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Thursday, December 30, 1999
Flames lose scoring pop
When Cory Stillman felt something pop in his left shoulder more than six weeks ago, he never thought it would affect his ability to pop champagne corks on New Year's Eve.
However, after quietly playing through the pain that has increasingly racked the weakening joint, Stillman announced yesterday he'll spend the last day of the millennium in the hospital having his shoulder scoped by Dr. Nicholas Mohtadi.
No offence Doc, but Stillman had bigger and better plans for tomorrow, which included playing host, with wife Mara and son Riley, to a New Year's bash for some of his Flames teammates and their families.
"The party will still go on," smiled the defiant forward, who just celebrated his 26th birthday.
"But my guess is that maybe I won't be at the house. I'll probably be at someone else's house. It will depend on how (the surgery) goes and how I feel."
Unsure of exactly what the problem is, team physical therapist Terry Kane said the surgery will begin as an exploratory scope that will include repairs on whatever damage has been done.
"We believe we know what the problem is but the gold standard is to actually take a look at it," said Kane, who has been monitoring Stillman's injury since it occurred.
"I don't think right now we can predict how long he'll be sidelined, but I think Dr. Mohtadi indicated he'd be out upwards of six weeks."
Stillman's absence will leave the Flames without their second-leading goal scorer, who was instrumental in turning the club's fortunes around with a five-game goal-scoring streak from Nov. 25 to Dec. 4. However, despite playing well alongside Jason Wiemer and Martin St. Louis, he had since gone nine straight without finding the net -- a drought he refuses to blame on the injury.
"There's no excuse," said Stillman, who needn't apologize for his 12-goal total. "Whether I was injured or healthy, I'm expected to go out every night and score goals. Individually, there's always room for improvement, but the biggest key now is that I'm happy the way things have gone for the team of late."
Stillman first injured the shoulder relatively early in the season when taking a faceoff that resulted in his counterpart falling on him as his arms were extended.
To his credit, Stillman kept the injury quiet and did what he could -- including wearing a brace to prevent vulnerable left arm extensions -- to fight through the injury.
"I've been able to play through it, but unfortunately it got worse and worse," said Stillman, who led the team in points last year while finishing with 27 goals for the second straight season.
"It got to the point we decided let's go in and have a look at it and (I'll) come back for the final stretch of the regular season and the playoffs."
Kane said in many such shoulder injuries, the player is often able to rehab the shoulder back to health. However, as Stillman's strength declined and he became apprehensive about hitting and even shooting, the decision to operate was made.
"He kept it really quiet and didn't want to use it as an excuse," said teammate Jarome Iginla. "I guess it got to be too much of a burden and he couldn't play at a level he felt comfortable with. He's a huge part of our team on the penalty kill, powerplay, four on four ... He's a guy who could score 30-plus and it's tough for any team to lose a 30-plus goal scorer."
Hnat Domenichelli, a healthy scratch last game, will benefit most from Stillman's absence and was inserted into the lineup last night.
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