Man, watching that Huberdeau interview was rough.
There's just something off, I feel like he regrets signing long term in Calgary now.
I want nothing but the best for the guy, would LOVE to have him find his game again but he's clearly rattled internally and it appears like for some reason he cant find light at the end of the tunnel.
Dont get me wrong, he has only himself to look at here first and foremost. However you cant help but feel bad for the guy as a person and I do think that video showing his effectiveness vs's his utilization on the Flames highlighted some of his frustrations. He continues to look like 2 different players and I'm starting to worry that unless they try and build a line around his strengths whatever that looks like... we're not going to come out the other side here.
Lindholm is clearly not the guy, they need to remove those 2 right now.
*Salim needs to go man, the guy reminds me of a used cars salesman, just a complete slime ball, its a shame he replaced Franklin who was such a professional*
Based off of the possession numbers you have to keep Zary-Kadri-Sharangovich together as well as Pospisil-Backlund-Coleman. There's already a thread on the former and the latter has numbers that are comparable.
These guys have made things work quite well with the linemates they have. The problem is that the players Huberdeau's shown any sort of chemistry with previously are from the above list.
With who's left, you're basically left with the options of square peg in a round hole (stick him with Lindholm and have the 1st line struggle) or throw him some depth players for energy and essentially shove your 10 million dollar winger to the 4th line. But since Huska seems perfectly happy to bench him for an entire period if he's underperforming, then I'd suggest the 4th line option.
Thing is the numbers say Huberdeau-Lindholm-Mangiapane should be unspectacular but fine.
Conroy needs to off his butt and trade Lindholm for somebody that can help their 10.5M/yr investment
Lindholm is not a good fit and no reason to bring him back
Ouch! I guess that could be true. I've always liked Lindholm. But if you look at it from a purely commercial standpoint, its true, they need someone as 1C that fits with Huberdeau.
Huberdeau-Backluck-Mangiapane had a really good expected goals for last season, with limited viewing. If you put stock into that sort of thing.
I'd try it anyway.
Yeah, Lindholm is a black hole because he doesn't carry the puck. Huberdeau looked great with Backlund in limited viewings last season. Lindholm will put pucks home if you have both a puck mover up the ice and a puck disher in the offensive zone (Tkachuk and Gaudreau) but he can't do what a #1 centre does if you expect him to be the puck carrier up the ice or to be creative in the offensive zone. He's a finisher offensively only and a great defensive player.
The Flames need to understand this and they don't.
It's easy to see the impact that Zary has had on Nazem, all we need now is a youngster that can do the same to Huberdeau.
That's Sharongovich and Pelletier, of which we only have one right now. But Huberdeau gets put with two players that don't compliment his game at all and nothing changes.
Grocery Stick : A slang insult for a seldom used player, often an enforcer or "goon", who sits on the bench specifically to help a coach divide the defensemen and forwards.
Yeah, that's what makes it a poor/odd slang term. I've literally never heard it called a grocery stick once in my life. It's either been called a divider or more commonly not referred to at all, people just grab it or motion for it without words.
