Flames’ Gaudreau makes surprising revelation following heavy hit by McAvoy

Several Calgary Flames fans got worried after their team’s contest against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night, and that’s because one of their top players did not finish the game. 

Gaudreau was forced to leave the contest against the Bruins by NHL spotters in the third peiod after taking a hit from defenseman Charlie McAvoy. After the incident, Gaudreau had played one powerplay shift that lasted 1:18 and was pulled for the remainder of the game. The late hit came after Gaudreau had a scoring attempt on a breakaway and Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask had made a right-pad save.

You can see the entire game recap in the video above, atop of this article. 

“(Flames trainer Kent Kobelka) comes down and says, ‘Johnny’s gotta go. The spotters have called for him.’ That’s all I know,” head coach Bill Peters said after the game. “Hopefully it’s nothing. Hopefully, it’s minor. But we’ll see,” head coach Bill Peters said after the game. 

On Thursday, Gaudreau confirmed that he was fine and expected to play for tonight’s contest against the Nashville Predators. He repeated the same good news on Friday. 

Debate raged in the aftermath of the hit over whether or not McAvoy should receive supplemental discipline for the hit, especially after what took place with Florida Panthers’ Mike Matheson ‘s suspension for a body slam of  Vancouver Canucks rookie Elias Pettersson last weekend. However, McAvoy did notface any discipline from the NHL for the hit. 

On Friday, Gaudreau revealed to Eric Francis of Sportsnet that McAvoy did something unexpected following the Bruins’ loss. He admitted that the Bruins young blue liner sent him a text message to make sure Gaudreau was alright and to apologize. 

Isn’t that sweet? What is even sweeter for the Flames and their fan base is that Gaudreau will be on his regular spot on the top line with Sean Monahan and Elias Lindholm.

These are he projected lines, defence pairings and starting goaltender:

FORWARDS

Johnny Gaudreau  -  Sean Monahan  -  Elias Lindholm 
Matthew Tkachuk  -  Mikael Backlund  -  Michael Frolik 
Sam Bennett -  Mark Jankowski  -  James Neal 
Garnet Hathaway  -  Derek Ryan  - Dillon Dube

DEFENSE

Mark Giordano  - TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin  - Rasmus Andersson
Juuso Valimaki -  Michael Stone 

GOALTENDER
Mike Smith 

Calgary (4-2-0) faces off against the Predators on Friday evening before heading on a two game road trip against the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens.