Done with the excuses. You simply don’t forget how to play hockey… this guys a dud. Gets paid $84M and gives up.
Chronixx
I now have a lot of anxiety concerning the coaching staff. How this scout (who did an amazing job breaking this down) was able to figure this out on the outside and the guys who work with him everyday haven’t… that’s a tough look no matter how you slice it
Hungry-Raisin-5328
Good job, Walsh. This is way better than the MAF meme.
Edit: in all seriousness, it’s a really interesting and well-written article.
Chad_TreintaUno
I agree with a lot of this stuff, but he’s often struggling to do make pretty simple plays. So it definitely can’t all be blamed on the system.
abrandnewsharpie
Can someone send this to Conroy or Huska? It’s a little embarrassing how beautifully this scout laid it all out, and how we still haven’t seen any of these types of recommendations (especially on Huberdeau’s side) put into play.
Either they aren’t coming to the same conclusions or they are and Huberdeau just refuses to try and implement them (I’m leaning towards the latter).
bleedingoutlaw28
I really love this kind of stuff, it paints a really dramatic picture of the problems here and it makes for an interesting read.
A lot of this stuff looks like confidence problems within the group to me. Stretch passes and active D and creative routes in the offensive zone all require taking risks with the puck, possibly leading to turnovers and chances back the other way if you can’t pull it off. But when you don’t trust yourself or the guy next to you that becomes tough to do.
I still don’t think we have the horses to play the way Florida did, but it would make for more interesting hockey if they would just send it some nights.
sokrateas
Wow. This is one of the best articles from Sportsnet I’ve ever read. I know most folks don’t read the articles, but I suggest making the exception here. Very good writeup!
Specialist-One-712
This article makes me wonder if Huberdeau would be playing better if Kylington were here. That guy loved being on the rush.
Who’s our next Brodie?
Duck_Caught_Upstream
Great read
I think it does a good job outlining that the situation around Huberdeau has not been great and that is a big reason for his drop in production.
It also outlines some things Huberdeau could be doing to improve his own situation and at least make him more dynamic. Even if he never puts up 115 again I think Flames fans would be more than ok with that if he was at least dynamic and creating possession which is not the case right now.
Ultimately it’s a complicated issue. You would like your coaching staff to adapt things so your players are playing to there strengths, which didn’t happen last year and doesn’t appear to be happening this year.
At the same time you would also want players doing everything in there power to make the most out of there situation which Huberdeau is not doing right now. This is especially concerning since the player who is refusing to improve his own situation is your highest paid player. And there are other guys on the team who you can tell are giving it there all
flyin_italian
This was a great and well put together analysis. Worth the long read IMO.
As someone who is extremely frustrated with Huby’s output, this definitely painted a clear picture into what his 10.5 million dollar contract bought.
Almost like the flames bought a Lamborghini for winter driving. They didn’t do their homework on this one.
Huby doesn’t get a full pass or anything, but this analysis helps direct the frustration more accurately.
Previous-Exit8449
Wouldn’t it be easier to trade him away for a second round pick?
AbsoluteIKeatI
Can definitely still blame Huberdeau since he makes some mind-boggling plays but I’ve been saying it all last year and this, our offensive scheme is not built for success. There’s really 2 ways of generating offence in the NHL, the first is Quality and the second is quantity.
Defensive-minded coaches like to use Quantity because you risk turnovers when making east-west plays and cross-ice passes. This helps explain why Sutter implemented this system. The strategy relies on getting pucks to the net, getting pucks deep, and having men back on defence so that we don’t give up odd-men rushes. So to the article’s point, our defencemen are not activating as much because they are told not to. Our entry into offence is also very stagnant, the player sits on the opposing blueline and then gets the puck with two teammates going towards the net. Usually, those teammates will have a defender draped over them which can open up opportunities for a defenceman to take the open space. This would be similar to football where a speedy player takes the safeties deep and opens up a hole for a 20-yard throw up the middle, except we have 3 guys running deep and 2 guys behind the line of scrimmage, we aren’t attacking the weakness we created. In the end, it means we have a guy getting pressured with the puck with no choice but to make a pass into coverage or just take a shot and hope for a rebound. It doesn’t work and we’ve seen it for 92 games now.
The second method of generating offence is built around options. The more options you have to make an offensive play, the more the defence has to defend different plays which can expose holes in their coverage. Some of the best options for a team to create offence are:
* Speed – McDavid has this option and forces defenders to not let him blow by them opening up space in front of the defenders who can’t close the gap). Our players might not have that acceleration but they can still skate at an NHL level and should be using their momentum and keep their feet moving more as the article points out. * East-West Movements – if your forwards are moving around they are either forcing the man defenders to follow, possibly creating holes in the defence for another player to attack, or finding soft spots in the zone defence for easy 1-timers. Our north-south attack makes it easy for defenders to defend. We should be trying to make their job harder not easier. * Passing – Passes force the whole defence to shift momentum/focus to the new player in possession. While they are on the back foot there is an opportunity for more passes and for players to find a new hole in the defence to attack. This is a lot more common on the powerplay where you see other teams shift players around and try and find soft spots in the defence, in Calgary we just all stand still in our designated spot and pass around the perimeter until someone gets bored and takes a bad shot.
Anyways, you can see what the high-scoring offences do and come back to Calgary and pretty easily understand that we have a systems issue. Our players still need to do better, they are still to blame, but they won’t succeed in an offence built 30 years ago. Maybe though, they might succeed in the modern offence that they’ve played their whole careers in. They also might not in which case we are totally fucked but I’m trying to be a little hopeful.
CurlingTrousers
It’s a good article, but – in sports, performance is not a constant of one individuals past performance. Something might be missing but also time/age is a factor. The bad contract he was given was a bet on expected performance. Not all bets pay off.
But he’s not going anywhere. Flames have nothing but time to try different things with him to try and turn it around. Doesn’t seem like there’s a quick fix, and maybe Flames need to brace for the idea that this one was a miss. It’s not like nobody considered this a risk at the time – they were kind of tilt looking for a quick fix to recover from Goody and Chucks’ snubbing.
It’s possible to make genuine mistakes in life. Now – pivot from “what happened?” To “what shall we do?”. what options exist to pair him with?
jnags6570
This 1000x. I think most people realize it here that it’s still a product of the system they are running and also Huberdeau just kinda being lazy overall. In florida he looked a lot more dynamic off the rush, different options create more chances. In Calgary so far he has looked very one dimensional and the opposition knows it. His move is just get inside the blue line with no speed and then look back up ice for a pass that will likely get closed off very quickly. No threat of a shot or movement to other areas.
The other thing I noticed more in the first highlight package talking about the defenseman activating was literally every example was Huberdeau ending up on his off-wing. I dont know if he started on the right side or swung across to there but he did end up there alot. I know this is a small sample size but where did this garbage come from about him saying he wont play off wing in sutter’s system last year? If you watch this again, it makes him more dynamic and opens up options for him if he works it properly. He doesnt look comfortable at all on the left side going across his body with passes.
It’s not just one problem here. Team system and him working on some skills and effort a little more would go a long way to getting everyone out of this funk. Here’s hoping they can get going in the right direction.
azndestructo
Great article- the author diagnosed the problems in an easily digestible way (especially for an average fan like me).
That being said, I’d be shocked if the Flames coaching staff didn’t already know the points made by this article. Given that it has yet to be resolved, I’m thinking that roster construction may be the real issue.
I’d love to be wrong on this but it’s possible that Brad may have locked down the wrong player for this team. Who knows, maybe someone like Kylington might turn things around for Huby?
super6646
Said it a few games back and I’ll say it again, this was one of the worst possible teams he could’ve ended up with.
We don’t have enough players that drive the net with speed or skate well to utilize his playmaking, and Huberdeau doesn’t move his feet enough which results in him panicking and making poor plays. People kept lambasting Sutter for the Huby-Kadri duo, but he was spot on in recognizing that Lindholm and Huberdeau aren’t suited to play well. Lindholm needs his wingers to drive the transition and move the puck up, and Huberdeau needs his centre and winger to carry the puck through the neutral zone… wait a second.
Unfortunately, it takes years to change the makeup of the team and the way the team plays in such a fundamental way. Flames pro-scouting didn’t do their homework on this one, simple as that. Huberdeau isn’t going to magically become a puck carrying wizard like Gaudreau, and that is exactly what the team needs.
​
The hopeful answer is Huberdeau can still be a passable top 6 forward despite this, the more realistic answer is the franchise is probably totally fucked. They brought it on themselves really.
Lord_Kromdor
You can see it happen everytime he has the puck in the offensive zone, and why they’re calling him a turn over machine. He gets possession, his defender is on top of him, he tries to pass to an option that’s not there, he tries a second option that is there with a more difficult pass or maneuver, he turns it over, repeat.
TheFifthsWord
The thing that stood out the most was the lack of press by our D. Watching all the clips of those guys coasting in kind of shocked me because for the better part of the last decade this team always had active guys (Gio/Brodie).
18 Comments
Done with the excuses. You simply don’t forget how to play hockey… this guys a dud. Gets paid $84M and gives up.
I now have a lot of anxiety concerning the coaching staff. How this scout (who did an amazing job breaking this down) was able to figure this out on the outside and the guys who work with him everyday haven’t… that’s a tough look no matter how you slice it
Good job, Walsh. This is way better than the MAF meme.
Edit: in all seriousness, it’s a really interesting and well-written article.
I agree with a lot of this stuff, but he’s often struggling to do make pretty simple plays. So it definitely can’t all be blamed on the system.
Can someone send this to Conroy or Huska? It’s a little embarrassing how beautifully this scout laid it all out, and how we still haven’t seen any of these types of recommendations (especially on Huberdeau’s side) put into play.
Either they aren’t coming to the same conclusions or they are and Huberdeau just refuses to try and implement them (I’m leaning towards the latter).
I really love this kind of stuff, it paints a really dramatic picture of the problems here and it makes for an interesting read.
A lot of this stuff looks like confidence problems within the group to me. Stretch passes and active D and creative routes in the offensive zone all require taking risks with the puck, possibly leading to turnovers and chances back the other way if you can’t pull it off. But when you don’t trust yourself or the guy next to you that becomes tough to do.
I still don’t think we have the horses to play the way Florida did, but it would make for more interesting hockey if they would just send it some nights.
Wow. This is one of the best articles from Sportsnet I’ve ever read. I know most folks don’t read the articles, but I suggest making the exception here. Very good writeup!
This article makes me wonder if Huberdeau would be playing better if Kylington were here. That guy loved being on the rush.
Who’s our next Brodie?
Great read
I think it does a good job outlining that the situation around Huberdeau has not been great and that is a big reason for his drop in production.
It also outlines some things Huberdeau could be doing to improve his own situation and at least make him more dynamic. Even if he never puts up 115 again I think Flames fans would be more than ok with that if he was at least dynamic and creating possession which is not the case right now.
Ultimately it’s a complicated issue. You would like your coaching staff to adapt things so your players are playing to there strengths, which didn’t happen last year and doesn’t appear to be happening this year.
At the same time you would also want players doing everything in there power to make the most out of there situation which Huberdeau is not doing right now. This is especially concerning since the player who is refusing to improve his own situation is your highest paid player. And there are other guys on the team who you can tell are giving it there all
This was a great and well put together analysis. Worth the long read IMO.
As someone who is extremely frustrated with Huby’s output, this definitely painted a clear picture into what his 10.5 million dollar contract bought.
Almost like the flames bought a Lamborghini for winter driving. They didn’t do their homework on this one.
Huby doesn’t get a full pass or anything, but this analysis helps direct the frustration more accurately.
Wouldn’t it be easier to trade him away for a second round pick?
Can definitely still blame Huberdeau since he makes some mind-boggling plays but I’ve been saying it all last year and this, our offensive scheme is not built for success.
There’s really 2 ways of generating offence in the NHL, the first is Quality and the second is quantity.
Defensive-minded coaches like to use Quantity because you risk turnovers when making east-west plays and cross-ice passes. This helps explain why Sutter implemented this system. The strategy relies on getting pucks to the net, getting pucks deep, and having men back on defence so that we don’t give up odd-men rushes. So to the article’s point, our defencemen are not activating as much because they are told not to. Our entry into offence is also very stagnant, the player sits on the opposing blueline and then gets the puck with two teammates going towards the net. Usually, those teammates will have a defender draped over them which can open up opportunities for a defenceman to take the open space. This would be similar to football where a speedy player takes the safeties deep and opens up a hole for a 20-yard throw up the middle, except we have 3 guys running deep and 2 guys behind the line of scrimmage, we aren’t attacking the weakness we created. In the end, it means we have a guy getting pressured with the puck with no choice but to make a pass into coverage or just take a shot and hope for a rebound. It doesn’t work and we’ve seen it for 92 games now.
The second method of generating offence is built around options. The more options you have to make an offensive play, the more the defence has to defend different plays which can expose holes in their coverage. Some of the best options for a team to create offence are:
* Speed – McDavid has this option and forces defenders to not let him blow by them opening up space in front of the defenders who can’t close the gap). Our players might not have that acceleration but they can still skate at an NHL level and should be using their momentum and keep their feet moving more as the article points out.
* East-West Movements – if your forwards are moving around they are either forcing the man defenders to follow, possibly creating holes in the defence for another player to attack, or finding soft spots in the zone defence for easy 1-timers. Our north-south attack makes it easy for defenders to defend. We should be trying to make their job harder not easier.
* Passing – Passes force the whole defence to shift momentum/focus to the new player in possession. While they are on the back foot there is an opportunity for more passes and for players to find a new hole in the defence to attack. This is a lot more common on the powerplay where you see other teams shift players around and try and find soft spots in the defence, in Calgary we just all stand still in our designated spot and pass around the perimeter until someone gets bored and takes a bad shot.
Anyways, you can see what the high-scoring offences do and come back to Calgary and pretty easily understand that we have a systems issue. Our players still need to do better, they are still to blame, but they won’t succeed in an offence built 30 years ago. Maybe though, they might succeed in the modern offence that they’ve played their whole careers in. They also might not in which case we are totally fucked but I’m trying to be a little hopeful.
It’s a good article, but – in sports, performance is not a constant of one individuals past performance. Something might be missing but also time/age is a factor. The bad contract he was given was a bet on expected performance. Not all bets pay off.
But he’s not going anywhere. Flames have nothing but time to try different things with him to try and turn it around. Doesn’t seem like there’s a quick fix, and maybe Flames need to brace for the idea that this one was a miss. It’s not like nobody considered this a risk at the time – they were kind of tilt looking for a quick fix to recover from Goody and Chucks’ snubbing.
It’s possible to make genuine mistakes in life. Now – pivot from “what happened?” To “what shall we do?”. what options exist to pair him with?
This 1000x. I think most people realize it here that it’s still a product of the system they are running and also Huberdeau just kinda being lazy overall. In florida he looked a lot more dynamic off the rush, different options create more chances. In Calgary so far he has looked very one dimensional and the opposition knows it. His move is just get inside the blue line with no speed and then look back up ice for a pass that will likely get closed off very quickly. No threat of a shot or movement to other areas.
The other thing I noticed more in the first highlight package talking about the defenseman activating was literally every example was Huberdeau ending up on his off-wing. I dont know if he started on the right side or swung across to there but he did end up there alot. I know this is a small sample size but where did this garbage come from about him saying he wont play off wing in sutter’s system last year? If you watch this again, it makes him more dynamic and opens up options for him if he works it properly. He doesnt look comfortable at all on the left side going across his body with passes.
It’s not just one problem here. Team system and him working on some skills and effort a little more would go a long way to getting everyone out of this funk. Here’s hoping they can get going in the right direction.
Great article- the author diagnosed the problems in an easily digestible way (especially for an average fan like me).
That being said, I’d be shocked if the Flames coaching staff didn’t already know the points made by this article. Given that it has yet to be resolved, I’m thinking that roster construction may be the real issue.
I’d love to be wrong on this but it’s possible that Brad may have locked down the wrong player for this team. Who knows, maybe someone like Kylington might turn things around for Huby?
Said it a few games back and I’ll say it again, this was one of the worst possible teams he could’ve ended up with.
We don’t have enough players that drive the net with speed or skate well to utilize his playmaking, and Huberdeau doesn’t move his feet enough which results in him panicking and making poor plays. People kept lambasting Sutter for the Huby-Kadri duo, but he was spot on in recognizing that Lindholm and Huberdeau aren’t suited to play well. Lindholm needs his wingers to drive the transition and move the puck up, and Huberdeau needs his centre and winger to carry the puck through the neutral zone… wait a second.
Unfortunately, it takes years to change the makeup of the team and the way the team plays in such a fundamental way. Flames pro-scouting didn’t do their homework on this one, simple as that. Huberdeau isn’t going to magically become a puck carrying wizard like Gaudreau, and that is exactly what the team needs.
​
The hopeful answer is Huberdeau can still be a passable top 6 forward despite this, the more realistic answer is the franchise is probably totally fucked. They brought it on themselves really.
You can see it happen everytime he has the puck in the offensive zone, and why they’re calling him a turn over machine. He gets possession, his defender is on top of him, he tries to pass to an option that’s not there, he tries a second option that is there with a more difficult pass or maneuver, he turns it over, repeat.
The thing that stood out the most was the lack of press by our D. Watching all the clips of those guys coasting in kind of shocked me because for the better part of the last decade this team always had active guys (Gio/Brodie).