Canada's 8-1 victory over Finland on Monday was a great game for Mark Stone, but it was also a great game for his linemate Jonathan Huberdeau.
Huberdeau hadn't played a real legitimate game in over six weeks. He played the back-to-back pre-tournament games on Thursday and Friday night and that was his first action after coming off a broken foot.
Huberdeau picked up a goal and four assists for a five-point day and he showed us once again that he's a big game player. We saw that in the Memorial Cup last year, we saw that playing in the QMJHL earlier this season and we saw that even in the Florida Panthers' pre-season.
Huberdeau did a good job getting down low and feeding pucks for Mark Stone out front.
For Huberdeau to miss this time, it was probably as good a thing as it was for anybody because he was a physically tired player when he came back from the Panthers' training camp. Even though he lit it up in the Quebec league early on this year, he probably benefitted from having a six week rest, if you want to call it that.