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CALGARY, Alberta -- The Calgary Flames struggled to win with Johnny Gaudreau. Now they face a long stretch in which they must win without him.The Flames play their second game without their injured star on Friday, hosting a Chicago Blackhawks squad that is infinitely better than the team they defeated in their first game without Gaudreau on Wednesday, the Arizona Coyotes.Every guy recognizes that we lost a really good player and now collectively we have to play a certain way to get ourselves in a position to get points in this league, Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan said. Its certainly hurt us as a hockey club, but we look at it as something we can rally around and try to find a true identity here.Gaudreau underwent surgery Wednesday afternoon after breaking a finger the night before when slashed by Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. He is expected to miss about six weeks, Calgary general manager Brad Treliving said.The Flames (7-10-1) beat the Wild 1-0 on Tuesday on Gaudreaus goal and followed it up the next night by eking out a 2-1 overtime victory over Coyotes, who are last overall in the 30-team league.Up next, however, is one of the leagues elite squads, Chicago, which is third overall entering Fridays play. The Blackhawks (11-4-2) began a seven-game road trip with a 4-0 loss in Winnipeg on Tuesday, which ended their seven-game winning streak and marked the first time they failed to gain at least a point in 11.Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville is very conscious that the chasing teams arent far behind.Theres a real big pack in the middle; everybody seems to be just around the .500 mark, he told the Chicago Tribune. The way weve been playing, were fortunate where we are in the standings. Its a tremendous pack where everybodys in the mix and there are no easy games.The Flames took Thursday off from both skating and answering questions about how they were going to overcome the loss of Gaudreau, who after struggling to start the season appeared to be rounding into form. He had three goals in his last two games.Were sort of working around a six-week timeframe (for his absence), Treliving said. Hopefully its shorter. ...We dont have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to come together. ... Everyone has injuries. You deal with them.The Blackhawks began their 13-day road trip unhappy with their play despite not having lost in regulation since Oct. 21 prior to the Winnipeg setback. Expectations certainly are higher for a team chasing first place overall than they are for someone like the Flames, who are just trying to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.Its not how you want to start (the trip) at all, Quenneville told the Chicago Sun-Times. 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According to a report from the Vancouver Province, the Lions are expected to replace former DC Rich Stubler with defensive backs coach Mark Washington. Indian hockey and the Olympics are inseparable as word associations go -- no team has ever won more than three successive gold medals in the mens section of the sport, forget six like the Indians did between 1928 and 1956 -- yet, the last two Games have been the most depressing confirmation of Indias dipping standards.India failed to qualify for the quadrennial event for the first time in 2008, and then they finished bottom of the heap at the 2012 London Olympics, losing all five of their pool matches, and then going down 3-2 to South Africa in their final classification match.In the last four years, much has changed in the global game at large and in Indian hockey in particular. Hockey is now played over four quarters of 15 minutes each, as opposed to the previous format of two halves of 35 minutes.India is now a preferred destination annually for some of the top players in the world, thanks to the Hockey India League, which began in 2013. This has also helped unearth some of the brightest Indian hockey talent, who are getting an opportunity to play alongside some of the best players and previous Olympic medallists in the process.One area of concern for India had been the fact that the governing body seemed unable to retain the services of a head coach for long enough. It was under Terry Walsh that the road to Rio was undertaken, he then made way for Paul van Ass, and now the reins of the team are with Hockey Indias High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans. However, Oltmans has done a very good job with the team, and they in turn have embraced his coaching philosophy of good attacks can win you one game, but good defences win you a tournament and it was most apparent in the discipline in their recent runners-up finish at the Champions Trophy in London in June.India are placed in Rio in the same pool as 2008 and 2012 champions Germany, and the Netherlands, the team that lost to Germany in the final in London. Argentina, Ireland and Canada join the fifth-ranked Indians in making up the six-team pool. This times competition has a quarterfinal format, so India can afford to finish fourth and still make it to the knockout stages. A win in the quarters would open up the possibility of adding to the 11 medals that they have won so far.Here are five matches they have played since the last Olympics that should inspire the team to give their best and dig themselves out of sticky situations against the top contenders.5-4 v Germany, classification match, Hockey World League final, January 2014 - New Delhi, India This was the first match in a long time when India showed they had the ability to slug it out with the best, as they came back from being 2-0 down inside six minutes, and then overturned a 3-1 deficit at half-time against the reigning Olympic champions in a classification match at the inaugural World League finals. With the match tied at 4-4, India won a penalty corner in the 70th minute -- this was the same year that the four-quarter format would be introduced later -- and Rupinderpal Singh drilled in a perfect drag-flick to give India its first win over Germany in an FIH event in ten years.1-1 v Pakistan (4-2 in the shootout), final, Asian Games, October 2014 - Incheon, Korea The Asian Games gold had eluded India since 1998 -- they had developed a bad habit of running into trouble in the semifinals against countries like Korea and Malaysia and coming apart -- but in 2014, the mission, as the boys themselves admit, was not just to reach the final but to win it as well, to seal a place in the Olympics for 2016 at the earliest possible opportunity.India didnt panic despite conceding early, and Kothajit Singhs equaliser even before hhalf-time meant the teams were inseparable in regulation time.dddddddddddd In the shootout, the Indian attackers complemented PR Sreejeshs heroics under the bar perfectly, to take India to their first Asian Games title in 16 years.2-1 v Australia, 2nd Test, November 2014 - Perth, Australia Soon after their Asian Games triumph, India traveled to Australia for a four-Test series as part of the preparation for both teams for the forthcoming Champions Trophy in Bhubaneswar, India. Australia didnt have all of their first team players, but still had some of their big guns in Glenn Simpson, Jeremy Hayward and Matt Gohdes.India had lost the opening Test 4-0, and understandably began the second match in a cautious manner. Their resilience, though, was broken by a Gohdes goal in the 30th minute. Three minutes later, India produced sixty seconds of inspiration that turned the series on its head.First Sardar Singh began a mazy run, eliminating the Australian midfield in the process, before slipping the ball through for Ramandeep Singh, who scored the equaliser. As soon as the game restarted, a turnover brought the ball to SV Sunil, whose individual effort brought India a 2-1 lead that they didnt relinquish through the rest of the match.India carried the confidence into the remaining two matches as well, winning them 1-0 and 3-1, respectively.It remains the only time that India have won three consecutive matches against Australia.5-5 v Netherlands (3-2 in the shootout), bronze medal match, Hockey World League final, December 2015 - Raipur, India India and Netherlands were beaten semifinalists in the World League, and were perhaps playing for little more than pride. The Dutchmen took a 2-0 lead to half-time, and early in the third quarter, Jeroen Hertzberger should have put the game to bed when he received a ball inside the striking circle with Sreejesh advancing on him. Instead, he shot wide, and the game would soon turn into a goal fest.India would come roaring back into the game, with Ramandeep Singh scoring two of their first three goals. Netherlands would find their leveler through a Mink van der Weerden penalty-corner, before India scored two further goals to lead 5-3 with less than four minutes left on the clock.Van der Weerden would oblige, with two goals inside the last 150 seconds of the match, one from a stroke, and one from a penalty corner. In the shootout, Sreejesh was peerless, as he swept the ball off the feet of the Dutch attackers and put enough pressure to thwart the others who tried to wear him down by taking him to the edges. India had won, and it was their first global medal since the 1980 Olympics.2-1 v Great Britain, pool match, Champions Trophy, June 2016 - London, Great Britain Their most recent significant victory, that allowed the team to play the Champions Trophy final for the first time in their history, came on English soil in a match that typified the defensive solidity of the Indian team. The Britons were given no space to play their usual passing game, and the pressure from the attackers was relentless as well. India took a 2-0 lead through a field goal by Mandeep Singh and a penalty-stroke conversion from Harmanpreet Singh, before finally allowing the hosts their first look at the Indian goal late in the match. The damage had been done, though, and this could prove the most pivotal win of the five listed here, as experts believe Great Britain could be potential opponents for India in the latter stages of the Olympics, where advancement might virtually assure the winner of a medal. ' ' '