[MissTeeks]

Is it okay to got back to actual news in this thread and you guys can go have this fight in the 6 other threads that are already just bickering?

https://www.nhl.com/flames/news/wors...se/c-297832010

It was extremely difficult to watch from the press box.

Desperately wanting to help his teammates push for a playoff berth late in the season, Sean Monahan was unable to help after being forced to miss the last three weeks of the campaign with a wrist injury that required surgery.

He then had three more surgeries for two hernias and a groin injury.

Despite battling various ailments all season, the 23-year-old centre still finished with a career high 64 points (31G, 33A).

"It sucks," Monahan said Monday. "You never want to be injured, especially during the end of the regular season. I was able to battle through all year with other injuries but once we got to 30 games left on the schedule it was a real grind and I had to take a step back.

"It's going to be a big summer for the group, as a whole, and myself to come back feeling 100% and ready to go for when the season starts."

"We had the group to do special something this year and it's on us as players," he said. "We underachieved and didn't perform during stretches that were important for us and, at the end, it came back to bite us."

"There were key games where we handed out points when we needed them. People would constantly say we outshot teams every night, but at the end of the day the only thing you want to is to get the two points and we didn't do that."

Monahan said he and his teammates are already eager to get back on the ice next fall to atone for this unexpected ending.

"We have a good core and a lot of great guys in the dressing room," he said. "When things don't go the way they should in the season, you have to be professional knowing that change could be coming and whatever happens we need to come back with the mindset that we have to be hungrier and push each other to be better on a daily basis."

https://www.nhl.com/flames/news/bounce-back/c-297825746

Over the course of his lengthening stay in the 403, Mark Giordano has run the gamut.

From gut-wrenching, down-to-the-wire disappointments to earlier exits.

"This one, for me is the toughest," confessed the captain. "Maybe because it's the freshest. But I don't think that's exactly why.

"It's more because of the expectations we had for ourselves.

"This one hurts.

"We fully expected to be in a good spot right now. We liked our team from last year and added some key pieces.

"We had a real feeling there was a legit chance of not only being there but making some real noise once we got there.

"So to not even get in …"

"The feeling? One word?'' repeated defenceman Michael Stone. "I'd say disbelief. Certainly since we were officially eliminated, anyway. I don't know what to say. I really don't.

"We expected a lot better of ourselves.

"I wish I could pinpoint one or two things that flipped things around on us.

"I just think there were times we were capable of a lot more. And that's the hardest thing to accept."

As late as Feb. 4, remember, the Flames were nicely placed at 32-22-9 and battling for second place in the Pacific Division but struggled from there, going 5-13-1 the rest of the way, in part due to key injuries.

"We were shocked a few weeks ago when we started going through that tough stretch to put ourselves out of it,'' acknowledged Giordano.

"We didn't react well. And we just seemed to keep digging ourselves a deeper and deeper hole."

"Personally,'' said Giordano, reflectively, "you have to take stock of what you as an individual could've done better, be honest with yourself, and then the team makes (its) decisions.

"At the end of the day, there's a lot of things that went wrong at different times.

"But bottom line: We didn't get it done.

"And that's our job: To get it done."