The other thing to note here is that the 82 game season is going to take a physical burden on Gaudreau.
Giving him a night off during a long 6 game road trip to start the season is probably helping to protect the asset.
The guy is coming from a 40 game season where they played 2 times a week, all on weekends.
Tonight is the Flames 6th game in 10 days, that is a pretty substantial for a guy not used to playing that much. Plus we have 4 games over the next 8 days and the next time we have 2 days between games is October 26/27.
A rest for a guy like Johnny is probably good thing from a strictly physical point of view too.
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