After his fight in the Calgary Flames opener versus Vancouver, Travis Hamonic is currently listed as week-to-week with an undisclosed injury.
As reported by Eric Francis of Sportsnet, the Calgary Flames are prepared to announce that defenseman Travis Hamonic will be “out week-to-week”.
The injury more than likely occurred when Hamonic took it upon himself to defend his rookie teammate, Dillon Dube, against what the Flames considered a borderline hit, by Vancouver Canucks defender, Erik Gudbranson.
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Hamonic squared up with Gudbranson and subsequently took a licking while he attempted to keep on ticking. However, an upper-cut courtesy of Gudbranson’s meat-fist caused the auspicious Hamonic to immediately grasp at his jaw and drop to the ice. It didn’t look good.
The positive being that Hamonic felt good enough to return to that game with a minute remaining in the first period, however now sporting a face shield to protect his jaw. He was visibly absent from Calgary’s Thursday practice which immediately brought about the red-flags.
Dube spoke with the press following the Thursday practice at the Saddledome.
"“I was even nervous to go talk to him after the fight, because I didn’t know if he would be mad at me for having to go fight..But I think he was happy about it. He was proud. I can’t say enough about that leadership, and that really makes me feel welcome in the room when somebody will go and do that for you.”"
Newly promoted alternate captain, Matthew Tkachuk, said exactly what you thought he would regarding Travis stepping up for his teammate.
"“I loved it,…That’s just the type of guy he is, the type of teammate he is.”"
Yes, Hamonic did the correct thing, but at what cost? A “week-to-week” prognosis isn’t something Flames brass ever wants to hear, let alone within the first week of the regular season.
Last season, Hamonic played in 74 regular season games, while tallying one goal and ten assists for eleven points. He finished with a minus-9 plus/minus rating and had 79 penalty minutes to boot. For the Flames fan-base sake, let’s hope that the week-to-week timeline is inflated, and Travis is able to get back to full strength more sooner than later.