{"id":521746,"date":"2026-11-07T12:48:37","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T12:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/521746\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T12:48:37","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T12:48:37","slug":"on-15-minutes-notice-flames-defender-joel-hanley-was-thrown-into-the-deep-end-against-anaheim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/521746\/","title":{"rendered":"On 15 minutes notice, Flames defender Joel Hanley was thrown into the deep end against Anaheim"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 15 minutes notice, Flames defender Joel Hanley was thrown into the deep end against Anaheim<\/p>\n

There are few gigs in professional sports less heralded than the frequent healthy scratch in the National Hockey League. Through the first 16 games of the Calgary Flames\u2019 2026-27 season, Joel Hanley was a paid spectator for 15 of them \u2013 his lone appearance of the season coming on Oct. 3 in Vancouver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Friday was shaping up to be another quiet outing for Hanley. He arrived at the rink for the game, per usual. He sat in on the team\u2019s pre-game meetings, per usual. He began to go through his warm-up routine and was limbering up to hit the ice as the extra warm-up skater, per usual.<\/p>\n

But 15 minutes before the team was slated to hit the ice for warm-up, Hanley received a bit of news. Kevin Bahl was going to miss the game with a lower-body injury. Hanley would be playing for the first time in over a month, on the top pairing with Simon Nemec, against a potent Anaheim Ducks team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was crazy,\u201d said Hanley post-game. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I was going to be playing, and then all of a sudden, they told me I was in, so I just tried to dial it in as quick as I could. Obviously, nice to chip in offensively. It\u2019s been a while. It would have been nice to get a win there to make it feel a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanley recalled he was told by the trainers that he would be playing just prior to hitting the ice for warm-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we were playing soccer,\u201d said Hanley. \u201cAnd then all of a sudden I had to go warm up a little bit harder and activate the glutes a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanley ended up playing 16:42 on the top pairing with Nemec. He scored a goal, but he was also on the ice for two Ducks goals.<\/p>\n

Flames head coach Ryan Huska praised Hanley\u2019s ability to dial in for a game on short notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s a hard position for a player to be in, but it\u2019s the NHL and that\u2019s the job at times,\u201d said Huska. \u201cAnd the one thing with Joel, we kept him around the room when he took most warm-ups, which is harder for an older player to do that all the time, because we wanted him around our meetings. We wanted to make sure he was up on things because it was a matter of time before he got himself back in the lineup. So to get thrown in like he did and played well, I think he deserves a lot of credit for that, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flames return to action on Sunday when they host the Philadelphia Flyers.<\/p>\n

BARN BURNER TAKES ON MONTREAL. BON VOYAGE, BABY!\"\"<\/p>\n

We\u2019re taking this show on the road \u2014 and you\u2019re invited.<\/p>\n

From January 22\u201324, 2027, join Barn Burner for a hockey weekend in one of the most iconic hockey cities in the world, presented by McLeod Law. Expect hockey, good times and a whole lot of Barn Burner energy.<\/p>\n

Pack your bags, rally the crew and get ready to bring the heat to Montreal. Travel packages are available now, but spots are limited!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On 15 minutes notice, Flames defender Joel Hanley was thrown into the deep end against Anaheim There are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-521746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}