Connolly, oh Connolly, why do you torment us so?

NOT AGAIN!

Game 2, Eastern Conference Semifinals, May 2006. Connolly takes a blind pass off Ales Kotalik about ten feet behind the Ottawa blue line and cross behind Kotalik. Head down, he never saw Ottawa center Peter Schaefer coming. Schaefer's 6' 200 pound frame shouldered down on the slumped Connolly and dropped him in his tracks. A year off his first serious concussion, Connolly suffered his second. You can view the hit here.

Since Tim Connolly started skating again mid-last week, he has been complaining of a sore lower leg. Doctors checked out the leg today (the team has not released which leg it was) and found a stress fracture under his knee. This sets Connolly's skating back for a week of workouts.

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff went on to express his exasperation at Connolly's bad luck. "He gets slapped with it (the injury bug) again." Ruff stated that Connolly will continue his upper body strength and stamina training while he was off skates.

This really makes me question Connolly's value to this team. Yes, as I posted yesterday, he is capable of being a dynamic player, but he missed the entire 2003-04 season, he missed 19 games in the 2005-06 season, and has missed 67 straight games including the playoff run of 2005-06.

If a player like Connolly is constantly out of the lineup, he provides nothing for this team. I questioned GM Darcy Regier's decision to resign him in his arbitration hearing last June as well. J.P. Dumont was up for arbitration and was a very dependable player who stayed healthy for 75 games a year. Regier instead decided to keep Connolly, knowing his injury was long term. If Connolly isn't there, he is providing nothing when we expect at least average things out of him. What happens to all other players who don't produce when they are expected to? They take pay cuts, get traded, or just don't get resigned.

Connolly may be injured, but we can't count on him to stay healthy. I don't really think it matters if we have him or not. The only way to really make sure he's worth keeping next year is if we see him use his fresh legs in the playoffs (which Buffalo looks poised to be part of) and be very productive.

If he is average or ineffective, I say trade him. We won't get much, but we free up his cap room and have a better shot at resigning the six players with expiring contracts this summer.

Why we didn't keep J.P. Dumont last summer, I'll never know.