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Flames GM says Gaudreau out six weeks with fractured finger, rips Wild's slashes

ST. PAUL, MN - NOVEMBER 15: Johnny Gaudreau #13 of the Calgary Flames celebrates after scoring a goal against the Minnesota Wild during the game on November 15, 2016 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
Johnny Gaudreau of the Calgary Flames celebrates after scoring a goal against the Minnesota Wild during the game on November 15, 2016 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Getty Images)

Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving believes the Minnesota Wild took liberties in slashing star winger Johnny Gaudreau and referees didn’t hold them accountable during a Tuesday game between the two teams.

Gaudreau suffered a fractured finger and scored Calgary’s only goal in his team’s 1-0 win at the Wild. In announcing that Gaudreau would miss six weeks following Thursday surgery, Treliving said he counted 11 slashes in the game on Gaudreau. According to the boxscore, Gaudreau drew just one penalty – an interference call on Ryan Suter.

“Do we probably chop good players? Yep, we probably whack them too,” Treliving told reporters. “But the frustration is when that turns into that player being out for an extended period of time. When it wasn’t the first one. This wasn’t a unicorn that happened in the middle of the period. By our count, there were 11 chops on the guy that game. Okay, two, three, four … I get it. But maybe at nine we need to dial in here a little bit.”

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Gaudreau left the game at 7:22 mark of the third period when Treliving said Gaudreau took a slash from Wild center Eric Staal. There was no penalty called on that play.

“There’s rules in the rulebook when you get whacked like he’s been getting whacked. From our case, we think there could’ve been a call made. This isn’t moaning and groaning. Top players learn to deal and play around and play through some of this attention that they get, but when you strike a guy in the hands there’s a penalty for it,” Treliving said. “We’ve got a lot of rules in the book and one of them is slashing. We think some of the things Johnny’s played through and had to deal with there’s calls here. We move on and we deal with it moving forward.”

At the time of his injury Gaudreau led the struggling Flames with 11 points in 17 games, but his 0.65 points per-game was far below his 0.99 points per-game from last season. The team is currently tied for 26th in the NHL in goals scored per-game at 2.28. The Flames have won their last two games and are currently 7-10-1.

“We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves,” Trelving said. “We have to come together … everyone has injuries. You deal with them.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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