Man games lost to injury can be misleading if the coach is forcing or guilting players into playing through injuries that they should be sitting for. Or if the players themselves are forcing themselves to play through. I suspect some players were playing through injuries at points in the season when they shouldn't have, likely due to Sutter's lack of faith in, or resistance to play younger players. The number, like most stats, tells you what happened, but not why it happened. It can also be a factor of players not playing hard on a regular basis, although I don't think that was a major issue with the Flames last season.
Teams with great depth can afford to rest players, same with teams that have cushion in the standings.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
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