It was, without question, the most complete effort of the Calgary Flames season.
Thursday’s 5-0 dismantling of the previously surging Montreal Canadiens tied a franchise-high eight-game winning streak, rewarded a revived Brian Elliott with his first shutout of the season and gave Johnny Gaudreau another four-point effort like the one he started his team’s surge with.
There can be few better times of the year to be playing your best hockey, giving the team a 12-2-1 mark since late January that has the Flames now tied with the Edmonton Oilers for third in the Pacific.
However, Flames fans woke up Friday full of anticipation over word on two significant injuries that threaten to slow the league’s fastest-moving train these days.
Mere points away from posting his fourth-straight career season, Dougie Hamilton left Thursday’s game late in the second period after Andreas Martinsen hit him along the boards, either cutting his left leg or buckling the right. Assistant coach Martin Gelinas gave cause for optimism when he said on Sportsnet 960’s post-game radio broadcast Hamilton would be back, “sooner rather than later.”
Michael Stone’s departure might be a little lengthier following an early third-period collision that sent him scampering off the ice and into the dressing room with his left arm hanging limply. It had the look of a shoulder separation.
It could be a significant blow to a team that has won all eight games since Stone was acquired from Arizona one week before the trade deadline. We’ll see if he was indeed their lucky charm.
Team officials said the extent of either injury wouldn’t be known until Friday at the earliest, when the Flames travel to Winnipeg for a Saturday tilt.
The injuries could provide a fascinating roadblock for a team that has been a picture of health all season, outside of finger injuries to Gaudreau and Troy Brouwer. Now it must scramble to fix the gap GM Brad Treliving plugged when he acquired Stone and Matt Bartkowski late last month after identifying defensive depth as the team’s most glaring weakness.
It means the Six Million Dollar Man, Dennis Wideman, will return from his perch in the press box to likely play alongside probable AHL call-up Brett Kulak on the third pairing.
Earlier in the day Thursday teammates were praising the job Stone has done as the Flames no. 4 blueliner, giving T.J. Brodie the sort of stability needed to kick-start his season offensively. Since the two joined forces they’ve combined for three goals, seven assists and a plus-18 rating in eight games.
And the team is undefeated, limiting the opposition to two goals or less in seven straight.
“Sometimes you’re not really sure but you look for chemistry and there seems to be chemistry between Bart and (Deryk Engelland) and between Brodes and Stoney,” said coach Glen Gulutzan, who admitted he was concerned over the injuries after the game but had no update on them.
“That’s odd sometimes that it happens so quickly. He’s an unbelievable guy and obviously Tre had that background knowledge. Both guys have fit in seamlessly.”
Giordano and Hamilton have been the Flames top pair all season and with a possible Hamilton absence perhaps Brodie moves up with his old partner, leaving a no. 6 guy like Bartkowski (who had spent the season in the AHL until the Flames nabbed him) with a solid no. 5 guy like Engelland on the second unit.
This will be a tester.
Then again, this Flames team lost then-Norris Trophy candidate Giordano late in the season two years ago, prompting many to believe the team’s unlikely playoff chances would disappear. Instead, the team rallied around his injury, made the playoff and won a round.
“We rely on depth and we believe in each other in here and we have to do it as a team,” said Giordano when asked about the possibility of losing either or both players for long.
“Hopefully they’re not significant injuries and they get back in soon.”
Until then, it will be fascinating to see if a team that has won 25 of a possible 30 points of late can continue its dominance without the defensive depth that helped it surge.
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