THN Archive
From the Archive: "Breakin' Out" by Mike Brophy
The Hockey News has released their archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories and features.
To celebrate that release, we're looking back at some of THN's most timeless stories. Today, a look back at Eric Staal's break out season from Jan. 17, 2006, Vol. 59, Issue 17.
Subscribe now to view the full THN Archives here and read the full issue here.
It was a great play. Even The Great One thought so.
Eric Staal burst into the Phoenix zone, sliced his way around a Coyotes defenseman and drove to the goal on his backhand. He was being leaned on as he approached the net and eventually fell to the ice. After landing on his butt, he had the presence of mind to somehow get the puck back on his forehand and deposit it past a startled Curtis Joseph.
As the goal was replayed on the scoreboard above center ice, the camera panned to Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky, who nodded his head and grinned in amazement. This, from the same man who caused more people to nod their heads because of his hockey heroics than any player in history.
In the end, the goal was meaningless, Carolina’s second of four in an 8-4 loss. But it spoke volumes about the young man who scored it.
“He has had a lot of nice goals this season,” says Carolina coach Peter Laviolette. “I think he has really established himself as an offensive threat. Now we’re halfway through the year and he’s drawing the attention of the opposition’s best defensemen and checking lines, and he’s still able to be successful.”
Say what you want about this year’s great rookie crop featuring Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Dion Phaneuf, Marek Svatos and others, as well as the success being enjoyed by Ottawa’s Jason Spezza.
The fact is, nobody has made a more significant rise to prominence than Staal.
From opening night when he struck once in a 5-2 loss to Tampa Bay, Staal has been at or near the lead of the NHL’s scoring race. Through 39 games he was eighth in NHL scoring with 26 goals and 52 points.
At 6-foot-3 and a little over 200 pounds, Staal is able to use his size and speed to get to the net. He’s willing to go into the tough areas – where the goals are scored – and his teammates will tell you he can make moves you usually only see in video games.
Staal opened the year by scoring in each of his team’s first five games and hasn’t slowed down since. Twice he has produced four-point games and four times he has managed three points. In doing so, he has helped the Hurricanes become one of the NHL’s biggest surprise teams. Many pre-season polls had the Canes at or near the bottom of the Eastern Conference and a leading contender in the Phil Kessel sweeps-takes.
“I knew coming into this year we’d have a good, young team,” Staal says. “When you have a bunch of young guys, you generally have a hard-working team. Once we started playing well, we realized we could do something, no matter what others said about us. We had a nine-game winning streak early in the year and from there we continued to build on it.”
The Rangers have also been a surprise, but they have Jaromir Jagr. The Sabres have been startlingly good, but they have a plethora of good goalies. The Hurricanes?
Well, the first thought is to throw all the credit Staal’s way, but that would be wrong. Staal’s linemates, Erik Cole and Cory Stillman, who was signed as a free agent after finishing eighth in NHL scoring and winning a Stanley Cup with the Lightning two years ago, have been superb. Then there is revived veteran Rod Brind’Amour, a pro’s pro, as well as emerging Justin Williams up front.
GUYS ALWAYS BUG ME ABOUT HOW MUCH… I LIKE TO HIT THE COUCH - ERIC STAAL
The defense, featuring Frantisek Kaberle, Bret Hedican and Glen Wesley (out now with a knee injury), is unspectacular, but efficient. Goalies Martin Gerber and rookie Cam Ward have been solid.
All that said, Staal has taken his game to a level that few expected this early in his career. Many people feel the biggest reason why he has emerged so quickly has to do with his time spent in the American League last season during the NHL lockout.
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“I don’t think he ever would have played in the minors if not for the lockout,” Laviolette says. “I don’t know what that would have translated to in his second year in the NHL, but I think he probably gained a lot of confidence, the fact that he was playing against players his age, his peers and he found out that he was one of the best players in the AHL. His first year in the NHL he was a good hockey player. It wasn’t a breakthrough season scoring-wise, but he was learning the league and he was a good two-way player. I think going down there gave him the confidence to bring out the best part of his offensive game.”
Adds Staal: “It was a good experience for me, though. I got back to doing what I did in junior, playing on the top line, playing a lot of minutes, in all situations, and really being counted on. I put up good numbers and our team played well so that really helps the confidence.”
Initially, though, he wasn’t thrilled with the notion of playing in the minors.
“Obviously there was an adjustment going from flying on chartered planes in the NHL to having to ride the buses, but it was a good group of young guys and there weren’t that many married guys so we hung out a lot together,” Staal says. “It was enjoyable that way.”
Staal has been tagged for success ever since the Hurricanes drafted him second overall in 2003 after a successful junior career in Peterborough. The feeling was he would probably spend one more year playing in the Ontario League, but when he scored seven goals in seven pre-season games in 2003-04, Carolina decided he was ready.
He didn’t disappoint, scoring 11 goals and 31 points in 81 games as a rookie. Those numbers aren’t overwhelming, but on many nights he was the team’s best player.
“His strength was the fact he was strong at both ends of the ice,” Laviolette says.
Off the ice, Staal is quiet and unassuming. By now you probably know he was raised in Thunder Bay, Ont., and skated all winter on the 100-by-50-foot rink that his dad, Henry, built for Eric and his brothers: Marc, a first round pick of the New York Rangers (12th overall in 2004); Jordan, a projected NHL first-rounder in 2006 currently playing in Peterborough; and, Jarred, who plays midget AAA in Thunder Bay.
A self-described couch potato when he’s not playing hockey, Staal spends his time watching movies at his rented townhouse, just down the street from the RBC Center in Raleigh. “Guys always bug me about how much I lay around on the couch,” he says. “I like to hit the couch.”
Staal says he is not one to ask for help from older teammates. Instead, he prefers to watch and listen. He says he picked up one good habit from watching Stillman.
“One of the biggest things for me this year was when he first got here, I watched how hard he shot the puck in practice,” Staal says. “He shot it so hard, every time. It didn’t matter if it was warm-up or a practice, he’d let it rip every time he shot and he’d try to bury it. I wondered, ‘Why don’t I do that?’ So I started and I started scoring more in practice and it just built from there.”
Brind’Amour, in his 16th season, has seen hot prospects come and go. Staal stands apart from the pack.
“He’s just better,” Brind’Amour says. “It’s not like he works harder or does things in a different way than other kids; it’s just that his overall game is better than any kid I’ve seen at his age. He’s not overly big. He’s not the strongest player. He just plays the game right. His skating has really improved from his first year here and with the new rules, nobody can hook and hold him anymore.”
In the second half, Staal hopes to stay in contention for the Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s top goal-scorer. Now that he’s clearly one of the league’s impact players, can we expect continued success from him?
“I’d like to think so,” Staal says. “I’m not a cocky kind of guy, but I am confident. I know I’m a good player and I can help contribute to our team’s success. That’s what I want to happen, not just this year, but every year.”
DID YOU KNOW?
What a difference a lockout makes. Eric Staal averaged 0.38 points per game as a rookie in 2003-04 (31 points in 81 games). In 2005-06, he’s scoring nearly an entire point per game more, at 1.33 (52 in 39).
IT’S A FACT!
In 2003-04, Staal scored 11 goals in 81 games
In 2005-06, Goal 11 came in Game 12
In 2003-04 Staal had 31 points in 81 games
In 2005-06, Point 31 came in Game 19
