Music: {allcanada} Injured Flames crowd training room

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

{allcanada} Injured Flames crowd training room

B rent Sutter generously gave the Calgary Flames the day off Monday to fill up their bellies with turkey and celebrate Thanksgiving with their families.

No word on whether the head coach ordered his players to forgo carving the bird (for fear of sliced digits) given the injuries ravaging the NHL club.

"You've got to live your life and see what happens." says defenceman Ian White (notes).

"But I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before."

The laundry list of wounded warriors grows by the day with Rene Bourque (notes) (potential head injury, day to day), Matt Stajan (notes) (separated shoulder, week to week) David Moss (notes) (shoulder, indef inite), Raitis Ivanans (notes) (potential head injury, day to day). Ales Kotalik (notes) (knee, indefinite), Ryan Stone (notes) (knee, indefinite), Daymond Langkow (notes) (neck, indefinite), and Adam Pardy (notes) (shoulder, indefinite), all in the training room.

Two games down. Only 80 to go.

"We can't feel sorry for ourselves, " White says.

"No one else will. Just a bit of adversity. It makes us stronger as a team."

Maybe so, but Sutter might start ordering his players to wear bubble-wrap from head to toe any time they leave the confines of the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Given their luck of late, the Flames should exercise caution when crossing the street. When climbing in and out of the bathtub.

If the trend continues, these guys could accidentally amputate a finger by opening a can of tomato soup.

"Hopefully, this means we're getting these injuries out of the way early," White says. "And we'll be healthy down the stretch."

A sound philosophy also espoused by the coach.

"We just continue to move on," Sutter says with a heavy sigh. "I mean, it's never easy to lose guys. But it is what it is, and your young players get the opportunity to be put in situations they maybe they wouldn't normally be put in … as with others."

True enough. Craig Conroy (notes), 39, rifled home the winning goal Sunday in a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. Without this bizarre rash of injuries, Conroy might have been up in the press box chowing down on turkey and popcorn.

Come Thursday night, Cory Sarich (notes) or Steve Staios (notes) should come down from the press box and suit up against the Florida Panthers. Defenceman Adam Pardy left the ice in considerable pain Sunday after he tried to rub out Wayne Simmonds (notes) along the boards.

Pardy was clearly favouring his shoulder

"It's terrible to see that happen," White says. "You know he got hit in the eye two games ago in preseason, and now this. So it's tough. He's a tough guy; I know he'll bounce back."

The Flames can only hope Bourque bounces back after suffering his third, um, hit to the head of the severe variety, since coming to Calgary in 2008.

No official word from the club, but Bourque clearly exhibited signs of a concussion when he staggered to the bench after a collision far from the puck with Kevin Westgarth (notes). With his feet failing him, Bourque weaved, wobbled, and barely made it to his final destination.

Should he, as expected, miss time, the Flames might turn to a minor leaguer like Jon Rheault (notes), Cam Cunning (notes) or Mitch Wahl (notes), to fill the void. Rheault could very well be the most desirable candidate, but he's only on an American League deal. Darryl Sutter already has 49 players under NHL contract, and the limit is 50.

Going with the maximum can be ill-advised, as it provides little wiggle room on the trade market. If a team at the limit wanted a rental player at the deadline, for example, the general manager would have to first find a taker for a non-roster player.

And so the headaches mount for a team besieged by injuries even before the snow flies.

"You can't dwell on it." Brent Sutter says, of watching his players go down one by one. "It's part of the game.

"You just have to continue to stay focused, and hopefully you get bodies back as you go on."

Stajan might be the closest to returning, but he's still wearing a yellow don't-hit-me jersey at practice. Until he takes, and survives, contact, game action hardly appears imminent.

"This is just the way things are going for us right now," says forward Tim Jackman (notes), who did an admirable job Sunday in eating up some of the ice-time that normally belongs to Bourque. " Every team has injuries, so I guess it's better to just go through them now than at the end of the season, when we're hopefully playing in the playoffs."