Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason14h
Clearly a doctor signed off that he’s “hurt”
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What's a doctor going to say if a player says they feel pain? It seems like it would be a medically difficult thing to prove in some cases. I would like to think a doctor wouldn't lie about a player's physical condition based on empirical information because their reputation would be on the line if another doctor reviewed the information and they were caught. I could see a doctor saying in their report that the scans and x-rays indicated they are healed, but that the individual still expressed discomfort and leave it up to the player, coach, and GM to decide if they were ready.
I think the Kucherov situation was as blatant as could be. During the whole offseason, all the discussion around Tampa was how they were going to get under the cap with no talk of Kucherov needing surgery. Then just before camp it was announced that he would need surgery as if they had no indication before and couldn't do it earlier. Then a couple of weeks before the playoffs someone was at a Tampa practice and took a video of Kucherov just flying out there. After the video was posted online, Tampa closed their practices to the public.
Maybe because it was a new thing at the time, the NHL decided not to pursue it, which was probably a mistake.