Calgary Flames trying to 'coach' penalties out of edgy Martin Pospisil
There's a fine line between battling hard and being careless. Martin Pospisil is trying to keep things on the legal side, but his latest infraction drew the ire of Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska on the weekend.
Huska is a level-headed bench boss, but he didn't hold back after a tough 4-2 loss on Sunday against the Edmonton Oilers. Pospisil was in the penalty box for a high stick on defenceman Mattias Ekholm in the last half of the third period when Oilers winger Zach Hyman scored the winner.
It killed the momentum the Flames had after tying things up at 2-2 just before the offensive-zone infraction.
“We’ll do our best to coach it out of him,” Huska said. “There’s different ways you can do that. A lot of that is on the player. That’s twice now, so it’s not okay.”
Pospisil skated on the fourth line in Tuesday's morning skate in Montreal ahead of their game against the Canadiens.
The deciding goal was tough for the Pospisil to watch from the box on Sunday, but the competitive spirit and willingness to go to war on the boards is definitely not something you want to coach out of Pospisil. You can't teach it, and it's the kind of characteristic that can turn a game around in a positive way — as long as the player is able to avoid taking penalties.
Pospisil was benched for a time recently as well after taking a a pair of minor infractions. His time as a centre also seems to have ended after an early season tryout with Jonathan Huberdeau and Anthony Mantha.
He'll keep walking that line, because it's in his DNA. It's also what helped make Pospisil one of the Flames' top rookies in recent years last season.
“Hey, he’s the type of player who has to play with an edge, but it’s not a reckless-type style that he has to play, because at the end of the day points are so valuable," Huska said.
“It’s so hard to win in this league that if you overstep your boundary a little bit it costs a team. So, I think he understands it, and he’s got to really work to be a better player in that regard for us.”
Odds are Pospisil will continue to figure it out. After all, it wasn't some flagrant foul he threw out in anger on Sunday. His aggression in the competition for the puck on the boards had him a little more enthusiastic than usual. There was some tough luck involved, too.
Not that you'll find Pospisil making excuses. He's accountable for his actions and you can bet he apologized to teammates for the transgression.
If you have to pick between an occasionally annoying penalty or a player who doesn't play with the intensity of Pospisil, I'm taking the former every time.