great no it's nice to be playing again and uh know not that I didn't you know consider playing with you also playing but in a professional matter if you're playing with Kip it is not in a professional manner so in all seriousness how good was our line I thought we were great you know you could see why we played reminisce about the old days playing but uh no we had some good chemistry out there so go ahead so so Cody you um you you had
a condition that was associated with some uh medication you had been taking at the time for those people who aren't familiar with your story could you give us the background of how you went from stopping playing in 2016 to being back and by the way scoring three times in five games in the American League already uh well yeah it's a bit of a crazy to be honest but um yeah I was diagnosed in 2016 with a rare muscle condition called malignant hypothermia um I was having some severe issues most peo
ple know it as an allergy to Anesthesia where your body gets super hot and uh you know things just basically start shutting down everything seizes up and um you trigger this reaction that is fatal you know the name malignant means can kill you and then hypothermia just means your temperature you know Rises too high so um that's what I dealt with while I was playing and I was told once I once I was diagnosed 100% % with it I did the genetic testing first just to try to confirm it wasn't exactly c
onclusive so I had to do a muscle biopsy to take a big chunk of your muscle and and they test it through a bunch of uh um yeah they put through a bunch of tests and then they showed that I had it for for sure so they said avoid contact Sports avoid prolonged physical activity avoid going from hot to cold or cold to hot avoid uh you know high stress environment basically a job description of play and they said if you don't do that you could trigger this thing it could kill you so um you know I wa
s having some hard arhythmia stuff I was having uh you know my lungs were shutting down I was urinating blood I had a whole bunch of issues while I was playing that had to go to the hospital a couple times for just the emergency room um and it really was scary so uh after the the testing I you know took about four and a half years off I didn't touch my gear um and then some alumni guys in Nashville while I was living there I was working for the Predators they they knew I couldn't play hockey and
they'd still check up on me every you know couple weeks you're just a really good organization really good people um and so I decided to stay in Nashville and and oversee the youth development I did that for about seven years and and just played basically hockey once a week um and then I moved home my brother just had a kid and my other sister is pregnant so I wanted to be an uncle moved back to Toronto started skating a little bit in the summer and um yeah kind of took off from there once once
I started feeling healthy C can I ask you that stretch of retiring to the point where you went back um was it did you ever really have closure is this why you you're you're coming back is because you never felt right about uh the time that you did retire the first time yeah I always wanted to play you know I played you know six years but I always felt like you know a lot of my buddies are still playing and and it's still you know it's the best life you you want to be out there and competing and
I knew I I didn't have a chance I knew you know while I was you know having these issues and even you know in the previous times if I skated hard if I was you know did a hard workout I knew my body would seize up it it would trigger and I wouldn't be able to do anything for a day or two and have to take the these drugs that make you kind of loopy and and you can't really play on them so um yeah it was tough those four five years were really I didn't L didn't touch my my hockey gear like my prof
essional stuff in a long time and then JP Dumont said if you want to come back out and play it's just alumni guys no one's there to prove anything and we just have fun so if you can't skate you can't skate And you just get off and no one's you know no one's going to try to kill you or anything like that it's not super competitive so I loved it it was good for the soul to be back and they in the game being around the dressing room being around the guys and um it was nice in the to allowed me to c
ome out and then from there started playing yeah once or twice a week and then when I got back in Toronto a little more intense skates with with Lind Ross and Gary Roberts has a skate as well I joined and um it just made you feel comfortable and but once I started feeling good it was about Midsummer I I called some of my buddies that uh were still playing Cameron gon Kevin Carr and I said hey if you guys ever need an extra guy you know I'd love to love to jump out there with you guys and see wha
t I can do so I just having fun I was still I was still 20 you know 35 pounds and so I've lost 45 lbs since then wow but uh you know it's just fun to get back out there and compete with them they were uh they were still training like they all wanted to play back in the National Hockey League and some of them were still playing so um just kind of took it from there imagine being so good at hockey you just call up guys and playing pro hockey be like can I just jump out there a little bit like I'm
just to drop 40 and get back in the mix so is your health condition then is that gone is that how looked after is it a risk still for you I mean I think it's it's a genetic condition so it's always there hopefully with the the right medication that I have now and and being able to do these techniques that I've kind of developed over the last little bit that it hasn't triggered and i' I've pushed myself harder in the last six months than I have in my entire life thinking that I would try to trigg
er it so that you know I wouldn't come back and then have to stop two weeks you so um no and luckily it's been great I we called up the doctors that told me I couldn't play anymore and I said please test me for everything you know test my lungs liver kidney heart all that stuff and it all came back clean and then I I you know after after skating and and normally I like I said it would be like a couple days after take off but after skating with the guys that were still playing and then you know I
triy to come back the next week and then maybe I'd do two skates a week and then start into three and I just kept pushing it and pushing it and and then uh I I called the doctors again I said hey I'm GNA try to you know push this as hard as I can can you guys monitor me please and and so every week I would send my blood work in the blood test and and it's been clean so um yeah knock on wood nothing nothing comes up but it's been feeling great we're talking Cody hodon who's made a remarkable com
eback after eight seasons uh and now is playing in uh what's still considered I think the second best league in the world the American Hockey League and on the best team by a good distance too what did you guys like have you haven't lost in 19 games or something 20 we just lost on on the 20th game unfortunately but yeah the second all time in AHL history uh the streak that is awesome so let me ask you something like eight years like a few things have changed tell me about those first couple of d
ays walking in is like you get a little Marty McFly thing going back to the future like what what was noticeable for you that maybe you noticed that you didn't notice eight years ago well I know no one takes slop shots anymore that's the first thing everyone kind of told me about no time in the game but um we'll see if I can bring it back the uh no the next thing is just everyone's so talented and skilled and fast but I thought that was going to be the biggest adjustment just the speed of the ga
me and honestly the mental side of it that was probably the most difficult I I mean the first game back that I got to give Milwaukee credit though the coaches had tried to put me in a situation to succeed and they didn't put me in the first little bit I was practicing trying to get up the speed and then got put in a couple games I broke my rib the first game like second period so tried to play through that for a bit that bruis long um the second game uh was feeling it but then yeah I had to shut
down for about three weeks and then uh just coming back now that's had to take a little break but um that was nice welcome back to Pro Hockey nice broken rib right right at the beginning is but no sorry go ahead I just like is it being back around Pro Hockey and the routine of you know travel morning skate game shower you know the 3,000 showers per day is something I remember vividly that I was glad to get out of when I was done is it like a Time Warp to be back doing all that again yeah it is
but like I said these guys are this such professionals here they they got great food in the mornings you know they got topnet medical staff so honestly it feels great like I I don't know uh what else you need as a hockey player it's kind of there three days of the week you know you get game day Practice Day Day off it makes things real simple so it's it's weird being back in that environment after you know being in the business World sort of in real estate when I got out of hockey uh I started i
nvesting in real estate and so there's you know you had to get rid of your naps that was pretty nice get the midday naps now bring that back yeah yeah how about how how about video games with some of the 20s something guys like like what do you guys do all day in Milwaukee no I haven't uh I haven't gotten back into the video games I actually never was really into the video games um when I was doing it but no now we're into the the red light therapies the pmf the all the stuff take care of your b
ody it's changed a little bit I guess so you know what are the aspirations I mean obviously you'd like to get back and play at the highest level one assumes yeah no I think anyone who plays it you know hockey and competitive level wants to play at the top so that's my goal I mean it might be insane to think about it but um know that's what I'm pushing for so yeah uh PTO would be a good start by next September with the National Hockey League club yeah I mean to be honest I'm just trying to do wel
l with this team you know I'm trying to get involved as much as I can and then be part of this uh you know hopefully we can start another streak but it's been fun to be around I really like to coach coaching staff the GM they gave me a chance when I first called they're like uh you know that might be a littleit long I haven't played in eight years yeah but I was fortunate I got to talk with um I actually called people that that knew me and knew my character and knew I wasn't just you know callin
g you know kind of you know in this pipe dream that I was training and and knew what was going on but you know couple couple guys made some phone calls on behalf which is really nice and um I was able to talk to you know gush and and Terry Chris was a good one in Nashville I just basically asked him like you guys been around the game a long time time how would you try to do this or what do you think would be the best way to do this and they said you know it' be tough to try to convince a team to
give you a try out right away but maybe if you pay your own wear you come down you do your own skates and you show them as part of practice and maybe they can you can help their team so that's what I did I called Milwaukee called a couple teams and and these guys are you know fortunate I was fortunate to get a chance with them and so just trying to reward that uh that decision and I'm just trying to yeah keep in the lineup and and do as best as I can so it's a it's a different it's a different
mentality right now but I I'm not looking too far in the future just day by day trying to score as many goals as I can and uh contribute to the wins where are you uh in like your Fitness compared to where you would have been as a player do you feel strong in the gym like you were or oh I'm way better shape I before when I pushed it I would I would get worse like my body would shut down and so it was really tough for me to do that type of conditioning now I feel like more I work the more I push t
he better I get so yeah I'm down to 189 pounds think we just did our body fou 8 8.25% body that's like better than when I played at the at the can I ask you about the goal tender uh askarov I think uh highest uh drafted Russian goalie in I think NHL history I think if I'm not mistaken 11th um how good is he oh he's unbelievable yeah it's it's incredible I told I played with a lot of good goal I started my career with Longo and Schneider Miller and then pekar and Nashville he's he's up he he's he
's honestly he's his caliber is pretty intense uh pretty high so I like working with him I like shooting on him he's he competes on every Puck doesn't matter if it's a rebound in practice if it's in war before a game he'll die for pucks like it's pretty fun to be on the ice with him on trade deadline day when he's packing his bag to go to Nashville can you call us and let us know they actually have this figurine coming out for asky night they have him bench pressing the net and I as him like if
you get a couple I want I want a couple sign of these it's pretty Prett historic so yeah he's he's ready to go well it's awesome seeing you for those of you that uh aren't watching on one of our platforms uh TV uh Cody you look great man and I'm I'm taking credit for a lot of it I want to be honest with you here oh thank you you should hey and put in a good word for me and the Big E if you can do it we can do it on the fourth line with the Admirals you've inspired me Cody oh thanks guys all the
best buddy all the best and we'll stay in touch Cody Hudson everybody from uh the Milwaukee Admirals who's eight years removed and back playing professional hockey at age 34
Comments
Hypothermia means cold not hot