On Sunday night, the Calgary Flames beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, gutting out a one-goal victory with a pretty impressive defensive display in the waning moments of the game.

And captain Mikael Backlund was unusually not on the ice.

We got a bit of a hint that something may be amiss with Backlund on Monday, as Swedish outlet Expressen spoke with Backlund about a hit he suffered in the third period of Sunday’s game from Carolina forward William Carrier. Backlund was not on the ice for the final 3:16 of the game, with rookie centre Jonathan Castagna subbing in for a couple shifts in Backlund’s stead.

Per QR Calgary’s Pat Steinberg, Backlund wasn’t on the ice at Tuesday’s practice. When asked about Backlund’s status after practice, Flames head coach Ryan Huska stated: “He’s day-to-day with an upper body.”

With Backlund’s status for Thursday’s game against the Minnesota Wild a bit up in the air, the Flames placed Sam Honzek (out week-to-week with a lower body injury) on the injury reserve to open a roster spot on Monday. On Tuesday, they recalled centre Ben Jones from the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers. Per Steinberg, Jones skated with Joel Farabee and Matt Coronato, Backlund’s usual linemates, at Tuesday’s practice.

Backlund is a 37-year-old left shot centre, and the Flames’ captain. He’s been both remarkably consistent and remarkably durable over the last few seasons, playing a lot of hockey against the opposition’s top players and emerging as one of the league’s most reliable shutdown centres. He’s received Selke Trophy votes in nine of the past 10 seasons.

Backlund has played 1,156 regular season games for the Flames, second on the all-time leaderboard for the franchise behind only Hockey Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla. Backlund is on pace to surpass Iginla as the all-time games-played leader sometime later this season, so long as he doesn’t miss too much time due to injuries.

The Flames are back in action on Thursday when they host the Wild.