A TRUE WARRIOR

Look up the definition of 'warrior' in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of Chris Tanev.
No joke. This guy is as tough as they come.

Need proof? Look no further than the defenceman returning for Game 4 against the Oilers in the second-round playoff series, battling through an injury he suffered against the Dallas Stars in the opening round.
"Game 6 in Dallas there, I dislocated my shoulder," he said Saturday. "I'll be having surgery next week and I believe the time frame is 4-6 months. We'll see how it goes. After the surgery I'm sure our medical staff will have more of an update on how it went and more of an exact time frame. I didn't have a sprained neck, and I had a dislocated shoulder, not a separated shoulder. My surgery is on my labrum, which is torn."
Take a moment to digest that.
Making passes, blocking shots, giving and taking hits and playing over 20 minutes with a torn labrum.
Unbelievable.
"Everyone wants to play every game, especially in playoffs. I'm not the first guy to play hurt and I'm not going to be the last," Tanev said. "If I feel like I can get out there on the ice and try to help the team, that's what I would like to do."

The Flames also had several others players dealing with ailments during the post-season: Nikita Zadorov suffered two cracked ribs, Milan Lucic was dealing with an AC joint sprain, Oliver Kylington a shoulder injury, Andrew Mangiapane a wrist injury, and Matthew Tkachuk a hand injury.
All were able to play through it and out of the group, only Tanev requires surgery.
"When you lose good players, it has an impact," Flames general manager Brad Treliving said. "So you take, the way you have to look at it, when you take out Chris Tanev, you look at the minutes. You look at the situational minutes, penalty kill, hard match against top players, so it certainly had an impact, but that's the playoffs.
"I think we've all come to appreciate Chris Tanev and just the warrior mentality he has."

There's no doubt that Tanev's leadership and play is something that couldn't be replaced and once he returned to the lineup - he had an instant impact.
His teammates weren't surprised to see him back out there so quickly. After all, that's just the player he is.
"I think people won't understand the things he's gone through," Jacob Markstrom said. "He wanted to play Game 7 against Dallas, he wanted to play Game 1(against Edmonton), it's inspiring and he's a leader and he leads by example in everything he does.
"It's tough to see. You want him on the ice and he wants to be on the ice, but it's inspiring to see and for sure he's one of the guys who you can just follow in his preparation and everything he does and the way he carries himself as a professional. I can't say enough good things about him both on and off the ice. I like him out there. I like to have him on my team and I like to have him on the ice.
"He's a tough guy, he's really tough."