The Calgary Flames will be playing some of their biggest games of the season without their best defensive forward and their locker-room leader.
The Flames announced Friday, hours before a showdown with the Colorado Avalanche, that captain Mikael Backlund is out week-to-week due to an upper-body injury.
Backlund logged only five shifts before leaving Wednesday’s crucial clash against the Vancouver Canucks, which ended in a 4-3 shootout victory for the West Coast club.
The absence of Backlund is a devastating blow for the Flames, tied for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 18 games to go. He is their shutdown centre, their most trusted faceoff man and one of their top penalty-killers.
Backlund, who turns 36 next week, hasn’t missed a contest since April of 2021. This will halt his 328-game ironman streak, the second-longest in franchise history.
“He’s a guy that we rely on in pretty much every situation of the game,” said Flames forward Blake Coleman, Backlund’s usual linemate and one of his alternate captains, after Thursday’s optional practice at WinSport. “Obviously, for me, it’s a guy I’ve played with pretty much every night for the past four years, so hopefully it’s not too bad. But we know that if it wasn’t, he’d be out there. It’s just one of those things where it’s not a hole that you can fill with one guy. But collectively, we have to pick up the weight.”
Backlund has contributed 11 goals and 13 assists in 64 games this season.
With Backlund out and Connor Zary suspended, the Flames have recalled Dryden Hunt from the AHL’s Wranglers. Hunt, 29, has collected 48 points in 48 games in the minors.