Hurricanes stars admit glaring weaknesses are costing them wins. Turnovers and a lack of defensive pride are directly fueling their high-scoring losses.
The Carolina Hurricanes blew yet another multi-goal lead Thursday night as they fell to the Montreal Canadiens 7-5 in their first game of the new year.
The team squandered a five-point outing by Sebastian Aho as turnovers plagued the team all night.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour, along with Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the volume of turnovers the team had: That can't happen. It's kind of self explanatory.
On the message's not getting through: Yeah. It's pretty obvious when you watch. Obviously we're missing a lot of really important pieces, so when that happens, you have to double down on what we're doing and we're going the other way and trying to do too much. Like, 'Oh, he's out, so I'm going to do twice the amount of stuff,' and it doesn't work. That's what has plagued us here. It's pretty obvious when you watch it. We have deficiencies and they're starting to show. We've held on a for a long, long time. Just watch. It's obvious.
On Brandon Bussi: He had a tough night. You know. I don't know how many saves he made, but he didn't make too many. But he's been great all year, so we have to help him out at that point by not giving up those odd-man rushes and things that create those scoring opportunities.
On Sebastian Aho's five-point night: That line was great. Just one bad play that [Nikolaj Ehlers] made. Other than that, he was really good tonight. But that was the difference and you just can't make those.
On if the team struggled with Montreal's speed: No, it had nothing to do with that. It was just our lack of sticking with what we have to do. We were just turning pucks over at just an unbelievably high rate for just no reason. Yeah, they put a little bit of pressure, but a lot of it was we were trying to dangle through guys. That's just not how we do it.
On if the team needs to focus on their game if they want to beat Colorado: Nobody's beating them even when they're doing that, so yeah. We'll have no chance if we play like that. That's for sure not going to work. Listen, it is what it is. Guys aren't coming back, we're not going to get other players to help. We have to figure it out with this group. That's the reality.
Jordan Staal
On the game: We were playing that 50/50 game of trying to outscore them. Worried about getting our own cookies and worrying about just trying to outscore the other team. Not really taking pride in not giving them anything defensively and so it looked like that.
On if he feels like the message isn't getting through for certain guys: Yeah. Clearly, it's been enough games. We've talked about it enough. It's just a matter of going out and executing. I don't know how many more times Roddy can say it and myself can scream it through the room. It's just a matter of going out and executing it and everyone taking pride in it. We have to be better.
On preparing for their next game coming up against Colorado: If we play like that, we're going to lose 20-1. It's an exceptional team coming in, best in the league and they're going to make us look like an AHL team if we don't show up and play and defend and really just play our game. Big challenge.
Sebastian Aho
On the game: Sloppy. Obviously not a great start. But, we came back, got up a goal after the first. We were in good shape, went up two goals and then just sloppy. We obviously have to take pride in helping the D out, helping the goalies out, just putting pucks deep. Especially when you're up a goal or two. Just grind them out a little bit and wait for the opportunities. Not trading one for one. Obviously we created enough offense where we didn't need to do that. We're deep enough to wait for our opportunities and not give them much at all. Obviously we haven't done that as of late. We've been letting too many goals in. There's no one to blame but ourselves.
On why he thinks the team has gotten away from its usually defensively sound structure: I don't know if it's necessarily just the defensive structure. It's also turnovers in tough moments. It's the NHL. They're going to make you pay. That's a good team and we've been playing good teams as of late. You can't just give them opportunities. They're going to make us pay. If we want to go anywhere this year and make a deep run, we have to somehow figure this out because there's going to be good teams in the playoffs and they're going to make us pay. For sure. If we can learn from this and move on, then good for us. But obviously things have to change and change quickly.
On his offensive production starting to pick up: I mean, sure. Been able to score a little more as of late, but I kind of mirror my own success with the team and how the team does. It just sucks to lose in this fashion, any game.
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