Flames’ Darryl Sutter calls out new forward Jonathan Huberdeau

Ahead of Tuesday night’s game against the Seattle Kraken, Calgary Flames head coach Darryl Sutter was backing up new forward Jonathan Huberdeau despite his slow start.

“Jonathan’s a really good 200-foot player. I think there’s been way too much talk about goals and assists and points and last year and all that,” the bench boss had said.

It looks like he changed his mind after the 5-4 loss.

Despite changing up lines and splitting up Huberdeau and Elias Lindholm, Sutter didn’t get what he was hoping for out of his new forward. The Flames did manage to score four goals in the game, but Huberdeau was held point-less for the third time in his past four contests.

The vote of confidence from Sutter therefore went out the window as he implored Huberdeau to play with more pace.

“I think Jonathan has to speed his game up, that’s for sure,” Sutter sais as he called out Huberdeau in front of the reporters.

Sutter has never been one to keep mum about his displeasure when it comes to players’ performances.

When the Flames traded for Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar as they sent star Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers, I bet this is not what they had in mind. To make things worse, the defenseman has also been struggling with his new team.

Huberdeau signed an eight-year, $84 million contract, but the Flames probably thought they were getting a similar Huberdeau to the one that garnered Hart Trophy consideration last season when he posted a career-high 115 points in 2021-22.

Maybe he'll come out now that Sutter has called him out in front of everybody...