RodTheBawd
Registered User
- Oct 16, 2013
- 5,529
- 8,604
I really don't think there's much to this. There are others who have played just as much who are fine. Ward is fine (better than fine) again this year. We don't have any reason to believe there is some threshold for play where peoples' bodies "break down" and assigning blame to that is simply assigning blame to something random that cannot be disproven.
There were articles written about Staal dating back to just a couple years after the Stanley Cup season that were similar. For example: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/pu...econstructing-the-inscrutable-?urn=nhl,146690
Besides, it's not like he's ever played a particularly energetic or physically demanding game. He's not Ovechkin out there throwing checks.
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Well then I guess it's time to close up shop. Since virtually no speculation on these boards can be disproven, there's no point in anyone speculating anything on here. By the way, I was talking specifically about Eric Staal, not some imaginary threshold that ALL hockey players that have ever played might hit before their bodies break down.
My point: I've always questioned his effort, but this year in particular he looks more like a guy dropping off quickly after some serious injuries than a guy that looks completely disinterested 90% of his shifts.