Bruce Boudreau says the Calgary Flames are exaggerating the Minnesota Wild's actions and intentions in the aftermath of Johnny Gaudreau suffering a significant hand injury the last time the two teams played.
"I think they're making mountains out of molehills quite frankly because every game you watch, there's little slashes on the hands," the Wild head coach told Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.
"I don't know, but I've got to believe we're one of the least penalized teams over the years in the league, so if they think we're targeting people's hands, they're nuts."
Gaudreau was slashed 21 times when the two clubs last met on Nov. 15 - the last of which came courtesy of Wild forward Eric Staal - and he was later ruled out for six weeks after having surgery to repair his fractured finger.
"Eric Staal has never been accused of being a goon or anything, so you've got to believe it wasn't intentional," Boudreau said. "As to what they think, they can think what they think."
Three days after the game, Flames general manager Brad Treliving said, "This wasn't a unicorn" that broke Gaudreau's finger, emphasizing the repeated blows to his star winger's hands.
Calgary captain Mark Giordano said Thursday that the Wild took some "unnecessary whacks," but that the Flames plan to prepare for Minnesota's top players the same way they would against any other team.
"I certainly hope there wouldn’t be instances where they’d be targeting (Gaudreau) directly, but it’s part of hockey. It’s part of playing sports," Flames forward Troy Brouwer said.
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