CALGARY — Amidst a third-period comeback that gave the Calgary Flames their first winning streak of the season, there sat Jonathan Huberdeau.
Stapled to the bench for the entirety of the Flames’ monumental turnaround from a 2-1 deficit, the team’s highest-paid player was positioned on the far right side of the lads, next to the glass.
He stood to deliver the odd fist bump and cheered on his mates, but at times, when the cameras caught him during a TV timeout, he wore on his face the hollow feeling that must come from not being a part of it.
“I thought Huby had an off night and when we went into the third period we wanted to try to get a little bit more flow and we went with the guys we felt were going, and that’s pretty much all it came down to,” explained head coach Ryan Huska of the move, which also saw fourth liners A.J. Greer and Walker Duehr kept off the ice.
“He’s fine.
“It’s not anything anybody wants to go through ever, but, hey, at times it’s going to happen. You’re not going to have your A-plus game every night.”
Was it effort-related?
“Off night,” shrugged Huska, downplaying it.
“It happens.”
Sure, benchings happen.
But when the man warming the pine is doing so while making $10.5 million for the next eight years, it’s a big story.
After opening the season with four points in his first four games, the 30-year-old winger has since had two assists in eight games. In that stretch, he has just seven shots and has gone minus-12, with Tuesday’s 4-2 win the only one in which he didn’t finish as a minus.
In 14:24 of ice time in the first two periods, Huberdeau had no shots on goal, two giveaways and one missed shot on the top line.
Symbolic of just how bad things have gone for the Flames early this season is the fact that after their most complete, most important win of the season, the storyline was all about No. 10.
That will be the talk around town and the league, as people continue to scratch their heads, wondering how a former 115-point player can continue to struggle so mightily since he arrived in town.
Last year Huberdeau struggled with his new surroundings and butted heads with coach Darryl Sutter, who played him on his off-wing and often reduced his ice time when games got tight.
This year, he’s fighting the puck once again and the new coach has done nothing but support the former star.
Nothing seems to work, and he’s wearing it, admitting regularly the onus is on him to figure this out and start helping a team that desperately offence.
“Work smarter, not harder,” he says.
A dressing room leader who was handed an A for his jersey this season, Huberdeau’s teammates rallied around him after the game.
As teammates do.
“It’s one period out of his life, out of his career — it’s not a big deal,” said Dillon Dube, whose late second-period goal cut Nashville’s lead to 2-1, setting up a three-goal third for the hosts.
“Huby is the man. He’s good. He’s the most positive guy I’ve been around.
“He’s a hell of a player, he’s a hell of a person, and it’s fine.
“I don’t think anybody is too worried about it — I don’t think we should be.
“He works his ass off every day. I give him credit, he’ll be here tomorrow with a smile on his face.”
But people are worried about him.
As they should be.
It’s not like Huberdeau has been snakebitten, or the recipient of some bad bounces.
There’s just been very little chemistry with anyone he’s played with, including on the power play.
He passes too much, forcing things that aren’t there.
It’s hard to watch, as you know he’s a proud man who doesn’t cheat the team on effort or enthusiasm.
He’s just in a rut of historic proportions, as evidenced by his NHL-record season-to-season point drop last year.
Things aren’t any better a dozen games into this year, as his very public benching made clear.
“I don’t know if the camera caught him but we scored the go-ahead goal, we get those blocks down the stretch he’s celebrating and he’s excited for the team,” said Blake Coleman, who finished a two-on-one for the game-winner six minutes into the third.
“He’s a team guy through and through.
“It’s our job to lift each other up at times when it’s not going well.
“We’re hoping to do that for him and we know he’s going to be lifting us up as the year goes on here.”
Surely at some point, Huberdeau is capable of being one of the game’s better playmakers.
The $10 million question is how to spur that on, as the coach and the organization are at wit’s end trying to foster such a turnaround.
The team’s fortunes largely depend on it.
“It’s an 82-game schedule and sometimes there are lines that are rolling and playing really good and sometimes that’s the way it goes — everybody kind of goes through that at some point,” shrugged Noah Hanifin, whose early third-period blast tied the game 2-2, setting the stage for the winner two minutes later from Coleman.
“The more important thing is we had a good third and won the game.”
He’s right.
Big picture, these Flames desperately needed a win, at home against a Predators club that’s middle of the road.
That’s three games in a row the Flames have played well, finally rewarded with two-straight wins after losing six straight.
There’s plenty of work ahead if this team is going to be able to salvage the season, and few players are more important to turning the team’s fortunes around than the man who watched their last period from the bench.
