For Casey Borer, it has been a long time coming, with no certainty it would ever come.
Before Thursday, the defenseman had last played in an NHL game on Dec. 11, 2008. For Borer, that seems like it was in another lifetime given all that happened to him since that game in Philadelphia.
Borer was on the Albany River Rats bus when it crashed on a snowy Massachusetts highway on Feb. 19, 2009 and was one of the players most seriously injured. He suffered a broken neck, leaving him in a hospital, leaving his hockey career in jeopardy.


