'MOST IMPROVED PLAYER'

He's here! He's there!
Okay, enough of the Roy Kent references, for now.
But if you look at how Dillon Dube has played this season, he's lived up to that catchy Ted Lasso slogan.

"Dillon is a guy that works at his game. Dillon is the most improved player in our organization, hands down," Flames head coach Darryl Sutter said Thursday, ahead of Friday's tilt with the visiting Islanders (
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). "Give him lots of credit. He works at his game and it's about repetition, preparation, training, everything.
"He's spot on. He's climbing the ladder in terms of the leadership part and all that. You guy talked about this, guys in our organization gotta take steps. It's not the guys coming in the organization, it's those young guys in that age group. Dillon has done a great job.
"He's such a repetition and a do it right all the time guy and it translates into his game. I said this about Dillon it was just about being consistent. Right? When you train and you are consistent, train your brain to do everything properly then it comes when it's for real. Then be more consistent and he's like that.
"I've said this about Dillon also, when you look at is career, his junior career, Memorial Cup and all that, you look at it and how it translates in his career and now you are starting to see that here too."

High praise from the bench boss.
And for good reason, as Dube has looked better and better, taking more steps since being put on a line with Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli.
"I think for me coming in at a young age was a challenge for me to find my game and figure out the player I need to be in the league," Dube said, when asked about his growth. "Having some older guys when I came in to learn from and how they establish themselves, guys like Backs (Mikael Backlund) following his career and he talked to me a lot about it and it was good for me to have.
"Older guys to learn from was a real important thing for me to become the player I need to be for this team."

With 21 points (8G, 13A) in 39 tilts, he's on pace to surpass his season-best of 32 set a year ago and just four points away from the century mark for his career.
It never hurts to put up points, but the 24-year-old has done more than that. There's also the little things that don't always show up on the scoresheet but go a long way in getting a win.
"Just hard work, it's a long season, hard schedule," he explained. "You aren't going to be on skill wise every game, it's a challenge sometimes you are fighting the puck. If you can bring that effort and find a way to at least have an impact of the game regardless of what you do, that's consistency. That's my biggest thing, trying to be consistent. It's a hard league. Put every game together well and if you can bring your work ethic that's the most important.
"You have to be at your best. You need every single guy. If one guy on your line isn't gong it makes it hard. It's a hard league to win in so every guy has to find a way to bring their best. Mostly your best is your work ethic so when you find a way to do that. Trying to find that consistently to be your best every night is big accomplishment if you can get to that."
A prominent fixture in the Flames lineup today, there was a time when Dube was scratched when he admitted his game wasn't where he wanted it to be.
It was a moment used as fuel and a constant reminder of what he needs to do.
"I don't want to be in that spot, I want to try and contribute ever night," Dube said. "That's a fresh spotter, sits in the back of my head all the time I come to the rink. You want to help this team win and be on the ice to do that and bring something everyday to try and help."