5 Calgary Flames That Need To Fire Versus Arizona Coyotes
By Luke Ryan
Calgary Flames Needing A Big Game: Jiri Hudler
The Czech winger hasn’t been at his strongest this month, struggling with illness and struggling a little on the ice. Whether the on-ice struggles are reflective of just the one player though is questionable. It seems the Calgary Flames in general have forgotten how to score goals, but sure as heck haven’t forgotten how to give them up!
Jiri has only provided three assists on his way to a minus two plus/minus score; nobody expects last season’s heroics from him – that scoring year looked like a one-off, even at the time, but they do expect slightly better numbers.
Hudler as one of the elder members of the Calgary Flames roster needs to be picking up the slack and giving stable and consistent performances every night.
The younger guys can get away with being ‘streaky’ a lot more because you can blame youth and inexperience. The elder statesmen of the team are the ones that should know better.
The other question directly relating to whether he will come up big or not is where will he be placed – there’s room for him with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan on the top lines; equally though he’d fit comfortably on a little more low-key line as he gets back to full strength.
Next: Players Needing A Big Game: Markus Granlund