Wrists and fingers can mess up passes and shots. Shoulders kill your shot speed and height. Core injuries make skating and physical play tough. Hip injuries, skating's gone. Can't set your feet, everything's gone.
Simmonds finger might explain why he missed shots, but not why he was far less aggressive on the forecheck for most of the playoffs. He was incharacteristically soft on the boards. you can immobilize a finger, screws up yor shot but keeps it from hurting until you've already done whatever made it hurt. It still looked to me liek Simmonds did exactly what a young player like him does - got a little overwhelmed by the playoffs.
Carle's problem can explain why he lost position on players, hard to turn, start, stop. But unless his anatomy is strange, the stomach muscle doesn't connect to the head nuscle, and he's been making supid plays and turnovers for a LONG time. Credit for playing through pain, but doesn't change why I don't want him re-signed.
We kind of suspected G had one bad hand. 2? Bone spurs don't happen overight and can limit flexibility. How did he rack up 93 points? He's been done for 2 weeks, and STILL leads the NHL in playoff points. And with 2 bad wrists, he was still one of the most aggressive Flyers (note to Simmonds). But would explain why he was reluctant to shoot, missing the net and losign faceoffs.
JVR's luck is just awful. He came back skating hard, then nearly disappeared. Does that mean he tore the labrum after coming back? Or just couldn't take skating through it anymore? Hard to push yourself to skate through pain when everything around you seems to be failing.
I've played with all kinds of injuries, and it is interesting to find out how an injury to one part of you body can affect something seemingly unrelated. But I have the advantage of having a skill level that means injuries that deplete skills can't reduce my game by much.
Latest one was I thought I had broken my finger early in the game. The correct dislocation diagnosis was made after the game, while I was pushing gear back into my bag and saw one finger pointing back up at me. Did I let that affect my regular 0 point night? Not at all!
Posted on May 21, 2012, 11:42 AM from IP address 208.87.234.180