Despite OT loss, Elliott’s net worth is rising

Glen Gulutzan has decided to abandon the win-and-you’re-in mantra he initiated for his goalies late last month.

Although uncommitted about who he will start Tuesday against the Predators in Nashville, he seemed to be leaning toward giving Brian Elliott the nod. It would be the first time in almost four weeks he’ll start a goalie who lost the previous outing.

“Internally, we used that winand-you’re-in to get out of that little spin we were in,” Gulutzan said Monday of the four-game nosedive the Flames endured before the all-star break. “We needed somebody to grab a hold of it and we got what we wanted out of that.”

The Flames didn’t get what they wanted Saturday, losing 2-1 to the Vancouver Canucks in overtime. However, the head coach and teammates were full of praise for Elliott’s 17-save effort, even though the goalie let the first goal in from centre ice. “Believe it or not, on the bench when (Alex Edler) shot it, I was like, ‘Oh no,’ because I’ve watched Eddy shoot pucks like that in practice and it did drop a foot on him,” Gulutzan said of the knuckler, which threatened to deflate the team 12 minutes in. “That happens. How he responded is what we looked at. If you look at that power-play save he made in the second period, that saved the game. His bounce-back and resiliency was good.”

Mark Giordano, who scored the game-tying goal with five seconds left, said Elliott kept them in the game, setting up his late heroics.

“They all knew what happened — it’s not like it was just an easy shot coming in, it was a big curveball,” said Elliott, who is 4-1-1 his last six starts. “Right away, the guys came down and patted me on the pads, saying, ‘We’ll get this back for ya.’ That back and forth really helps when you know they have your back and you can move forward.”

And that’s what it looks like the Flames plan to do with Elliott — move forward with him as the likely starter for the bulk of the last 23 games.