Brind'Amour, Aho, Hall, and Stankoven break down their thrilling 5-4 victory over the Lightning, highlighting key plays and standout performances.
The Carolina Hurricanes returned to action Thursday night after a three-week layoff and started things off on the right foot, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 at Lenovo Center.
It was a back and forth affair, but ultimately, it was Sebastian Aho on the power play that was able to push Carolina ahead in the end.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Aho, Taylor Hall and Logan Stankoven spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the game: Listen, everything that went on in that game was kind of what you knew was coming. We just obviously got off to a good start. Then the power play, they clicked right away and Kucherov with a nice delay, rips it into the net. They have a lot of talent and we said it coming into the game, that's the player you have to know when he's on the ice. He certainly had a good game, but I thought we battled hard. But like I said, the start was the key.
On tightening things up in the third period: I thought the game got a little bit better there in the third. I liked our game. We didn't give up much and that was the key. We were giving up a few too many good looks, but I thought in the third, we settled down a little bit and got to our game a little better.
On the Logan Stankoven line producing: They were obviously huge tonight. Lots of pretty goals. You don't always see that, but I think that line in general creates a lot for us and they're not always on the scoresheet, but they're always around it and they have the potential every shift to kind of make something happen. They were our best line.
On the go-ahead power play goal: It came through, right? It wasn't the best of shots, but you look at the play he made on the wall, it was under pressure, held onto it, had composure to settle it down and then I know they had full possession and fired it right to Jarvy, so they're gonna be not happy about that, but Jordo in front did his job. When you can match special teams, go away and say, "Oh they got one one and we got one," that's really what you need to do against that team.
On Taylor Hall: He's a veteran and he knows, certainly on the offensive side of things, I mean, he's on it. He has great awareness for that and is helping out and playing with two younger players in the league. I think he's been really good for those guys.
On the defense stepping up in the neutral zone: The way they do it in the neutral zone is that they'll stretch you out and then come back and then hit the next wave. It's tough to defend and I thought we did a decent job. Ghost actually did a real nice job with it tonight. He was really breaking up the play before they could get the next wave and create some turnovers. That's what you have to do against them, but it's not easy to do. It's impressive to watch Kucherov. You have to tip your hat. I mean, that guy is world class.
On Jaccob Slavin's hit on Kucherov at the end of the game: Like I said, it's easier said then done. That's one way to at least try and eliminate him a little bit. I thought we did a nice job at the end of the game. They didn't really get any super good looks and we had four or five good looks at the empty net and, you know, we make it interesting, that's for sure.
Taylor Hall
On the game: It was probably entertaining for the fans that were here and watching. A little bit back and forth. Not really the style we're constantly playing, but at the end of the day, we got a win against a team that played last night, but probably knocked some rust off. For us, that's a long time to go without playing. So we'll take the win. Lots of really good individual performances. Stank, Jarvy, Bussi. We'll take it.
On his line's production: If you look at the two goals, we just kind of did it right. One was a set forecheck where we talked about this morning on what we wanted to do. Their guy was swinging behind the net, so we closed it off, Chatty made a good play to just bump it and then we got a 2-on-1. The other one, was similar. We just did our jobs defensively and then were able to let our skill take over. Kind of practice those. I feel like Stank and Blaker, myself, we've been kind of unlucky as a line, so if we can keep creating, I think we're due for a good stretch.
On playing with Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake: I don't know if I'm easy or hard to play with, but we talk a lot on the bench. They're hockey guys, they love the game and they want to get better and they always want the puck on their stick. I hope that's always the case because you never want to lose that. They're still figuring out ways that they can make as big of an impact as they can in this league and it's not always a straight line of development. Slowly, we're starting to get some more shifts against their top lines and things like that, so that's what we want to take care of and then the offense will be fine.
Sebastian Aho
On the game: A good win. Obviously we wanted to start the right way and we were able to win against a good hockey team. Scoring a goal is obviously a bonus, but we were looking for the two points and we got it.
On locking things down in the third period: They have some high-end offensive players there and it's not the easiest job to keep them from getting scoring chances and whatnot, but the third period, I thought was pretty solid.
On Jordan Staal's impact on the power play: We talked about having a little more of a guy around the net and whether he scores or not, that usually takes one of their D-men to the net front too and creates more traffic and stuff like that. He's been really good for that.
On how he felt in his first game back from the Olympics: Personally, I felt pretty gassed, to be quite honest. I mean, I thought my wingers were working really hard and I played an okay game. Obviously we were against their top line, but yeah, we were fine.
Logan Stankoven
On scoring a goal on his birthday: It's nice, for sure. I was hungry to get back out there and contribute and so it was nice to see the puck go in and for our line to have some success.
On the developing chemistry of his line: Obviously there's games where we would have liked to have produced a bit more, but I think our team has that depth where we have different lines that can step up and contribute at different times. Sometimes, you can't control where the puck goes, but if you can work as hard as you can and keep building on the little things, that's all you can ask of yourself.
On the pressure to produce: They have a lot of big guns over there, so it was nice to contribute and put the puck in the net. Hopefully I can build on a game like that.
On locking things down in the third period: Being able to reset between periods [was key]. They're so good at being able to get the puck in the neutral zone and hit guys with speed and they're very dangerous off the rush. I thought that was just something we talked about between periods. That and limiting turnovers.
On Taylor Hall: Just a veteran guy who knows the game really well and one that is always consistently talking to us and trying to set up plays and whatnot. A lot of speed there and great vision from him.
On his plans for tonight: I don't know. Just go to bed. Maybe go grab some dinner. But other than that, just head to bed and get ready for Saturday's game.
On attending the UNC Chapel Hill basketball game a few days ago: That was great. It was my first college basketball game ever. So it was nice to just see the facility. Before the game started, we were able to get down there and see the dressing room. There's just so much history there. So that was something for me, coming from Canada, we don't have a lot of college basketball so it was cool to experience that and just be at the game. They won too, so that was nice.
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