CALGARY - Long before the Lamborghini or the Ferrari, Jonathan Huberdeau drove a 1999 Saturn station wagon purchased from his dad that says plenty about how he was raised.
It also serves as a reminder of how his family has helped him navigate the last year-and-a-half.
“My dad sells cars, so I was hoping maybe he could give me a little car,” reminisced the Flames winger of his days in Saint-Jerome, Que. as a junior hockey hopeful.
“But he said, ‘no, you’ve got to work for it.’
“So, I had to pay for it.
“It was about $2,000, had no air conditioning, and was terrible to look at, but it was standard, so it was good to learn.”
More than just teaching him how to drive a stick shift, making him purchase his first ride taught him that in life it’s on you to make it on your own — a lesson that has served him well as he’s fought through the most frustrating year-and-a-half of his career.
“My dad is kind of the guy who always said, ‘you don’t blame anyone else, it’s on you,’” said the Flames’ 30-year-old winger whose point production dropped in half last year.
“And I think that’s good, because when you talk to people, some of them say, ‘it’s not my fault.’
“You have to take things on personally.
“It’s on you to get out of that.”
Huberdeau learned the lesson well, as he has exhibited tremendous class, patience and full ownership of his on-ice struggles since becoming a Flame.
Tapping into a huge support system back home where the family gathers regularly to watch his games, he has long relied on chats with his dad to help him fight through one of the biggest and most puzzling slumps in league lore.
Keeping up a long-standing family tradition, at Christmas his parents joined him in Calgary for three weeks, telling him, “we’ll go wherever you go.”
“We talk a lot and we try to support him as much as we can,” said his father, Alain, on the recent father’s trip.
“Sometimes it’s hard to find the answers.
“He’s been through a lot since the trade.
“The trade was a shock and was tough to get over for him.
“But then it’s a matter of getting used to a new environment, players, different coaching.
“We talk a lot about it and we try to find a way that he’s going to be able to succeed.
“The only thing we’re sure of is it’s going to happen – I don’t know when, I don’t know where, but it will come. That’s for sure.”
With five goals and 19 points in his last 20 games, Huberdeau’s game has indeed been trending positively the last six weeks, getting him closer to the pace that earned him an eight-year, $84 million deal with the Flames.
The former 115-point man will tell you there’s still plenty more, as he has just 34 points thus far this season.
The growing confidence in his game is evident, something his father never lost faith in given the character of his boy.
“He has kept the spirit,” said Alain.
“He says, ‘I have to work hard and one way or another it’s going to work out well.’
“We know that because he hasn’t changed. He’s still the same player and same guy.
“Going through the tough times are probably harder on him, but he’s always been positive about that.
“He’s trying to focus on what he has to do and he loves it in Calgary, so that makes it easier for him to love the people and to love the team.”
Huberdeau admits he’s leaned heavily on the support of his family to help him regain the touch that initially made him such an exciting addition to the Flames as part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade.
“You need people to talk to and he’s always there for me,” said Huberdeau, whose brother and sister often congregate at his parent’s house to watch him play.
“I know where my dad sits on his chair, I can just picture him with his 90-inch TV.
“He sits so close to it, I said, ‘I don’t know how you watch this close to the TV.’
“We’re big family people and my dad showed me that - we’re close to each other.
“It’s always nice people are there for you.”
Like when he came back after his first year in junior and upgraded his car to a Honda Civic, from dad’s lot, of course.
“It had an air conditioner, but I was going to work out in Montreal and coming back I wasn’t putting on the AC because I thought it was hard on gas,” laughed Huberdeau, whose love for luxury cars grew from his dad’s business.
“It took me a while to figure that out.”
The same can be said of his game of late.
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