Stars deal blow to playoff push

DALLAS Asking around the lockerroom, it seems most of the Calgary Flames were unaware of the “Stewie Sprint.”

Uh-oh.

Flames waiver-claim Chris Stewart arrives with one of the NHL’s most unique rituals — a high-speed scamper, on blades, back to his locker stall after he finishes his pre-game warm-up.

“From the ice to my seat in the dressing room, I just come running in,” Stewart explained after Tuesday’s morning skate at American Airlines Center, where he debuted in the Flaming C logo in a road date with the Dallas Stars. “That’s just what I’ve been doing throughout my career, and it kind of got famous when I went to Minnesota.

“It’s nothing too crazy. But with a new team, it’s going to be tough because you have guys who leave warm-ups at different time and I might catch a couple by surprise.

“You’ve gotta be careful when the big man is on the tracks.”

Indeed, this is a big dude — packing 242 pounds on his 6-foot-2 chassis, he’s listed about 25 pounds heavier than any other skater on the Flames’ roster.

And if you search Stewie Sprint on YouTube, you’ll see this isn’t a leisurely jog.

The 30-year-old right-winger really rumbles.

If he’s not warned, Johnny Gaudreau could wind up pancaked.

“It just gets the legs going before you sit down for 17 or 18 minutes before the game,” Stewart once told the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. “I’m coming in hot.”

The runnin’ righty didn’t exactly tiptoe into the Flames lineup, either.

Just one day after being plucked off waivers from the Minnesota Wild, Stewart was working the right wing with the dynamic duo of Gaudreau and Sean Monahan.

That’s darn good company, especially for a guy who had been healthy-scratched a dozen times in the past two months before being dangled on waivers by the Wild.

Stewart isn’t viewed as a longterm fit on the Flames’ top line, but Micheal Ferland is home in Calgary because of an upper-body injury and head coach Glen Gulutzan preferred to shift left-hander Sam Bennett back to his natural side.

So why not give the new guy in No. 8 an opportunity to show what he can do?

“To get an opportunity to play with two of probably the best young hockey players in this league, it’s going to be fun, and I look forward to the challenge,” Stewart said before Tuesday’s showdown with the Stars. “For them, I think they work a pretty good two-man game. They feed off each other. They have great chemistry. For me, personally, with them, I think I just have to be their workhorse, get in on the forecheck, get the puck, create some space and get to the net.

“Less is going to be more with them, and I think that’s the recipe for success.”

With sky-high prices for rentals, the higher-ups at the Saddledome ultimately opted for the less-ismore approach to Monday’s trade deadline.

Three hours before the freeze, they scooped Stewart from the freebie bin.

With a right-handed centre on their wish-list, they later welcomed Nick Shore in a deal with the Ottawa Senators. That acquisition cost only a seventh-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.

(The 25-year-old Shore didn’t arrive in Dallas until Tuesday afternoon and was not in the lineup.)

This is the sixth big-league stop for Stewart, who has 159 goals, 318 points and 62 fights in a combined 645 showings for previous employers. He mustered nine goals and four helpers in 47 appearances this winter with the Wild.

There are a few familiar faces in the Flames’ locker-room — he skates with Monahan during the summer months and has lifted weights with Matt Stajan and Kris Versteeg.

The rest required introductions, although Stewart is certain they ’ll become fast friends.

As long as nobody gets steamrolled by a Stewie Sprint.

“I got invited to the team text (Monday) night and (got) a couple chirps from Versteeg, so that kind of broke the ice,” Stewart said with a grin. “I think you just have to get involved emotionally, right from the jump, and that’s just going to make the transition easier.”