Travis Hamonic leaves game against Capitals with lower-body injury

While the Flames have dealt with injuries this season, they seem to have been limited to just an unlucky few. Unfortunately, one of those few has been Travis Hamonic, as the Flames confirmed he would not return to the Flames at Capitals game partway through the third period.

During the first period, Hamonic was involved in an awkward collision with Jakub Vrana. He left the game for a time, but returned for one shift later in the first, and played six shifts through the first half of the second period. However, since the 11:34 mark of the second, Hamonic has been noticeably absent from the game, forcing the Flames to play with just five defencemen.

This meant the Flames also didn’t have one of their top penalty killers available to them upon taking three straight penalties in the second. He played a 1:21 shift in killing the first penalty, took one more shift afterwards, and then was gone the rest of the game.

This is the Flames’ first game back after nine days off. While they’ve been playing extremely well overall throughout the year – they’re currently second in the NHL – Hamonic’s defensive prowess is likely a big part of that success.

Hopefully this isn’t a long-term injury, because even though the Flames have a number of defencemen playing well for them, Hamonic is a crucial part of their team, and they probably can’t afford to lose him if they wish to make some noise later in the year.