Calgary Flames place Travis Hamonic on IR, recall Rasmus Andersson

The Calgary Flames announced Friday morning that D Travis Hamonic will be week-to-week and have recalled D Rasmus Andersson from Stockton.

The Calgary Flames have placed defenseman Travis Hamonic on IR and have said he is currently week-to-week with a facial fracture. Hamonic suffered the injury in the season-opener on Wednesday evening against the Vancouver Canucks. It happened within the first five minutes of the game.

About two minutes into the game, Erik Gudbranson had somewhat of a dirty hit against rookie Dillon Dube who was playing in his first NHL game. Hamonic immediately went over to Gudbranson and the two exchanged some words. Gudbranson took an interference penalty and that was that.

A few minutes later, Hamonic and Gudbranson dropped the gloves and went at it. At one point, Gudbranson punched Hamonic hard in the face and Hamonic immediately held his cheek. It was clear that he was somewhat hurt by that punch. He got another punch in which he fell to the ground and looked like he could have potentially hit his head on the ice. Luckily, he doesn’t have a concussion, and it is just a facial fracture.

Hamonic left the game after the fight, however, returned by the second period and finished the game, but he was not at practice on Thursday morning.

The Flames have recalled Rasmus Andersson from the Stockton Heat. Looks like he didn’t have to stay there too long, hey? Andersson was one of the other prospects who were impressive during training camp and preseason, but unfortunately, the Flames have a slight Michael Stone issue and can’t quite do much with that.

This also begs the question of “hockey culture” and “fight culture”. I’m not blaming Hamonic and in fact, I’m glad he exchanged words with Gudbranson about the hit on the rookie. And I’m glad he’s defending the newbie. But it should have ended there. Dube was clearly fine after the hit and Gudbranson, an experienced fighter, is completely out of Hamonic’s weight class. To put it in a sentence, I’m glad he defended Dube, but he shouldn’t have fought Gudbranson.

As Hamonic’s week-to-week, we’ll bring updates as we find them out.