Blackhawks’ Jujhar Khaira ready to put Jacob Trouba’s hit, tumultuous season behind him

The Rangers’ Jacob Trouba reached out to the Blackhawks’ Jujhar Khaira after the hit, and Khaira responded to him.

More than nine months since the game between the teams Dec. 7, that’s still about all Khaira — who has moved on but understandably wishes that game never happened — is willing to share publicly.

‘‘I remember it all,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve seen the clip now, and it paints the picture. It sucked.’’

Khaira had his head down to gather a pass from Seth Jones when Trouba delivered the crushing blow to his head. It somehow wasn’t penalized, but it left Khaira unconscious on the ice at the United Center for six minutes and required him to be hospitalized overnight.

Despite a history of concussions dating to his tenure with the Oilers, Khaira was able to return to action Jan. 1. In the meantime, however, a similar incident happened when a hit by the Hawks’ Brett Connolly knocked out the Stars’ Tanner Kero on Dec. 18. It happened again a few months later, when the Senators’ Parker Kelly boarded the Hawks’ Connor Murphy on March 12.

In a Hawks season full of bad news in many areas, three major head injuries in a three-month span was one of the worst patterns of all.

‘‘You’ve seen other guys go through it,’’ Khaira said. ‘‘It’s the ugly part of hockey. But there’s always the potential for that to happen, and that was the case for me. It’s the game we all signed up for, and it’s the game we want to play.’’

And as far as whether he considers Trouba’s hit dirty?

‘‘We all have our opinions,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s all I’m going to say.’’

Kamil Krzaczynski/AP

Khaira’s rough luck last season didn’t end with the hit. A back injury flared up in his return in January. After grinding through it for nine games, he eventually was shut down for surgery, which not only ruled him out for the season but also cut into his summer training. He finished the season with only three points (all goals) in 27 games.

Knowing how he feels now — fully healthy — Khaira is grateful, in retrospect, that he elected to have surgery. At the time, however, it felt like a fittingly disappointing bookend to a largely lost season.

‘‘It was a tough road,’’ said Khaira, who turned 28 last month. ‘‘We’re so used to being in shape and well-conditioned and all that. You have to take a month off to let it heal up before you can start slowly getting into exercises, but mentally you think you should be able to do [more].

‘‘I had a full offseason. It was just [about overcoming] roadblocks. I would get to a certain point, then I’d have to battle through it for a week. Then I’d take another step forward, then get through that, then another step forward. It was never anything where I took a couple of steps back. It was always steps forward, but some maybe took a little bit longer than others. It was what I expected and what I knew I had to go through.’’

With a new coaching staff and a rejuvenated body, Khaira said there’s ‘‘nothing better’’ than the clean slate of a new season. During the first week of camp (before an off-ice day Sunday), Khaira most often skated on a line with Philipp Kurashev and MacKenzie Entwistle.

‘‘He’s in great shape and he’s a great skater,’’ Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. ‘‘[He’s a] very conscious defensive player, but he has some skill with the puck. Those are really intangible utility players you can use in different places.’’