Huberdeau, Wolf stand out, Flames in playoff conversation at halfway mark

CALGARY — The swagger is resurfacing, in a different way, for Calgary Flames winger Jonathan Huberdeau.

At the halfway mark of the NHL's regular season, Huberdeau's team-leading 17 goals already topped what he's produced in each of his previous two seasons after his trade from the Florida Panthers.

The 31-year-old from St-Jerome, Que., famously said after his first season as a Flame "I completely lost my swagger."

Huberdeau has contributed to a team in playoff contention in more ways than on the scoresheet.

The 115-point man in his final season as a Panther has found comfort and pride in his defensive responsibilities, which the low-scoring Flames require of their highest-paid player as much as offensive production.

"It's been better," Huberdeau said Friday. "My most complete game, playing both ways. I've been better this year playing consistently and that's what I want to keep doing.

"Just to get the confidence, getting more involved on the defensive side of things and penalty killing, having some more ice time, I've been playing more lately, so I like it. I wanted to play a little bit more and get involved. I'm showing the coaches that I can be out there and you can trust me."

It was the work of more than a moment for a player averaging US$10.5 million in annual salary to get his head around a Calgary job description that wasn't all about the kind of production he'd had in his last year in Florida.

"With the team we have, we're not going to score a lot of goals, so when you're on that kind of team, you need to be reliable defensively," Huberdeau said. "I learned that throughout these years, and now I feel that the coaches can trust me on the other side of the puck as well."

Huberdeau's resurgence and the performance of rookie goalie Dustin Wolf that has the 23-year-old nibbling the edges of the Calder Trophy conversation were among the drivers of Calgary's first-half success.

Calgary (19-14-7) hovered just below the playoff cutline Friday in a tight Western Conference wild-card race.

The team was a game short of its official halfway mark after Wednesday's game in Los Angeles was postponed due to widespread fires. The Kings are in Calgary on Saturday.

The Flames said in a statement that Connor Zary, who left Tuesday's game in Anaheim after ugly knee-on-knee contact, doesn't need surgery but he'll be out of the lineup "for an indefinite period."

Calgary was challenging Vegas atop the Pacific Division in November, but the combination of penalties and a poor penalty kill, plus faceoff feebleness that reduced puck possession on special teams, was a drag on the Flames' fortunes.

Calgary was fourth in the NHL in average penalty minutes per game with a penalty kill ranked 30th, and faceoff success 29th. The Flames scored four or more goals in regulation just twice since mid-October.

"What's not working to start with, our penalty kill is the obvious one. Everybody gets that," Flames head coach Ryan Huska said. "You need to make sure that's something that, when it hops over the boards, that they know they're going to get the job done.

"The second thing people talk about, a lack of scoring from our group, I don't look at it that way. I look at it more of our lack of first-period scoring. That's the area where we're lagging behind the rest. We have to find a way to be a team that isn't chasing games after the first period."

What Huska said is working for the Flames is players like Huberdeau understand and have bought into the identity of a hard team five-on-five and one that pushes to the buzzer. Calgary produced 22 of its first 45 points either trailing or tied after two periods.

"Really loved our resiliency this year," Flames centre Nazem Kadri said. "That's our identity and we'll be expecting a lot more of that in the second half."

Wolf's 13-6-2 record, goals-against average of 2.60, save percentage of .914 and two shutouts working in a tandem with Dan Vladar was head-and-shoulders above any rookie goalie in the NHL. A goaltender hasn't won the Calder since Steve Mason in 2009.

"Wolf has been great. It's his confidence that I admire," Huberdeau said. "Every night he gets in there, he's going to be really good, but I think he's going to be even better."

Belief inside the dressing room and little outside of it was the theme this season for a reworked, young edition of the Flames. Huberdeau believes the club has what it takes to hunt down a playoff spot.

"We all know what we can do," he stated. "We believe in each other, and I like the our team."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 10, 2025.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press