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Yesterday while making his media rounds Sidney Crosby claimed to currently be 100% and also admitted that his wrist injury limited him and his ability to make plays at the end of last season. Crosby also confirmed that it was a hit by Ryan Reaves that caused the injury. If you haven't seen the hit, here it is
Nothing wrong with the hit, Sid just gets his arm caught underneath him. Unfortunate, but part of a playing in a contact sport.
The injury did not impact Crosby's ability to drive possession, but it did have a significant impact on his ability to have tangible offensive results.
Crosby wasn't the only player on his line who suffered an injury towards the end of the season though. His linemate Chris Kunitz had a cringe worthy collision with the goal post on March 11 against the Capitals. Like the play that injured Crosby, this was just the product of playing in a contact sport:
I was curious if Kunitz suffered from the same drop off in production after this injury like Crosby did.
Keep in mind that the before sample size is 65 games and the after sample size is 26 games (playoffs included).
Possession wise Kunitz was not negatively impacted. He actually played really well, as did Crosby .
Offensively it was not the same.
Kunitz saw his numbers dip, as did Crosby . Was this related to crashing hard into the post or was this tied to the Crosby wrist injury? Either way there is a significant enough drop to where it impacted the Penguins ability to win games.
The way the Penguins were structured last year they were not able to absorb production dropping from their top six players. It isn't fair to those top six players, but that was reality because of the roster Shero built.
It was unfortunate for the Penguins to have those guys banged up towards the end of the year but that is always a possibility in this sport. The way to combat that is to have playable depth.
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The Buffalo Bills will be staying in Western New York, which is exactly where they belong. Sabres billionaire owner Terry Pegula will be purchasing the Bills for 1.1B. How is he paying for it?
This situation has been a black cloud that has hovered over Western New York for years. Today the cloud is gone forever. It is a great day for the region which I call home.
In the span of a week Jim Kelly has been diagnosed free of cancer, the Bills are actually undefeated (after playing a game no less!), and they are staying in Buffalo.
Go Bills.
Thanks for reading!
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