Tempers are expected to flare in a few days when the Ducks and Flames begin their opening-round playoff series.
On Monday, Flames GM Brad Treliving cranked the thermostat a bit.
Treliving responded to Ducks GM Bob Murray’s assertion that Calgary captain Mark Giordano -- who knocked out Anaheim blueliner Cam Fowler with a knee-on-knee hit -- was a dirty player, with a history of similar instances.
“I hear how Gio is a good guy, and he’s this and that,” Murray said. “Well, he’s done this before. I have no respect for people who go after knees.”
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Treliving’s response?
"Those are asinine comments," --- Brad Treliving on GM Bob Murray suggesting about Mark Giordano being a dirty player.
— Kristen Anderson (@KdotAnderson) April 10, 2017
Murray was livid in the aftermath of losing Fowler for 2-6 weeks to a knee injury. It’s likely the talented blueliner will miss all of the Anaheim-Calgary series, which gets underway Thursday at the Honda Center.
Some have suggested Murray’s beef with Giordano goes all the way back to 2011, when Giordano took out then-Ducks forward Bobby Ryan with a similar knee-on-knee collision.
In his latest rant, Murray acknowledged he may have crossed a line.
But he didn’t seem overly concerned about it.
“I’m sorry, but knees, they wreck your career real quick,” he fumed. “I don’t like it. I know I’ve said too much, but I don’t care.”
All of this adds up to -- and I’ll steal some Ilya Bryzgalov terminology here -- a very spicy situation.
There’s some legitimate bad blood between these two teams. The game in which Giordano hit Fowler turned into an ugly, fight-filled affair, and there was already some animosity from earlier in the season, when Ryan Kesler acknowledged he and the Ducks were targeting Johnny Gaudreau.