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Flames’ Matt Stajan leaves game with apparent shoulder injury

Matt Stajan

Calgary Flames’ Matt Stajan, who was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, skates past fans during warmups for the Flames’ NHL hockey game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Monday, Feb. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)

AP

Matt Stajan has had a rough couple of days. First, he complained about being one of the “other guys” in the Dion Phaneuf trade saying so much as he was sick of hearing about Phaneuf from Toronto media. Tonight, Stajan left tonight’s game against the Canucks with a shoulder injury. Flames assistant GM Jay Feaster had this to say about the injury, courtesy of Vicki Hall of the Calgary Herald.

“He hurt his shoulder,” said assistant general manager Jay Feaster. “He was examined here tonight. Obviously couldn’t come back. But we won’t know exactly the extent of it until he sees the doctors back in Calgary.”

Stajan suffered the injury near the Calgary bench in the first period when he was reaching for the puck.

“He’s going to miss some time,” Feaster said. “But we’ll wait until we see the doctors.”

If the injury turns out to be significant, it’s a brutal blow to the Flames who are counting on Stajan to be at least their third center if not their second. The Flames are already a bit thin up the middle as it is and they’ve been testing out right wing David Moss at center at the start of camp.

Losing Stajan for an inordinate amount of time while Daymond Langkow is still out crushes their depth up the middle and turns the pressure up on Olli Jokinen to perform in a big way. For the Flames’ sake, they should hope it’s just a stinger otherwise they’ll be scrambling to fill big-minute roles from within.