Vasicek playing hard in practice

Forward rebounds from knee injury

More than four months after he tore up his left knee, Josef Vasicek is tearing up practices, throwing his body around in full-contact drills and raising hopes the Carolina Hurricanes forward will be back soon.

Vasicek, the team's leading scorer in 2003-04, won't play tonight at the Toronto Maple Leafs or Wednesday at the Buffalo Sabres, but he said Monday there is still a chance he could return by the end of the month.

"I'm not exactly sure when, but [the knee] feels good," Vasicek said. "I've been doing everything now. I'm pretty happy about it."

Vasicek tore two ligaments in his left knee when he was hit by Florida Panthers forward Juraj Kolnik on Nov. 11. He had reconstructive surgery on Dec. 5.

Vasicek has been skating for a month and was cleared last week to resume full-contact practices.

If all goes well, he may be able to return for some if not all of the final 13 games.

"Ultimately, Joe is going to have to say he's ready," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "He looks good. He's gotten comfortable to the point where we can really push him in practice, bang on him, go three-on-three.

"But he still has to work on his speed and skill. He's been out for a while, and there are some rust issues."

Andrew Hutchinson, meanwhile, is a week away from handling the puck and two weeks away from returning to practice. The defenseman had surgery to repair torn tendons in his wrist Feb. 2.

Both Vasicek and Hutchinson will make the trip to Toronto and Buffalo to practice with the team.

Aaron Ward's status for the two-game trip is questionable after he took a hard hit from the Boston Bruins' Travis Green early in Saturday's 4-2 loss; Ward returned to that game but did not practice Monday. Niclas Wallin, who missed three games with a groin injury, could replace him in the lineup.