Johnny Gaudreau returned very soon after all of this, so at the moment, it seems like the Calgary Flames dodged a big bullet on Monday night.
That bullet came in the form of a big hit by Toronto Maple Leafs winger Leo Komarov, a check that did not prompt a penalty, but is inspiring plenty of debate on social media. The Athletic’s James Mirtle puts it well, at least for those of us on the fence: “as with a lot of Komarov hits, it’s in a grey area.”
Again, the best news is that Gaudreau was able to return (though sometimes issues like these demand a “To be continued”), shocking quite a few.
There’s some debate about the legality of the hit, but most seem perplexed that Mark Giordano’s response didn’t prompt fighting majors. Instead, they were merely whistled for roughing.
You can watch the full sequence in the video above. Here’s a GIF of the fight roughing specifically:
not fighting majors pic.twitter.com/KIZnyisQgd
— steph (@myregularface) January 24, 2017
At the moment, the Leafs hold a commanding 3-0 lead. Maybe the Flames will use that sequence to start a comeback?
Update: Nope, no comeback. Instead, another humbling loss for Calgary, this time 4-0. The silver lining is that, again, it seems like Gaudreau might be OK.
#Flames LW Johnny Gaudreau: "I feel fine. It’s part of hockey — you’re going to get hit every once in a while."
— Wes Gilbertson (@WesGilbertson) January 24, 2017