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Blame the hockey gods. Blame the added pressures that come from signing a big-time contract. Or simply blame bad luck.

Whatever the reasons, Sean Monahan didn’t look like himself for the first two months of the season. The Calgary Flames centre had four goals and no assists in October and then only two goals and six points in November. It was an out-of-character start for a player who had scored more than 60 points in each of the past two seasons.

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Of course, that track record is exactly why some were not worried that a player who signed a seven-year, US$44.625-million would eventually turn things around and earn his keep.

“If you look at Sean, his point production isn’t normally where it would be at, but it’s not a first-year player (we’re talking about),” Flames GM Brad Treliving told Postmedia News in November. “It’s a player with a body of work. You know he’s a really good player and you know it’s going to come.”