Calgary Flames defenceman Mark Giordano puts Vancouver Canucks right wing Derek Dorsett into the boards during third period NHL action in Vancouver on Saturday, Jan.10, 2015.The Canadian Press
Outwardly, Mark Giordano didn't look all that different than usual. Casually attired, taking questions in a boardroom at the Scotiabank Saddledome Tuesday morning, with the Brier going on, you wouldn't immediately know he was about to undergo surgery to repair a tendon tear in his bicep, which will put an end to his NHL season – and could have the same effect on his team, the Calgary Flames.
Losing Giordano undermines Calgary in the same way the loss of Patrick Kane hurts the Chicago Blackhawks – and is probably worse. Whereas the Blackhawks were able to apply a Band-Aid after Kane broke his clavicle, by adding Antoine Vermette and Kimmo Timonen at the trade deadline, there was little the Flames could do to replace Giordano. He is their catalyst on offence, on defence and in his role as the team's captain.
But Giordano disputed the commonly held view that the season is lost without him."I sort of knew that was coming and I hate that it's about that now," he said. "Hopefully, that'll die down quick in the next couple of days once the guys get going again. You just look at our team and the way they've played all year, it's a different guy stepping up each night.
"The work the guys have put in, the details from the coaching staff – that's not going to change with one player coming out of the lineup. I think we'll be fine."
Unquestionably, Flames coach Bob Hartley will play the "us-against-the-world" motivational card in the hopes of seeing his team stay alive in the playoff race. He will remind his players that the same people who believe they're done now were also the same naysayers who didn't like their playoff chances at the start of the season.
As of Tuesday, before they hit the ice against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Flames were clinging to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 20 games remaining, just ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, who were in action against the Edmonton Oilers.
Giordano's surgery, scheduled for Wednesday on an outpatient basis, will keep him out of the Flames lineup for the balance of the season and playoffs. Doctors estimate he will need about four months to recover, which means he should be healthy in time for training camp next season.
"I'm hoping to be doing my full workouts during the summer," Giordano said. "The first few months are critical to get it healed – from my understanding, that's two to three months and then go from there and try to get into your full program."
Giordano had been incommunicado for the better part of a week after getting injured during last Wednesday's game against the New Jersey Devils. It looked like an innocent play – he went to swipe at the puck, to clear it behind goaltender Karri Ramo, and got all twisted and turned around by the stick of the Devils' Steve Bernier.
"One of their players' sticks got wedged between my back and my arm," Giordano explained. "When your force is going one way, and it stops abruptly, this is one of the things that can happen."
He tried to play two nights later, with a view to postponing the surgery until the end of the season, but was warned against it.
"There were risks involved," he said. "You can't mess around with that. I'll have the surgery and start trying to move it around as quickly as possible. I won't be in a sling for very long, if at all, so that's a good thing. It becomes a process where you have to let the tendon heal.
"The last time I had a similar injury [a torn tendon in a pectoral muscle], it went really well, so I'm hoping for the same result."
To replace Giordano, Calgary on Sunday added defenceman David Schlemko, on waivers from the Dallas Stars, but he was not in the lineup against the Flyers, with Hartley choosing to play Corey Potter as his sixth defenceman instead.
Giordano was in the conversation for both the Hart and Norris trophies, awarded to the NHL's most valuable player and its top defenceman, but the injury likely scuttled his chances of winning either award. But that was the last thing on his mind as he prepared for his surgery.
"You think of a million different things you could have done differently on the play, or other things that could have happened to stop me from being in that position, but you deal with it," Giordano said.
"You go out on the ice every game, and every time, every shift, there's a risk you can get injured. My focus, honestly, I just want to get the surgery over with and the rehab going. Once I get into that process, you can see the end – and get back as soon as I can."