"Wednesday's Vancouver Canuck practice ended with a tough conditioning skate followed by three words from coach Alain Vigneault: "Welcome back, Sami."

And although defenceman Sami Salo's lungs were burning and he was physically spent, he couldn't begin to tell you how good it felt to be back. Or at least on the way back.

Just over five months after rupturing his Achilles tendon while playing floorball near his off-season home in Finland, Salo returned Wednesday to participate in his first full practice with his Canucks teammates.

"I feel pretty good out there," Salo said. "I haven't played in eight months and it doesn't happen by pressing a button to get back to game speed with timing and everything. So there's no real timeline as to when I am going to be ready. But it's going to be in the near future at some point."

For Salo, who knows a thing or two about injuries and the work required to return from them, this injury has presented the toughest challenge he has ever faced, both physically and mentally.

"It's No. 1, for sure," he said. "I can't compare anything to this."

Salo leaned heavily on family and friends and credits the Canucks organization with offering him support and ensuring he had the very best care.

"Everybody together kind of helped mentally and the reassurances from the doctors and specialists who are world class, they reassured me that if I keep on the rehab program and keep going 100 per cent every day, I'll be back. That has kind of given me a goal at the end of the tunnel. I'm getting pretty close to that now."

The biggest cheer in practice came when Salo scored during a two-on-one drill. That it came against assistant equipment manager Jamie Hendricks, who was filling in for new dad Roberto Luongo, didn't seem to matter."