SAN JOSE – The Calgary Flames‘ blue line depth is about to face another stiff test.
One week after the Flames lost captain Mark Giordano to a hamstring injury that will keep him out week to week, the Flames will play Monday night in San Jose without the services of Giordano’s top line replacement, Travis Hamonic.
Hamonic left Saturday’s 6-2 win in Vancouver early in the second period, following a collision along the boards.
He returned late in the period for one shift before calling it a night.
Interim coach Geoff Ward confirmed after Monday morning’s skate that Hamonic is out with what is suspected to be an upper-body injury. The team announced Monday afternoon that Hamonic was placed on injured reserve.
[snippet id=4744365]
“He’s gone back to Calgary,” revealed Ward. “He’s getting tested so we’ll see exactly what that involves. We felt we wanted our guys to take a look at him. We’ll take it from there. He won’t be in the game tonight and this afternoon we’ll know more.”
The Flames announced Monday morning they had summoned Alexander Yelesin from Stockton. Buddy Robinson was originally sent back down to the AHL but later recalled.
The Flames will start the game against the Sharks with Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson paired up, followed by TJ Brodie and Micheal Stone.
Recent call-up Brandon Davidson and Oliver Kylington will be the third pairing.
“I think the contribution of our back end was good,” said Ward when asked how the group fared as a five-man unit in Saturday’s much-needed win, which snapped a three-game losing skid.
[snippet id=4167285]
“They’re moving the puck up and we saw a lot of the defencemen moving up and joining the play. I thought they were involved in all three zones. They’ve done a good job in the absence of Gio. We talked about them having to do it by committee and so far they have.”
Brodie led all Flames defencemen with 24:28 of ice time Saturday, while Rasmus Andersson logged 22:17 and Michael Stone played 21:15 despite the fact he recently went a month without playing.
“It was a good game for all of us back there,” said Noah Hanifin, who played a season-high 23:19 against the Canucks.
“When you lose a guy like Gio, and Hammer went down pretty early, you’ve just got to step up and play the best you can. We kind of all played with each other, scrambling around, but we’re all pretty comfortable with each other, so it doesn’t hurt us too much.”
Sam Bennett missed the morning skate due to illness and will be a game-time decision.
David Rittich will get the start.
[relatedlinks]