Devin Cooley left Wednesday night's Battle of Alberta with an injury, and the Flames sent Dustin Wolf out to start the second period.
The nature of the injury wasn't immediately clear.
That's a nightmare scenario for Calgary, because Cooley has been the better goalie by a mile this season.
The 29-year-old is 4-2 with a .915 save percentage.
Wolf has had a rough go of it. He's 1-4 with an .834 save percentage.
And the money makes it stranger. Wolf carries a $7,500,000 cap hit, while Cooley costs $1,350,000.
Ryan Huska's four-game win streak hangs on Dustin Wolf now
Calgary didn't need this. A team that just found its footing now has to hope its expensive goalie finds his.
The Flames rolled into Edmonton on a four-game win streak, including Monday's 5-2 win over Toronto.
They're still only 5-6-0, sixth in the Pacific, so every point matters.
The road has been tough too. Calgary came in at 1-3-0 away from home.
Losing your hot goalie mid-game is like the pilot handing the controls to the co-pilot during turbulence. You trust him, but you'd rather not find out.
Huska now has to ride the goalie who's struggled to find his game.
The Oilers came in at 8-2-2, looking to snap a two-game skid with Jason Dickinson back in the lineup.
This is the first of four meetings between the rivals this season.
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So what if Cooley misses time? Craig Conroy suddenly has a goaltending decision he didn't see coming.
The schedule doesn't help. The Flames play a back-to-back this weekend, hosting Seattle on Friday and visiting Colorado on Saturday.
That's two starts in two nights, and Wolf might have to handle both.
He can quiet a lot of noise over the next 40 minutes. Or he can make Cooley's status the only story in Calgary this week.
Should Devin Cooley stay the Flames' starter once he's healthy?
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