The best news Calgary Flames fans can hope for Monday is that the team does not acquire a veteran goalie.
Not only would it save the team precious assets, it would also be proof the team truly believes Mike Smith’s lower-body injury won’t keep him out too long.
Nothing is more important to the team right now given how integral Smith has been to the Flames relative success thus far.
However, until Monday’s NHL trade deadline passes, Flames observers have every right to be skeptical Mr. Smith is anywhere close to returning.
With all due respect to Brad Treliving, who suggested Saturday his netminder was “day-to-day,” nothing the Flames GM says at this time of year should be taken at face value.
Let’s rewind exactly three years ago, to the day, for a great example of why.
In the dying seconds of a Flames win in New Jersey, Mark Giordano appeared to suffer a significant arm injury after being tangled up awkwardly with Steve Bernier while attempting to take a slap-shot.
It looked bad.
Two nights later, on Long Island, Giordano made a surprising appearance in the pre-game warm-up before ultimately being scratched for the game.
It was all a ruse.
Fact was, doctors, the team and Giordano knew he had a torn-biceps that required imminent, season-ending surgery.
His arm was so useless he needed equipment manager Mark DePasquale to pull the jersey on for him.
Treliving didn’t want the other 29 teams to know the extent of the Norris Trophy candidate’s injury while he scoured the league for a replacement blueliner ahead of the deadline.
So they trotted out the captain.
“They wanted me to go out and show people it wasn’t as bad,” said a chuckling Giordano on Saturday, still insisting — unconvincingly — there was an outside chance he could have played a few games but to no avail.
“I think at this time of year nobody wants to show their hand. I think there was a little bit of that.”
It was only after acquiring defenceman David Schlemko at the trade deadline that the team announced Giordano was done for the year.
Which brings us back to Smith.
As of Saturday, the Flames’ 35-year-old MVP had only skated three times since Feb. 11 when he appeared to tweak a groin or his hip, prompting teammates to carry him off with one second remaining.
His last known skate was a week ago, followed by rest Treliving insists people should not read to much into.
Meanwhile, fellow Flames netminders David Rittich and Jon Gillies, who have 19 NHL games of experience between them, are being thrown into one of the tightest playoff races possible.
As Treiving said, it’s a lot to ask of youngsters who’ve had mixed results between the pipes since Smith went down.
If Smith’s ailment threatens to sideline him another two weeks or more, you can bet Treliving will feel compelled to spend coveted assets on a rental such as Antti Raanta, Cam Ward or Robin Lehner.
Costs aside, the first debate is whether the team would be any better off with average veterans such as those, as opposed to the rookies in town now.
That said, if there’s a chance Smith could be lost for the season (which only has six weeks left before playoffs) Treliving owes it to the team to do as Ron Hextall did in Philadelphia last week by summoning veteran help. (Goalie Petr Mrazek, after being traded to the Philly Flyers from the Detroit Red Wings, has since won both games since joining Hextall’s team.)
If not, it says here run with the rookies for the next few weeks and save the assets for a hard charge next year when this team is better positioned to do some playoff damage.
The team is also downplaying the injury that kept Micheal Ferland from the lineup Saturday, but perhaps that too gives Treliving all the more impetus to focus on his season-long goal of somehow finding his club some scoring depth.
It didn’t work with Jaromir Jagr, and the loss of Kris Versteeg to hip surgery certainly hasn’t helped.
Treliving said Saturday that Versteeg has been skating “a lot” and may be mere weeks away if given the nod by his surgeon this week.
Again, who knows what to believe?
Monday’s 1 p.m. MT trade deadline will help piece together some answers for questions about Smith’s status.
“It’s a weird time of year,” said a smiling Giordano when asked about the trade deadline games.
“There’s nothing you can do at this point as a player.”
Except, of course, pull a jersey over your injured appendage.