PHILADELPHIA -- The Calgary Flames got crushing news Monday when it was announced their captain and top defenseman, Mark Giordano, would miss the rest of the season because of a torn biceps tendon.
But there's no time to worry about his loss; there's a game Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
"It's just natural when you hear news like that," Flames defenseman Kris Russell said. "It's disappointing. But we've got a game tonight and the Flyers aren't going to feel sorry for us that we lost [Giordano]. So we have to make sure we come out and really compete and try to bring his character and leadership and step up."
Giordano's 48 points are tied for second among NHL defensemen and tied for the lead on the Flames, and his 25:10 of ice time per game is one second behind defense partner TJ Brodie for most on the Flames. Giordano leads them in driving possession; his even-strength shot-attempt percentage of 48.36 is the best on the Flames among players to skate in at least 10 games.
"You don't replace a player of this caliber," Flames coach Bob Hartley said. "It's going to be by committee. I think it's a great situation for all the defensemen on our team. They have a chance to grab some power-play time, some penalty-killing time, some more 5-on-5 minutes. I think that's our situation."
Despite the absence of their best player, Hartley said the mood among the players was positive.
"As soon as we found out, you have to turn the page," he said. "We have 20 games left and one thing I've learned in this business is you can't win games with the players you don't have in your lineup. It's the end of the subject right there. We have 20 guys that are working hard. They'll compete hard for us."
The focus has to be high for the Flames; their 70 points are tied with the Los Angeles Kings for third place in the Pacific Division, but the Flames have a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs based on having two more regulation/overtime wins than the Kings (30-28).
Can they hold onto that lead without their best player? The Flames certainly think so.
"There's not a lot of people that believe in this team anymore," Russell said. "But at the same time we're in a race here and we think we can win and we believe we can win with the players in this room."
The Flyers are in an even more precarious playoff position. They trail the Boston Bruins by six points for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot with 19 games remaining.
"We really need this game," Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said. "We need pretty much every game the rest of the year. I think everyone is in the same mindset here. We're going to go out, work our butts off and try to get the two points."
Here are the projected lineups:
FLAMES
Mason Raymond - Sean Monahan - Jiri Hudler
Johnny Gaudreau - Joe Colborne - Josh Jooris
Lance Bouma - Mikael Backlund - David Jones
Michael Ferland - Drew Shore - Emile Poirier
Scratched: David Schlemko, Matt Stajan, Brandon Bollig
Injured: Mark Giordano (arm), Paul Byron (lower body), Ladislav Smid (upper body)
FLYERS
Michael Raffl - Claude Giroux - Wayne Simmonds
Matt Read - Sean Couturier - Jakub Voracek
Ryan White - Brayden Schenn - R.J. Umberger
Chris VandeVelde - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Vincent Lecavalier
Michael Del Zotto - Luke Schenn
Carlo Colaiacovo - Andrew MacDonald
Scratched: Zac Rinaldo
Injured: Nicklas Grossmann (upper body)
Status report: The Flames sent center Markus Granlund to Adirondack of the American Hockey League on Tuesday. … Hartley said the Flames will rotate their defense pairings on a game-by-game basis and likely will use different pairings during games with Giordano out. "We're going to kind of put them in a blender basically every game," Hartley said. "We'll see. Obviously it's going to go a lot based on their performances." … Grossmann, who was injured Saturday against the New York Rangers when he slid to block a Rick Nash shot, took part in the morning skate. Coach Craig Berube said Grossmann would be a game-time decision. "That's up to the coaches and GM [Ron Hextall]," Grossmann said of playing Tuesday. "I felt pretty good skating. It's just nice to be out there again." If Grossmann can play, it's likely Colaiacovo would sit out. Colaiacovo has been a healthy scratch the past eight games.
Who's hot: Ramo is 1-2-0 in his past three games but has stopped 91 of 94 shots (.968 save percentage) in that span. … Del Zotto has three goals and four assists in his past eight games.
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