It's not as if Jim Rutherford, a hockey man for more than a half-century, doesn't see it from the press box. Or Mike Johnston, a career coach, doesn't see it from behind the bench. Or all the many capable evaluators on both men's staffs haven't noted it in report after report.
They all know Chris Kunitz is ... well, if he isn't done, then for sure he's not getting anything done.
And concurrently, they all must know this terribly uncomfortable situation for all concerned requires a real solution sooner rather than later.
Man, that's no fun to write. It never is when criticizing an athlete, a person who's achieved so much. And Kunitz has achieved more than most in the sport, between his 223 NHL goals and 510 points, his Stanley Cup in 2009 after arriving in a beauty of a trade a couple months earlier, and his stick-it-to-the-world huge goal in Canada's gold-medal championship in Sochi last winter.
But that player, sadly, no longer takes the ice.
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