Flames have five of the NHL’s longest-serving ironmen
Phil Kessel is set to set a landmark for most consecutive games played when his Vegas Golden Knights square off against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, but the NHL’s new ironman has plenty of Calgary Flames company when it comes to the league’s top dozen workhorses.
Nearly half are current Calgary skaters, after all.
Kessel will make his 990th straight skate, 305 more than the second-place Brent Burns of the Carolina Hurricanes. Third, perhaps a little to the Flames’ credit, is Johnny Gaudreau — who has seen 294 of his 301 straight games done in Calgary silks.
Still, Gaudreau won’t count. And Ryan Sutter, at 295 straight, certainly doesn’t.
But Rasmus Andersson, ranked fifth, will.
Andersson hasn’t missed a game since being a healthy scratch on November 11, 2018, in a road tilt against the San Jose Sharks. That run, all 277 games and 1441 days of it, certainly does. Certainly not low miles on the odometer, either, with the 25-year-old logging an average of 20:55 in those affairs. He’s delivered 205 hits and is the active team lead since firing up the streak with blocked 370 shots.
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Sprinkle in Toronto Maple Leafs forward David Kampf, and Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki locked together at 215 straight games, and the real fun begins.
Elias Lindholm sits one back of the pair in eighth among longest active games played streaks at 214. Chris Tanev slots ninth with 212 games, and Andrew Mangiapane completes the top 10 with 203 successive starts.
But wait, there’s more.
Milan Lucic, who just became the 211th player in NHL history to surpass the 1,100-game mark against Kessel and the Golden Knights one week ago, ranks 11th in uninterrupted outings with 195.
To put Kessel’s achievement into a bit of perspective, Lucic would need 795 straight skates — nearly 10 more seasons — of consecutive play to match his former Boston Bruins teammate.
Even Andersson, who tops the Flames’ active list, would need over eight-and-a-half more years of luck to earn a push with Kessel.
And that’s if his streak were to end immediately after netting the record.
A long road, indeed.
Paved by Kessel.
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