The nature of pro sports, as a whole, I think is to rush things. Whether the player may admit it or not, no one wants to miss playing time and like Jordan Staal recently said “they replace you pretty quickly if you miss a ton of time”.

A player can’t come back until a team doctor clears him and he practices for a while to come back to close to “game shape” but all the time we see guys not let themselves heal properly and end up making it worse.

I’m with you on this (and we’re in the minority amongst Pens fans). Whitney had some negatives to his game and it never really seemed li ke he developed into as well-rounded of a player that he showed glimpses of, but I thought he was a good player.

Everytime I see Goligoski flub “The Whitney play” it reminds me just how hard it is for a left handed shot to get a lot of velocity and good placement of a one-timer across your body. Ryan was great at it, and I think that helped fuel the PP, which hasn’t looked so hot lately.

I suppose I’m in the majority, but I was never entirely sold on Whitney. He already struck me as a guy with a very sensitive psyche and ultimately his body showed that same level of sensitivity when it came to surgery. I didn’t hate him by any means but I don’t think he lives up to his end of the bargain (or salary) when it came to playing on that blue line. I do miss that Whitney play though. It seemed like that was his break and butter.

And for what it’s worth, he picked up two assists last night and isn’t doing all that bad with the Ducks now that he has hit footing (literally) under him.