In the simplest of terms, the last five months of Kirby Dach’s hockey career did not follow the script.
The sequence of events is familiar to everyone by now: a fractured wrist just before Christmas, a surgery with a projected recovery time of 4-5 months, a return well ahead of schedule, and then 18 games played before being shut down for the final three due to what the team described as “post-operative discomfort.”
Yes, it was a weird year for everyone in and out of the hockey world and the 2021 NHL season remains such an anomaly that drawing any firm conclusions can be a lesson in futility.