Continuing the process of improving Jonathan Huberdeau’s game hasn’t been top of mind for most Flames fans this summer. Instead, the now determined future of Jacob Markstrom and the team’s crucial 2024 NHL Draft have been more pressing issues.
But that doesn’t mean the organization hasn’t been focused on working with Huberdeau after two frustrating seasons in Calgary. In fact, it’s been something on head coach Ryan Huska’s checklist since the off-season began in mid-April.
To that end, Huska visited Huberdeau earlier this month in Montreal with an eye on an improved third year with the Flames.
“Over the course of the summer I always check in with players,” Huska told Flames Talk on Sportsnet 960. “I check in with them a couple times throughout the summer to see how they’re doing, what’s new with them and their families, (and) to check in on their workouts and stuff.
“In this situation, it just worked that I was able to meet Jonathan in Montreal. So, I went and spent a night with him, and we had great conversation. A lot of the same things I do over the phone with the guys I was able to do in person with Huby.
“I felt like it was a great night for us just to sit and talk about each other, what’s going on in our lives, how things are going and then it progressed to a little bit of our conversation that we had at the end of the year.”
Huska’s time with Huberdeau is just one of the topics broached in his exclusive, wide ranging conversation with Flames Talk earlier this month.
SPORTSNET: What else went into your conversation with Jonathan in Montreal?
RYAN HUSKA: (We talked about) where we see ourselves right now and where we see ourselves moving forward moving into next year. It’s really coach and player working to get themselves connected and on the same page and we’re all here for the same reasons.
We want our players to be the best they can possibly be, because in turn it makes our team stronger and that’s what this is all about. As coaches, sometimes players look at it like, “Aw man this guy is hard on me, doesn’t care about me”.
But as coaches, we know that’s so far from the truth it’s not even funny. We want to put them always in spots to succeed, so sometimes having a different conversation that is kind of out of the norm, I think, is a good way to break some of those walls down.
SN: Do you find those conversations flow a little different further removed from the end of the season?
RH: They do. At the end of the year everybody is still fired up. Guys are unhappy that we’re out and sometimes you’re a little bit edgy at the end of the year. So, you have an edgy player at that point coming into a coach’s office who is probably edgy.
But once you’ve taken some time away, I think you give yourself a chance to process. You give yourself a chance to think a little bit.
It’s so important that you reconnect later on because everybody’s guards are down a little bit at that point and you’re just free to talk. I find those are the best conversations because that’s when you get most of the honesty.
SN: You recently hired former Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen as an assistant to replace Marc Savard on your staff. Can you take us through the hiring process?
RH: Well, it actually took a fair bit of time. I spoke with a lot of different people I had interest in to see if they would have interest in the position. A lot of people I included in my search were people that had a lot of NHL experience behind the bench, whether as an assistant or an associate. But preferably they had time as a head coach at the NHL level.
I had an opportunity to chat last year with Brad while I was going through the search the first time and I really enjoyed the conversations we had. At that time, with his situation and coming off some of the stress you get from being in the game for so long, he needed to focus a little bit on his family and get away from the game to kind of re-energize himself.
We connected again and kind of picked up where we left off last summer. The most important thing for me was finding a really good person and a great character that comes to the rink every day to work hard, which is one of the many attributes Brad has.
But also, he’s going to give me someone that really understands the chair I’m currently sitting in. It gives me and the rest of the coaches the opportunity to talk to someone with that experience that’s also coming from a different organization. That has some different views on the way the game should be played and how players should be pushed.
SN: Savard took care of the power play last year before he and the team mutually parted ways earlier this summer. With Larsen now on your staff, how are the coaching duties going to be spread out this season?
RH: They’re going to shift a little bit this year. With Brad coming in, he’s going to be responsible for the penalty kill. He’s also going to be responsible for shaping our forwards along with Cail MacLean. And he’s going to be that liaison between me and the rest of the coaches, someone we can all lean on.
Cail is going to be responsible for the power play now as well as working with the forwards, and Dan Lambert is going to be responsible for our defencemen. You have a little more specific responsibilities, almost coordinator type roles that you see in football. That’s the direction we’re going to move to this year.
SN: Your power play struggled for most of last season and finished 24th overall at 17.9 per cent. What’s going to be important this year as MacLean takes over that area?
RH: From my time here, other than a couple years, it’s always a topic of conversation. And rightfully so because it has the ability to win you games. And on the flip side of that coin, there are nights where it can and does lose you games.
I think the biggest thing we want to get across to the players… we want them going on the ice knowing they’re going to make a difference. That when the ref’s arm goes up in the air, we’re going out there and if we don’t score, okay so be it. But we’re going to generate momentum for our team.
I think when you look at our team at the end of the year, they started to get that. I think some of that had to with Andrei Kuzmenko. He found a spot down low on that first power-play unit. I think part of it had to do with MacKenzie Weegar up top. And part of it had to do with Yegor Sharangovich on that one flank. They started to connect a little bit better as the year went on. And because that connection started to be a little more frequent, I think the confidence started to grow.
I think a real big part of it is they have to make sure they maintain their swagger even in stretches when power plays do go cold at times. They’ve got to maintain their swagger knowing they’re going to get themselves out of it and I think Cail working with our power play guys will be excellent at that.
SN: You just hit one year since being promoted to head coach. Does it feel like it’s been a year already?
RH: Yes and no I guess is the easy way to say it. I feel like the year flew by; I really do. There are things along the way you reflect back on that you’re proud of.
It went by really quickly and that’s strange to say because there were a lot of different things that happened over the course of my first year. There were a lot of things I would say most teams don’t go through in the way we did last year.
You take all those lessons and experiences, and you make yourself better and that’s really what you’re looking to do. So, we’re already excited, we’re looking forward to what’s coming down the pipe.