He still probably is until he gets surgery on whatever causes him pain.
Imagine watching a player wincing and grimacing in pain almost nightly when he makes certain movements all season and not believing he has some issues.
I agree. It was like almost every game he'd be grimacing in pain too. Spent lots of time before periods loosening up his hips too.
And it was pretty obvious the team knew he was battling through something, because the trainer would often just stand there ignoring him while he was grimacing, because he already knew what it was, and didn't want to draw attention to it.
It doesn't make sense either that he would rehab his hip all off season, and then at the start of the year, be visibly upset and say that it didn't fix the problem, but then somehow it got better after 77 grueling regular season games and playoffs.
My guess is he's hoping to put off hip surgery, because the rehab is so lengthy, and there's some question marks when you come back. He's too much of a competitor, and knows how important he is to the team. Some players try to wait until after their UFA deal to have surgeries like that, but that's 3 years away, so it might be a bumpy ride if they can't find a non surgical way to fix the problem.
IMO it just speaks to how much of a competitor Cale is and how special a player he is, that he can play through that kind of pain, and still be better than 99% of the league. He's just not gonna say it, because he doesn't want to make excuses.
