As if things weren’t going poorly enough for the Calgary Flames of late, the club is now dealing with the possibility their best forward this season, Blake Coleman, is injured.
Coleman missed most of the second half of a 4-1 loss in Boston, logging just 9:55 on a night in which he twice left the game.
The injury may have occurred in the waning seconds of the first period when he was wrestled to the ice and onto his right shoulder by six-foot-five, 218-pound Bruins defenceman Mason Lohrei, following an exchange of slashes.
“I think he’s probably just a little bit sore and not anything that we wanted to push at that time,” said Ryan Huska, downplaying a situation that may just be precautionary.
Nicknamed the Texas Tiger by his father on the annual dads trip a few years back, Coleman is one of the game’s toughest hombres, fighting through endless ailments to be one the grittiest and hardest workers on the Flames.
A 200-foot player who is having another stellar season shutting down the opposition with Mikael Backlund, Coleman is also on a goal-scoring pace that has him positioned to threaten his career-high of 30 goals from two years ago.
Leading the charge as the Flames won 9-of-12 in December to crawl back into playoff contention, teams around the league have inquired about the possibility of acquiring the 34-year-old via trade.
It’s hardly surprising, as a two-time Stanley Cup winner has another year left on his contract and is an exemplary leader on and off the ice who would be the perfect addition to any contending team. A first-round pick in return for him would be the starting point for any deal the Flames may be tempted to broker.
If he’s lost for any amount of time the Flames’ rapidly deteriorating playoff hopes will take another hit, as would the team’s chances of cashing in on him via trade.
Yes, it sure is starting to feel like the beginning of the end for the Flames’ latest of lost seasons.
Yes, we said that the opening month when they lost eight straight.
But after battling back to .500 with a home-heavy schedule in December, the Flames are threatening to throw that all away with a losing skid that’s now reached four games.
Arriving in their hotel at 3 a.m. Thursday morning, the Flames biggest obstacle outside of fatigue was a red-hot Joonas Korpisalo. The Bruins netminder made several big stops in key moments Thursday night.
The Flames have now been outscored by a 17-5 margin over their last quartet of setbacks, as goal scoring continues to be their biggest challenge.
In that span the team with the league’s worst power play hasn’t scored a single power-play goal.
It threatens to get worse, as the Flames still have three games left on a five-game eastern road trip, including an afternoon game in Pittsburgh Saturday.
We needn’t remind anyone they are the league’s worst road squad, sporting a 6-15-2 record away from the Dome.
Pressing hard all night despite playing less than 24 hours earlier in Montreal, the Flames gave up two goals in each of the first two periods and couldn’t solve Korpisalo, outside of a slick snipe by Connor Zary late in the second period to narrow it to 4-1.
“Tough travel, got in late, the boys battled but couldn’t find a way to bury a couple more,” said Dustin Wolf, forced to play his third game in four nights and eighth game in a row thanks largely to an illness to backup Devin Cooley.
Wolf now leads the league with 35 games played.
“It’s not ideal,” said Huska of his netminder’s recent workload.
“It’s not our intention of playing him three in four, but sometimes situations arise and I thought he handled himself very well.”
He was, quite simply, the Flames' best player.
The Flames are once again much closer to last place in the NHL than they are from the final wild-card spot.
The silver lining, as most 'Team Tank' supporters know, is that with every loss management gets a clearer picture of how best to proceed with a long-term view.
However, without Coleman as a possible trade chip, even that task gets harder.
The Lines
The Flames announced Thursday that Zayne Parekh is dealing with an upper-body injury, so he watched from the press box with Brayden Pachal.
Justin Kirkland drew back in, replacing William Stromgren, whose NHL debut one night earlier in Montreal saw him play just eight minutes.
Huberdeau-Kadri- Farabee
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Zary-Frost-Sharangovich
Lomberg-Kirkland-Klapka
Bahl-Andersson
Kuznetsov-Weegar
Hanley-Brzustewicz
Wolf
Cooley
