The defining moment for me has to be the Schlemko shootout winner.
The Flames lose their top player and captain Mark Giordano in NJ, and a couple days later the team lays an absolute egg on Long Island.
In Philadelphia we learn that Gio is out for the season and yet the Flames find a way to win in OT in Johnny Gaudreau's homecoming. We're all thinking okay, maybe the Flames can still win a few games here or there without their captain.
Next game, the gruelling road trip continues in Boston and pushed to the shootout the Flames make the bold and improbable move of putting their new waiver wire defenceman into the driver's seat on a Kris Russell recommendation.
The rest is history, the team gets a huge shot of confidence and belief that it can still win without Gio. The Flames pick up points in the rest of its Eastern road trip and returns home to register two convincing wins against Anaheim and Toronto.
That confidence, refusal to lie down, and production from unlikely sources that was apparent after the Gio injury also recurred time and again in every third period comeback this season.
Also, I don't know if you consider it a statistic but the fact that at the trade deadline we shed Glencross and Baertschi but only acquired Schlemko (for nothing). We didn't make a trade splash like Winnipeg and really clawed our way into the playoffs without reinforcements.
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Shot down in Flames!
Last edited by icarus; 04-13-2015 at 06:34 AM.
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