Surgical stapler anvil with directionally biased staple pockets

A surgical stapling apparatus, comprising:

• a housing assembly;
• and
• a shaft assembly operatively coupled to the housing assembly and supporting an end effector, the end effector including:
• a staple cartridge supporting a plurality of staples, each staple of the plurality of staples including a backspan, a first leg, and a second leg, the first and second legs extending from the backspan;
• and
• an anvil having opposed side surfaces and defining a longitudinal axis along a length of the anvil, the anvil defining a knife slot and a plurality of biased staple-forming pockets positioned adjacent to the knife slot, the knife slot and the plurality of biased staple-forming pockets disposed between the opposed side surfaces of the anvil, each biased-staple forming pocket including a first staple-leg forming cavity, a second staple-leg forming cavity, and an end wall that extends linearly along the first and second staple forming cavities, the end wall being parallel to the longitudinal axis of the anvil, each biased staple-forming pocket of the plurality of biased staple-forming pockets configured to form the first and second legs of a respective staple of the plurality of staples on one side of the backspan of the respective staple, the one side of the backspan being positioned toward the knife slot of the anvil relative to the opposed side surfaces of the anvil.