TSN's Dreger: Datsyuk will NOT play Game 4

[dragonballgtz 273]

This is the crap i do not understand. How in the hell could Yzerman play on one leg but Pavel can't play with a bad foot. I am sorry but this is the playoffs get your butt out there.

[Yzermania 156]

This is the crap i do not understand. How in the hell could Yzerman play on one leg but Pavel can't play with a bad foot. I am sorry but this is the playoffs get your butt out there.

Because he is Steve Yzerman.

[Frozen-Man 144]

This is the crap i do not understand. How in the hell could Yzerman play on one leg but Pavel can't play with a bad foot. I am sorry but this is the playoffs get your butt out there.

I think that it is largely a difference in rolls. In 02 Stevie was in the waning period of his career. He was still putting up numbers but he was really there because he was the heart and soul of the team. He presence was his most important asset to the team and his ability to play through the pain and the heart that he showed in doing it was what made him so valuable that playoff year. Dats is not in the same position. He is needed to play both ends of the ice, to ferociously back check, to "dangle dangle" and turn guys inside out. That is how he plays his game and it is where his value to the team lies. Dats might could come back and play the role that Stevie did in 02 but because he doesn't have they years, prestige, reverence, or severe injury that Yzerman did I am not sure it would have anywhere near the same effect.

Also, if they have been honest that he really is day to day and a game time decision before every game because he is continuing to improve and become more healthy he is in a very different situation than Yzerman was. Without a very major surgery (one usually reserved for 60 year only people not professional athletes) there was no way that Yzerman was going to get better. IF they could have rested him for a week or two and he could have been totally healthy (or remotely close to it) I'm pretty certain that they would have gone that route, however that was not the case his injury was what it was and rest/therapy was not going to fix it. Yzerman was going to play at 40-60% health no matter what, so either you play him and get him at 40-60% (which I would take over almost any player at 100% health) and get the benefit that he provides (including the amazing inspiration, dedication, and heart that he showed) or you don't play him and you get nothing.

That is not the same option that they have with Pav, they say there is no broken bone. Every day, before every game, and after every practice the team and Dats himself says he is getting better, getting healthier, and improving what he is capable of doing. The injury that Pavs has can be reagitated, its healing slowed, and with rest/therapy his health will continue to improve. Perhaps they know that they can sit him out, trust the team to keep them in the series and Dats can come back for the last 3 games of the series pretty close to 100% health. The difference in the two is that Yzerman's injury was so bad that it couldn't be fixed with rest/therapy nor (according to Yzerman) would it really be made worse by playing (unless there was a collision or other incident that would further injure it but playing itself would not make it worse) however Dats can/has continued to get better and playing could possibly inhibit healing.

Basically (and this is just a guess obviously), they may have decided that having Dats 100% (or close to it) for the final three games was a better option than having him at 70% (and possibly declining as the series went on) for the final five games.