Steven Santini has been presented with two options throughout 2018: Dwell on the negative, or focus on the positive.
He keeps choosing the latter, even through the most difficult of circumstances.
In February of last season, and already with four goals and 13 assists in 75 National Hockey League games on his résumé, the defenseman from Mahopac, N.Y., was demoted by the New Jersey Devils to their American Hockey League affiliate in Binghamton.
He didn’t appear in an NHL game again until this campaign, his third full professional season, but when he did, the joy was short-lived. After being scratched for the season’s first five games, he played on Oct. 20 at the Philadelphia Flyers but suffered a broken jaw when he was hit by the puck in the first period.
