Milan Lucic has hit a lot of people during his long NHL career.
He did not, however, intend on delivering a stiff-arm to the face of Jonathan Huberdeau after his Calgary Flames linemate scored the winning goal against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night.
Sometimes excitement gets the better of you, though, and accidents happen.
“You know, just a big goal, excited, got my arms up and kind of gave him a forearm shiver there,” Lucic said with a laugh on Friday morning at Winsport, where the Flames were practising. “Just excited for the goal. We knew how big the game was and how big points are right now, so just a good feeling all-in-all.”
There were no hard feelings from Huberdeau about the accidental contact. Sure, he wounded up bleeding a little bit, but that didn’t take away from what was a big moment in a big game for the Flames.
As the Flames winger told reporters on Thursday, a little bit of blood is worth it if it means you scored a big goal.
For his part, Lucic wasn’t credited with an assist on the game-winner, but he did nice work retrieving a puck from the corner to help set it up.
That is, presumably, exactly what the Flames want from their big veteran now that he’s been placed on a line with Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri. Those are two skilled players who can work some magic when they get a little bit of space. Hopefully, Lucic can provide some of that by going into the corners and doing the dirty work to get them the puck in the offensive zone.
“My game doesn’t change much,” Lucic said of his job on the new line. “I’m just trying to create space and play straight lines and go hard to the net and win battles and give them pucks in areas where I know they’re going to make plays.”
While nobody is expecting Lucic to suddenly turn into a 30-goal scorer again, playing with Huberdeau and Kadri should provide some more opportunities to put the puck in the back of the net.
He’s had more ice-time in the Flames’ last two games than in any previous game this season and has managed two shots-on-net in both. After being a healthy-scratch for a couple games earlier in the month, it’s a big change, and he’s obviously hoping to take advantage of the opportunity.
Yes, that will involve doing the hard work in the corners, but if it also includes a few more goal-scoring opportunities, that’s all the better.
“For me, it’s just being prepared to get puck back because they both can make plays and all that type of stuff,” Lucic said. “So far, I think we’ve found some chemistry, so we just have to keep improving our game, as well.”
Like the rest of his teammates, Lucic was especially thrilled to see Huberdeau nab his first game-winner of the season. The winger’s play has been under the microscope ever since he signed an eight-year, US$84-million contract extension after being acquired in the trade that sent Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers this summer.
And while it’s been an at-times rocky start to his times with the Flames this season, Huberdeau’s shown real improvement recently. For him to score a big third period game-winner against a division rival like the Kraken was a big deal.
“His game keeps getting better and better as the season goes along and he’s a huge part of this team,” Lucic said. “He’s a guy we key-on, and seeing him getting better and more confident every game, it goes through the whole team because like I said, he’s a big part of this team and a guy we need to step up in big moments like that.”
daustin@postmedia.com
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