Welcome to the doldrums of the hockey offseason. We can tell we’re in the doldrums because it’s time for the annual Sergei Fedorov jersey retirement debate. I won’t relitigate that here, but part of what always gets talked about now is other players deserving of the honor, and those comments reminded me that I still haven’t come to grips with a piece I intended to write last year:
I still haven’t forgiven Pavel Datsyuk as a fan.
Before you head to the comments to berate me about how easy it is to see why he chose to skip out on the last year of his contract and how easy it is to understand and accept his apology for not quite understanding the consequences of what he signed up for on that three-year deal, I want to let you know that as a father and as a professional I completely understand and forgive Pavel Datsyuk for making the choice that he made.