CALGARY — The Calgary Flames' already thin playoff hopes are taking a major hit with yet another key player headed for sick bay.
Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan revealed Friday top-line centre Sean Monahan may play few, if any, of the team's final seven regular-season games because of two undisclosed injuries.
"I don't know how much longer Sean Monahan can play," Gulutzan said following practice. "He's been playing through two significant injuries here. He's been gutting it out.
"He's been injected in two places for the last three weeks just to get him through the games and he hasn't been practising. We'll see where he is health-wise and you never want to put your players at risk when they're going through daily injections to play."
Shutting down the team's leading goal-scorer for the remainder of the regular season would be more writing on the wall that the Flames (35-30-10) are in next-season territory.
Nine points out of a Western Conference wild-card playoff spot, the Flames head out on the road — where they've been inexplicably more successful this season — against San Jose on Saturday and Los Angeles on Monday. They return to Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday against Columbus.
Monahan is Calgary's second-highest paid player at just under US$6.4 million per season and is in the second year of a seven-year contract. So continuing to play the 23-year-old may make little sense given Calgary's meagre playoff hopes.
"It's been a challenge here for a couple of months for him," Gulutzan said. "You know how much character that young kid has, so he was willing to do whatever it takes to keep going.
"We needed him to try and push here in this last month, but it's had an affect on him, I think even psychological too. At the end of the day, we've got to do what's best for our players. What I will tell you is it kept getting worse."
Gulutzan also said neither defenceman T.J. Brodie nor forward Matthew Tkachuk, both day-to-day with upper-body injuries, will play on the two-game road trip. Winger Kris Versteeg is done for the season, having played just two games since November because of hip surgery.
Tkachuk hasn't played since March 11 after hitting his head on the boards during a game against the New York Islanders. The Flames have missed Tkachuk's offensive skills and ability to disrupt and intimidate the opposition.
Brodie left last Sunday's game in Las Vegas after a hard check and did not return.
So bad luck, some of it their own making, continues to dog the Flames, who were in playoff contention in January and February before a 3-6-1 March swan dive.
When the post-season reckoning comes, the Flames will have to own up to their anemic power-play ranked fourth-last in the league and lousy home record currently at 15-18-4.
But the Flames have been outscored 34-20 in March despite outshooting their opposition 400-275.
"I've never went through a stretch of no puck luck," Gulutzan said. "Outshooting, outchancing our opponent, but just not having the result.
"I've never quite went through this long of a stretch of us playing pretty good hockey, just not getting any sort of result."
Losers of four in a row, the Flames just want a win at this point to feel good about themselves again.
"We've got to get that one win to get out of this four-game slide," captain Mark Giordano said. "The mood will change with a win, but be professional and play hard and play the right way.
"Mathematically we're not done so we're holding out hope, but we know we're in a tough spot."
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press