Jonathan Huberdeau had just sniped the go-ahead goal in a crucial divisional matchup. It would, in fact, stand as his first game-winner in Calgary Flames’ silks.
And this is the thanks he gets … a clothesline from one of his own teammates and bloody nose.
“That kind of hurt, actually,” Huberdeau said with a chuckle. “I was going to celly and Looch (Milan Lucic) said, ‘No, you’re not leaving. You’re staying here.’ He kind of hit me. He didn’t mean to, though. He felt a little bit bad and I started bleeding.
“It’s worth it when you score, though.”
Indeed, Huberdeau would gladly trade a bloodied beak for a meaningful marker. Anytime.
“You always want to help your team to win, so that was good,” he said of Wednesday’s third-period strike in Seattle, a spinning shot from the slot that tucked just inside the post on Philipp Grubauer’s blocker-side. “You feel better when you wake up the next day and you know you helped the team, and that’s what I wanted.”
Huberdeau hasn’t been quite as productive as planned so far, but the Flames’ prized trade pick-up seems to be settling into his groove.
Dating back to the final week of November, the ace playmaker has collected at least a point in 12 of his past 17 outings. He has totalled four goals and a dozen assists during that stretch. (Over that same span, only Elias Lindholm has earned more score-sheet mentions for the Flames.)
The 29-year-old Huberdeau now seems to be clicking with his new linemates — Nazem Kadri at centre and Lucic on the right wing. He crossed a couple of items off his to-do list during Wednesday’s victory at Climate Pledge Arena, where he cashed not only his first GWG on behalf of his new team but also his lone third-period potting so far this season.
“He was low-key about it, but I could tell that he was very happy,” said Huberdeau’s close pal MacKenzie Weegar, who also arrived from Florida in that blockbuster summer swap. “When we were leaving the ice, he had that bloody nose because Looch gave him a nice stiff-arm celebrating, but I said, ‘Hey Johnny, how did that feel?’ All he gave me was, ‘Good.’ I didn’t say anything after that, I just knew he felt good about it.
“I think he’s been improving every game,” Weegar continued. “He’s starting to get that offence back in his game and I think Darryl (Sutter) might have a little more trust in him and he’s getting the systems a little bit more … Everybody, I think, at the beginning was just trying to get comfortable with each other and get a little chemistry, and I think that line with Looch and Naz has helped him a lot, as well. So he’s happy. It’s nice to see him smiling a lot more around the rink.”
He certainly had reason to smile as the Flames returned home from Seattle and refocused on a New Year’s Eve countdown clash with the Vancouver Canucks (8 p.m. MT, Sportsnet One/Sportsnet 960 The Fan).
It says a lot about Huberdeau, about his sky-high expectations for himself, that during Thursday’s scrum with reporters at the Saddledome, he stressed that he should have broken the deadlock with the Kraken several shifts before he actually did. In that instance, he’d failed to hoist a shot over a sprawling Grubauer.
“I had to redeem myself after that,” he said. “I wouldn’t be happy if, let’s say, they scored after that. I think that was an easy one. Obviously, the confidence is not at the highest, so that’s probably why I didn’t score there. I mean, I had the whole net. I just had to lift it a little higher. But just to get it back, it was good and felt good.”
Except for the bloody nose.
Now, Huberdeau knows why Lucic is considered one of the NHL’s toughest customers.
“Strong arms,” he confirmed with a grin.
And the new guy in No. 10? He’s better known for soft hands, and he’s showing those more and more often.
Huberdeau is just shy of a point-per-game clip over the past month and it would be bigtime beneficial to the Flames — now nudged into third place in the Pacific Division standings — if he could maintain that sort of pace. He has now boosted his season total to seven goals and 25 points and continues to remind himself to put more pucks on net instead of always looking to play setup man.
“Even when I shot it (on the goal), I was thinking pass,” Huberdeau admitted with a shake of his head. “Like, I don’t know what’s going on in my head. It was quick, but it was still, I was like, ‘Ah, I should pass it.’ But then I was like, ‘Hey, just shoot it.’
“I think I have to see a psychologist or something for that,” he added, laughing again. “I think that’s going to come, shooting more. But I think it’s been better in the past few games and I have to build off that.”
Twitter.com/WesGilbertson
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