For the first summer in 23 years, Steve Dietrich did not put on his suit of goaltending armor and protect some Canadian indoor lacrosse team's net.

There were no sliding saves, no tracking down loose balls, no long outlet passes, and worst of all, no camaraderie amongst teammates.

Just Dietrich and an exercise bike at a gym near his Kitchener, Ontario, home.

"I know I won't play forever, and I'll have to adapt to not playing eventually, but it was a long summer," said Dietrich, an original member of the Rochester Knighthawks who blew out his knee 22 January in an NLL game at Philadelphia, sidelining him ten months.

Dietrich returned to the game that has been one of his life's passions when the Knighthawks hosted the Buffalo Bandits in a preseason game at Blue Cross Arena Saturday. He played the first half during which the Knighthawks built a 10-8 lead, then watched as rookie Corey Quinn held off Buffalo for a 16-15 victory.

"It felt weird," Dietrich said of his first game action. "Practice is nothing like a game situation where every goal counts. I'm pain-free, and I thought I moved pretty well, but there were a lot of negatives like my timing was off. It's a measuring stick, and now I can measure everything from this and go from here."

Dietrich had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during the 1998 season and missed a few games, so after blowing out the other knee, it was determined that Dietrich should undergo surgery to repair both joints last spring.

The ACL is the most critical ligament in the knee, and rehabilitating from one ACL operation is difficult, let alone two. But Dietrich was on the field when training camp began on 31 October, and he appears to be right on schedule.

"He has worked hard at it," coach Paul Day said. "Probably mentally the summer off was good for him because now he's hungry to play and practice all the time.

"Since he's been with the team, I think his recovery has progressed a lot faster than it did in the summer just from being around the guys. His fitness level has gotten better just in the last month, and it's nice that we still have a month to go and he knows what he has to do."

Barring any setbacks, Dietrich thinks he'll be ready to go when the Knighthawks open the 2000 season on 8 January, in Syracuse against the Smash.

"The big benefit with this club is that we're so deep at this position," said Dietrich, who will be backed up by Pat O'Toole and Derek General, with Quinn available in case of emergency.

"It's not like I have a gun to my head and I have to be ready at a certain date. Do I want to be ready? Most definitely. But we have so many good goaltenders on this team, and they can do the job if I'm not ready. I can take my time, not push, and when I'm back, I'm back."

The Knighthawks won nine of the twelve games Dietrich missed, including playoffs, and advanced to the NLL championship game where they were defeated by Toronto.

That success was not lost on Dietrich. Since coming to Rochester in the inaugural 1995 season, he has been the foundation on which the team has been built, and he arguably has been the Knighthawks' most popular player.

He admitted that watching the team do so well without him had him wondering if perhaps the team didn't need him anymore.

"I thought about that all summer," he said. "When I was at the gym, on the bike, that's what I thought about. But I'm going to be 30 years old (in mid-February), we've won a championship here, I've been an All-Pro and won individual awards, now it's time for team things.

"If the team wins with me in net, great, and if it wins with Pat or Derek or Corey in net, great, too. If we win, I'm going to get a ring at the end of the year whether I'm in net or not. If I don't play, I'll be there to support whoever is."

Day expects Dietrich to play a key role on the team, but he also said that having O'Toole and General is certainly a pleasant situation.

"One thing last year when we lost him is that we came together as a group and didn't fold our tents," said Day, who recently signed a two-year contract extension with the Knighthawks.

"I think we're a little deeper and getting him back shows that we're going to have really good goaltending. With (Dietrich and O'Toole), they're both the type of guys who if they're having a bad game, they'll come to the bench and say 'I'm not seeing the ball.'

"It's nice to look down the bench and see we have a great choice with either one of them."