Chris Gratton Vinny Lecavalier, the $22.5 million man,  was scratched for the seventh-straight game last night. He apparently had or has a probably completely bogus tweaked lower-body injury, which leads me to ask: Your pride is located in your leg?! Anyway, he didn’t play again last night, and reader Michael checked in to describe his encounter with the EMBATTLED* forward after (during?) the game:

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I’m not sure there’s a rule about leaving early, and my guess would be that scratched players typically escape pretty quickly, but this seems to be yet another anecdotal bit about Vinny’s disenfranchisement with how things are going.

Lecavalier explained on Monday how he was just ready to go, according to Randy Miller, who has perfected the art of writing glowingly about embattled players (presumably before stabbing them in the back when they leave):

Missing this one probably will hurt a little more because the Flyers are playing Tampa Bay, Lecavalier’s club for his first 14 NHL seasons, from 1998-99 through 2012-13.

Asked how he’s handing things, Lecavalier responded, “It’s not just because it’s Tampa. I just want to play. I said pretty much everything last week. There’s nothing to say. Practice hard and be ready mentally if I get a chance to play.”

If only.

*Mainstream word Scrabble bonus for me!