Smiles back for Brouwer and mates ... kind of
A few days ago, Troy Brouwer was talking about the importance of smiling. Well, sort of. The right-winger was explaining their dressingroom-wide attempt to keep a positive attitude, despite the fact that heading into this week, the Calgary Flames were not satisfied with their game, had lost four straight, and were facing back-toback games not to mention hosting the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.
Definitely nothing to show your pearly whites for. So what do you do? “We’ve been kind of fakesmiling at each other,” Brouwer said with a chuckle earlier this week. “To make sure we’re in the right mindset. The last couple of days, we’ve actually had a really good atmosphere in our room.”
That adage of “faking it until you make it” seems to have worked on the Flames, who have won two straight games — Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Minnesota and Wednesday’s 2-1 overtime win against Arizona — and have improved to 7-10-1.
In the face of Wednesday’s devastating blow that Johnny Gaudreau would have to undergo surgery for a broken finger, they rallied.
“We wanted to get some wins,” Brouwer said.
“We need to start getting some wins because we can’t keep sliding down the leaderboard right now. We have to get ourselves into a good playoff spot.”
After a tough start to the 2016-17 season, they finally have something to smile about.
That being said, Brouwer’s grin hasn’t look right since Tuesday night.
The 31-year-old absorbed an errant stick right in the Chiclets as he battled in the slot during the second period of the Flames’ win in Minnesota.
Later, he found them in his mouthguard.
“I’ve broke these teeth off at the gum before,” said Brouwer who was playing football seven or eight years ago with some friends when his buddy knocked them out. “They were just (fake), knowing this might happen again. The good thing is there are no roots. But still, it’s no fun.”
Also not fun? Being without Gaudreau for an extended period of time.
Eric Staal, one of the culprits of the slash that injured Gaudreau, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that no one was targeting No. 13.
Staal expressed his concern for Gaudreau.
“You’re playing and you’re reacting, and it’s unfortunate,” Staal told Wild beat reporter Michael Russo. “He’s a good player.”
With four goals and three assists in 18 games, Brouwer’s offensive contributions will be relied on as the Flames deal with life without one of their biggest stars.