Huberdeau’s four points weren’t the only thing Flames head coach Ryan Huska liked about his winger’s game on Saturday
Huberdeau has always been willing to stand in front of the local reporters and dissect his game since the Flames acquired him in the summer of 2022. Even in the moments where he struggled the most over his first two seasons, he didn’t shy away from the tough questions.
Did he know where the puck was on his first goal, when it bounced off his shoulder and in?
“You didn’t see it? I called it and then pretended I didn’t know where it was,” Huberdeau quipped.
“No, I can’t do that,” Huberdeau said with a smile. “Look at me.”
If Huberdeau is feeling confident right now, he should be.
He scored in the Flames’ season opener and then added four points on Saturday. He’d never done that during his tenure in Calgary, and his last four-point game came back on April 5, 2022, when he was still with the Florida Panthers.
He wasn’t the only Flames player to step up on Saturday, with Nazem Kadri netting two and Weegar and Martin Pospisil also scoring.
Two games is too small a sample size to say that Huberdeau is back to his best, but through six periods of the 2024-25 NHL season he’s looking a lot more confident in his game.
The bounces are going his way, finally.
“I don’t think I’ve ever scored a goal with my shoulder, it was a great bounce,” Huberdeau said. “To start the game like that, it’s huge.”
1. Not just the points, either
While Flames head coach Ryan Huska certainly wasn’t complaining about Huberdeau’s offensive contributions, the four points weren’t the only thing he liked about his winger’s game on Saturday.
For the second game in a row, Huberdeau also spent time on the penalty kill, playing 2:46 of shorthanded ice time. He’s spent four minutes and 11 seconds playing on the penalty kill in two games so far this year. He played a total of three minutes and 15 seconds shorthanded in 81 games last year.
Huska believes that’s bringing out the best in him.
“He wants to be a difference maker every night and it hasn’t gone the way he’d liked to have seen it go the last couple of years, but he’s doing a lot of things and he did prior years, too, without the puck,” Huska explained. “He’s killing penalties, too; I’m probably more excited about that stuff than the points he put on the board tonight because I feel like he’s engaged even in the penalty kill, that’s something that’s good for us, we need him right now.”
It does look like Huberdeau has already found some chemistry with Mantha and Pospisil, and his work on the power-play was impressive against the Flyers.
Huberdeau also started well last season, with four points in the Flames’ first four games, so it’s going to take some time before anyone is confidently saying he’s rounded the corner after two tough seasons.
But it’s been a very good start.
2. Wolf makes his case
Dustin Wolf had a very strong night against the Flyers.
There’s a spotlight on both Wolf and Vladar and it’s likely going to continue until one of them stakes a clear claim to being the full-time starter.
But Wolf certainly didn’t hurt his cause against the Flyers, making 37 saves in the win.
“After about five minutes I thought he looked in control,” Huska said. “When he’s not letting rebounds, things are kind of sticking to him and he seems like he knows where the puck is, he’s tracking it well, that’s when you know he’s dialled in. I thought he looked in control night.”
Wolf turned away 18 shots in the first period to keep the Flyers off the scoresheet.
And none of the goals he allowed were his fault. The Great Wall of China couldn’t have stopped Travis Konecny’s first. It came on a two-on-one and finished off a nifty passing play. And Joel Farabee’s second-period goal wasn’t any easier, and Konecny’s second of the night was on a point-blank shot from the slot.
By and large, Wolf looked very solid on Saturday night. He didn’t have to do anything spectacular, but that was largely because his positioning was excellent and his rebound control was on-point. His quick reflexes to knock a puck off the line after it had come off Konecny’s stick were top-notch.
Wolf’s going to get a lot of playing time this season. If he plays the way he did Saturday, he’ll only earn himself more.
3. Everybody involved
Just like everybody was predicting, Sunday night’s Battle of Alberta in Edmonton will be between an undefeated team and a winless group that’s been blown out in two games.
There weren’t many people a week ago who were guessing it would be the Flames rolling in with a perfect 2-0-0 record and the Oilers stumbling to an 0-2-0 start.
It’s still way too early to believe the standings are going to stay the way they are today, but Flames fans can probably be forgiven if they want to enjoy the moment.
And while these takeaways chose to focus on Huberdeau and Wolf, it’s worth noting that there were a lot of other players who put in good shifts on Saturday night.
The Flames are getting scoring from up and down the lineup, with 13 players pitching in with at least a point in the first two games.
Five of the Flames’ six defencemen have recorded points and while Daniil Miromanov hasn’t managed one, he’s still been in and around the action.
Huberdeau has five points, while Kadri, Pospisil and Andrei Kuzmenko all have four and Weegar, Mantha and Connoy Zary have three apiece.
The Flames have preached that they need contributions from everyone to win games.
So far, they’re getting that.