Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
He didn't. But his surgery (which admittedly was done late in the off season) had a recovery window which should have taken to about two weeks before POs). He delayed his return by at least that much (he was skating on his own).
The cleanup on that one is hard though - who's to tell a guy coming off major surgery when he's ready? Healing rates differ wildly.
I get the frustration. Team who don't cheat or at least play the cap game hard are not rewarded for it. But that's not part of the unlevel playing field since any team can do it and get away with it it seems.
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Yeah, it's impossible to know from the outside. It just looks very convenient and suspicious when you have a league leading scorer miss a whole year and suddenly become available the moment the playoffs are ready to begin.
The frustrating part is the obvious cheating. Nobody blames the Oilers for Klefbom because that was an actual career threatening injury. What they did with Smith is clearly against the spirit of the rule.