Huberdeau denies Sutter is 'sucking the joy out of the players' after agent's tweet

The Flames spent the post-game part of Thursday night putting out a social media fire ignited in part by a tweet from Jonathan Huberdeau's agent.

With 27 games left in the season, the Flames are teetering on the cusp of qualifying for the playoffs, but Thursday that wasn't translated into a sense of urgency as the team surrendered three straight goals late to drop a 5-2 decision to Detroit.

The loss was their second in the last two weeks to the rebuilding Wings.

Fans were already unhappy with how the team has been playing, but things really heated up on Twitter afterward.

It was force-multiplied by player agent Allan Walsh, who tweeted "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Also, negativity sucks the joy right out of the players."

That appeared to be a not-too-veiled shot at Flames coach Darryl Sutter.

Walsh is the agent for the Flames prize off-season acquisition Jonathan Huberdeau, who has thus far not lived up to the massive contract extension he signed shortly after arriving in the deal that sent Matthew Tkachuk to Florida.

Huberdeau, for his part, insisted he had nothing to do with Walsh's tweet - and that things are fine between him and the coach.

"It's my agent you know, it's from him," Huberdeau said. "It's his account. You know he made that tweet, so that doesn't reflect on me or on the guys.

"We all love each other," Huberdeau said, continuing. "We're a close team and we're going to grind this out and make the playoffs."

'A GREAT GUY'

Jakob Markstrom after Flames game Thursday

Flames goaltender Jakob Markstrom stood by Huberdeau's version of events.

"Huby's a great guy and I don't think he stands behind that [tweet] either," Markstrom said. "It's very irrelevant. You know," he added, smiling, "I like Huby and Huby likes me and you know – all the other guys like each other!"

Even the coach said there's no issue there.

After the game, Sutter said a few tweets weren't going to have much impact on team dynamics which, he added, were solid.

"Social media, and whatever anybody says doesn't affect the locker room ever," Sutter said. "When you have a tight group, you keep it tight."

Huberdeau said that contrary to what his agent tweeted, his joy has not been completely sucked out by the scowls of Sutter, who by all accounts scowls a lot less than he used to when he coached the Flames close to two decades ago.

"You're never 100 per cent happy with the coach, with decisions and stuff like that," Huberdeau said, "but me and Darryl have a great connection. You know, great friendship and you know – he's good.

"He wants to win, just like us."

The Flames take on the NHL's hottest team, the New York Rangers, Saturday night at the Saddledome. The Rangers came back from a three-goal deficit Friday night to defeat the Oilers 5-4 in overtime for their seventh consecutive win.

Puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m=