I mean, admitting his sports hernia injury in a scrum before game 1 puck drop is weird, man. Everyone clams up at this time, using vague and opaque references to injuries i.e. 'upper body', 'lower body'. His entire career, he has eventually ran into trouble in the room with teammates given a long enough time line. An ego that will always march to its own drum and zero winning pedigree, despite all his years in the league performing at a pretty decent offensive clip. Pretty clear to me at least, his time is very nearly done here. Whatever happens, best to move on from him over the summer. I was pulling for this guy to clean up his act and somewhat transform himself here. Disappointed.
Yes, for the time being we hope he brings some level of nastiness but we have also seen him (injury aside) look utterly, thoroughly disinterested and disengaged while toiling on the 4th line. Again we'll see. I said it before and have been completely silent during the home stretch because I know the negativity is too much, but I have real doubt about this team's ability to go all the way here, with the makeup and composition of the lineup.