Man you guys who are saying that if he's hurt he should just get surgery instead of playing through it need to consider the mental health of the player and what he feels like. He obviously knows the criticism that he's been receiving the past couple of years: being soft, playing bad, not captain material etc... . You have to be delusional if you think he doesn't let it get to him, so imagine what he feels like when in the season that he wants to prove people wrong he gets injured at the start of the season. Stop looking at the situations in black and white and consider what another person feels like as a human being that has millions of people watching him perform at his job, it obviously has mental health impacts and it's not easy.
While I am also on this topic, same thing applies to Tkachuk last season, where the team was not as supportive of him getting into scrums compared to previous seasons, and then pair that with the fact that he had to play in an empty and silent arena without any fans supporting him when he gets into scrums with other players. It must have felt like he was alone against everyone, which I think impacted his performance and I am confident he will be way better this season with the support of fans or just feeding of the energy. As much as players do not admit it openly that it impacts their mental health, it obviously does, and Tkachuk especially is the guy that feeds of from this type of energy that was missing last season.
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