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Being a healthy scratch is something you do not want as a player. Basically, it is the coach telling you that you are not good enough for the moment, and someone will have a greater impact in the game than you. It is usually a spot reserved for fighters on the team; if one team doesn’t put their tough guy in the lineup, than the opposing team will make their tough guy a healthy scratch, keeping him out of the lineup.
The Calgary Flames made two scratches early on in the season that may have been surprising to most. The first was Dennis Wideman on Oct. 9. The highest paid member of the team watched the game from the press box. Then on Oct. 17, rookie sensation Johnny Gaudreau was held out of the line up against the Columbus Blue Jackets. While at the time these moves may have been surprising, head coach Bob Hartley knew full well as to what he was doing. And, it is paying dividends as we approach the halfway mark of the 2014-15 NHL season.
Since Wideman was made a healthy scratch, the 31-year-old blue-liner has been on a tear. He has 10 goals this season, when he had four all of last year, and he’s matched his point total from last season too, with 21. Wideman looks as if he could surpass his career-high total in points, which was set in 2008-09 as a member of the Boston Bruins with 50.
The result was similar for Gaudreau. He had a slow start to the season up to the point where he was held off the lineup, then he exploded. He has 30 points in 37 games this season, he’s getting power-play time and is a contender for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
No one will know what was said between coach Hartley, Wideman and Gaudreau at the time of being scratched. All we know is that whatever was said obviously worked as both players have been excelling this season. That’s what makes Hartley a good coach; he knows what to say, and what to do, at the right time.
Shaun Lavery is a Calgary Flames writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, or add him to your network on Google.
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