Offensive explosion fuels dominant Hurricanes win. Miller, Stankoven, Svechnikov and Brind'Amour break down the offensive surge and key factors.
The Carolina Hurricanes speed bagged the Dallas Stars Tuesday night, smashing them 6-3 in an offensive explosion.
Andrei Svechnikov led the way with a four-point night while K'Andre Miller scored twice and even Logan Stankoven got on the board against his old squad.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Svechnikov, Miller and Stankoven spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On if confidence plays a big part in the team's recent success: It does. It's also your bounces. Things go your way a little bit. It also helps to have top-end guys back in your lineup. There's a bunch of things that kind of lead to that. Also your goalie being your best player helps too.
On if Andrei Svechnikov's recent play is a product of more confidence: Yeah, I don't know. You'd have to talk to him. I haven't really seen a dip in his play, even when it wasn't going for him. He's been pretty steady this year, which obviously we need. They're our big guns. They need to be on the scoresheet. They also need to be looking like they can score. That's been really evident.
On K'Andre Miller's offensive game: In every game, you're looking for it. He's got that skillset, he just happened to find it tonight. I think our D in general were really solid tonight. We were tight. We weren't giving them a ton of room in the neutral zone. They were trying to pull us back and hit late guys and we were able to be on it and kind of break a lot of that up. That allowed us to get up into the rush. I thought that was a big part of it.
On Mikko Rantanen's reception: I get it, but a lot of it was blown up. I have no ill will against him at all. But fans are going to do what they gotta do. I was honestly surprised they kept it up. That was right to the end. We have passionate fans.
On having Seth Jarvis back: It's huge. He didn't look like he even missed a beat. Been out for a long time, only had a couple of practices with us, but special player. When he's out there, you notice him and that's good for us. He does so many things. That was a huge hole when he was gone.
On him drawing a penalty in the exact same way he got injured: You have to give him credit. He's got to play his game and that means he's going to go the net hard, draw penalties and whatever. We needed him back.
On Logan Stankoven: You talk about confidence and he gets a goal the other night. I think he could just take a breath and get back to just playing and not worrying about, 'Oh, I have to score.' It's amazing how that just triggers you to keep playing and all of a sudden, maybe you get on a nice little run. He's been around it. He's had a lot of opportunities, they just weren't going in. Hopefully they'll continue to go in now.
On Noah Philp not playing in the third period: He got dinged up and couldn't come back. I don't have an update for you.
On if there's anything that's different about the power play as of late: Not really. I wish I could say, 'Yeah, we're doing this better,' but it's just pucks are going in. We've tweaked things obviously and are moving things around, but I don't know. I wish I had an answer on what was doing it, but we then would have done that a long time ago. You stick with what you know you have to do and like I said, we've been getting some pucks to go in now that weren't going in before.
Logan Stankoven
On the game: I think we were ready to go right from puck drop. I think for myself, I had a lot of energy and jump. I know I have that in my game, it just needs to become more consistent. I think we built off our win in New Jersey. Hopefully we'll keep maintaining the good things.
On if his goal in New Jersey helped carry over some confidence for tonight: I think it does a little bit. At the same time, I think it's just getting mentally prepared. It's a long season. You're going to have ups and downs and I'm still learning. Like, I'm only 22. So I'm still trying to learn this league and figure out how I can be the best version of myself. I think that does help with the confidence.
On if he feels these goals will help him moving forward: I think it's nice, for sure. I honestly thought we could have had a few more tonight, our line, combined. It's hard when those don't come in, but it's great that the team put up six. We're doing all the right things, now it's just about keeping that up.
On scoring against his former team: It was nice, for sure. I think anytime you can pot one against a team that trades you, it's a great feeling. I do have a lot of great friends over there, but once we're on the ice, it's go time. I'm going to compete as hard as I can. That's my mentality.
On dancing around Mikko Rantanen for his goal: Uhh, I mean... I don't know if that helps at all, but he's a spectacular player. I mean, hopefully I can get to his level some day. That would be great. Like I said, I'm still progressing, still learning. I want to try to unlock the best version of myself with the Canes.
On how well integrated does he feel with the team currently: I think it's just finding the legs and finding the energy each night, especially this year with the condensed schedule. I know everyone is kind of going through that same thing, but for me, I've never experienced a schedule like this where you're playing every other day and then having back-to-backs. I think it's just about preparing away from the rink and making sure that when I come to the rink, I'm ready to go.
On if he's ever heard a "Logan's Better" chant before: I actually have. When I was playing in Kamloops with my junior team, Bedard came to town. I think we beat them pretty handedly, but the chants were going on there too. So it's actually pretty funny and kind of a full circle moment. It's funny to listen now. But really supportive of the fans here. It's great.
On having Seth Jarvis back: It was huge. The energy that he brings and he's got a cannon, so when he's shooting and going to the net, good things happen.
K'Andre Miller
On scoring twice: Just shoot the puck, get lucky, I guess. I don't know. Our team played great tonight. Svech, in particular, made some great plays, especially on my two goals. Just finding me, working the puck in the o-zone, breaking down their d-zone coverage and just finding me high and I just tried to put the puck on net. I think we did a great job offensively tonight.
On closing out the game: I think just sticking with our game plan. I think we did a great job of coming out strong from the first whistle. Kind of playing the way we wanted to, putting pucks behind their D and just making it hard in the neutral zone for them to get anything out or into our zone. Once they did get into our zone though, I think our D did a great job of just trying to break out the puck as quick as we can, get it into our forwards hands and just let them do their thing.
On if his defensive game gives him the confidence to jump in more offensively: Yeah. I think I've been trying to round out my game here over the last couple of weeks. I feel like it's starting to come and I'm starting to get a little more comfortable within the systems and with the guys and tendencies and things like that.
On getting Seth Jarvis back into the lineup: We all know how special of a player Jarvy is and what he can bring to a team. Something that you guys maybe don't know or notice all the time is just the energy he brings on the bench. Whether it's in the locker room or just hanging out with the guys. He always a guy that people want to be around and he's kind of the life of the party. It's nice to have him back.
On snapping his goal drought: I think your chances come and go as the season progresses, but I think just sticking with it and knowing that you're playing good hockey, the bounces are going to come. Just have to stick with it.
Andrei Svechnikov
On the team's effort: Obviously a big win for us. We played hard from the first minute all the way down and just never gave up. It was just go, go, go and I think that was our mentality.
On his line: To be honest, the main thing I think is we just have speed all over the ice. The neutral zone, the offensive zone and just trying to hunt those D and create something.
On K'Andre Miller: He obviously has hockey sense and he knows where to be and where to get open. Just tried to look for him for the third one. I said to him, 'Open up!' but he didn't, so...
On if he's seeing the ice better than perhaps previously: I mean, after four apples, probably. Before that, maybe not, so you tell me.
On if his recent success is a product of confidence: I just try to work hard and play my game. Obviously we're playing good as a line right now. We just have to continue that.
On the reception Mikko Rantanen received: It's fun. Obviously it was his decision. I like him a lot. He was an amazing guy, amazing to me and I respect him a lot. Obviously he's one of the best players in this league. It's fun to watch him, but, you know, I loved what the fans were doing as well.
On Logan Stankoven: Especially to score against his old team, you probably get the goosebumps and all that stuff. Obviously it was fun to watch him today. Great player and he has to just keep going.
On Seth Jarvis returning to the lineup: Huge. Just one of our best players on the team. Plays just open up with him. We always need him.
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