Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press
Wild goalie Josh Harding missed much of last season because of his multiple sclerosis but returned in time for the playoffs.
EDINA, Minn. — The 95-degree heat on a late August day made Josh Harding hasten from his Cadillac Escalade pickup truck into an air-conditioned coffee shop. A few minutes after buying a lemonade, Harding — in a white T-shirt, dark blue shorts, flip-flops and a backward Minnesota Twins ball cap — felt so cold he grasped his shoulders for warmth.
But Harding did not seem to mind. Oppressive heat can be problematic for people with multiple sclerosis. Keeping cool and hydrated is an everyday concern for Harding, the Minnesota Wild goalie who was found to have the inflammatory disease last year during the N.H.L. lockout. Harding took the diagnosis so seriously he even gave up golf.
"It's good," Harding, 28, said. "I need to be chilly. This is perfect."
Harding missed most of last season as he adjusted to his medication and its side effects. He returned in the playoffs to fill in for the injured Niklas Backstrom, posting a .911 save percentage and a 2.94 goals against average in a five-game, first-round loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, the eventual Stanley Cup champions.
Awarded the N.H.L.'s Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, Harding spent the off-season establishing Harding's Hope, a charity benefiting multiple sclerosis patients struggling to afford medication and treatment. Harding said he was aghast to learn that a year's supply of M.S. drugs cost $60,000 to $70,000. His N.H.L. health insurance picks up most of the costs, but Harding knows not everyone is so lucky.
"I was kind of seeing what needed the most help," Harding said. "I sat down and talked to doctors, everybody involved in the charity. The best thing is to help people living with it right now, with their day-to-day lives. I feel very fortunate being in the N.H.L., being covered with insurance, all the resources are covered, too. I just wanted to help out people living with it right now."
Last week, Harding was back on the ice for the opening of the Wild's training camp. In a white mask with his nickname, Hards, on the chin, Harding appeared no different from the other four goalies at the University of Minnesota's Ridder Arena. His only visible concession to M.S. was a second water bottle atop his goal.
Harding said he must be careful to avoid overheating, excessive fatigue and stress. Unfortunately, all are part of a goalie's job description. Although Harding's playoff return alleviated some of the team's concerns, Wild Coach Mike Yeo said he still had to determine how often Harding could play as Backstrom's backup. Backstrom, who turns 36 in February, appeared to wear down as the lockout-shortened season went along.
"We can't sit here and draw up a blueprint for it right now," Yeo said. "There have been other years where we put a pretty set plan in place. This is a unique situation with both guys where we have to evaluate it on a day-in-and-day-out basis and be prepared to adjust."
Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable disease that attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms and severity vary from person to person, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Web site, and most people do not become severely disabled. There is no cure, but symptoms often can be controlled with medication.
Harding said he received his diagnosis after collapsing last October during an informal workout with locked-out N.H.L. players in St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb.
Several weeks before, Harding had complained of extreme fatigue and neck pain. On the ice that day, he said he saw dots that grew bigger and bigger until they blocked out the puck. Then his right leg went numb and gave out.
"Obviously, I knew something was wrong," he said. "It stayed like that just for a little bit, but I had enough to get up. It felt like I was walking on nails. Thankfully, we had three goalies there. I had to come off the ice, and I just left."
Magnetic resonance imaging tests of his neck and brain showed lesions, telltale signs of M.S. The Wild's team physician, Dan Peterson, who is also Harding's family doctor, referred Harding to Dr. Jonathan Calkwood, one of Minnesota's leading M.S. specialists.
The diagnosis shook Harding. It came four months after he signed a three-year, $5.7 million contract extension and shortly after he learned his fiancée was pregnant.
"Right when the doctor said multiple sclerosis, I was worried for sure," he said. "I think anybody would be. I didn't know if it was going to be career-ending. I had so many questions."
Calkwood told Harding that with a proper diet, rest and medication, he could continue his career. Harding later heard from Jordan Sigalet, a former minor league goalie who played four professional seasons with M.S. and appeared briefly for the Boston Bruins in 2006.
"When you think about M.S., the main thing is not to be overheated and not to be stressed," Sigalet said in a telephone interview earlier this year. "When you think about a goalie, it's probably the worst for all those things. People always think, you're in an ice rink, it's cold out there. But you have 50 pounds of equipment on."
Sigalet said he often received intravenous fluids between periods as a precaution. Harding would not address that but said he was willing to do whatever was necessary.
"I'm lucky to be a Minnesota Wild," Harding said. "Now it's my job to do everything in my power to not make them regret taking me back."
It helps that Harding is expected to be a backup, not the No. 1 goalie. Harding insisted he could play as well as he used to.
"No one knows except Josh how he's feeling or what his day-to-day life is like," his teammate Zach Parise said. "For us, you can only hope we can rely on him when we need to, and he can step in and play big games when we need him to."
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