Captain Jordan Staal could be returning to Carolina's struggling power play, injecting experience and crucial faceoff wins to spark the anemic offense.
The year is 2025.
The Carolina Hurricanes are tied for the top spot in the Eastern Conference and 37-year-old captain Jordan Staal is tied for third on the team in goals (7) and is working with the top power play unit.
You are not dreaming.
At practice on Tuesday, the Hurricanes moved the captain onto the top unit in place of Nikolaj Ehlers, something he hasn't had a significant hand in since the 2020-21 season.
"I haven't touched it in a while, but I'm excited to chip in any way I can," Staal said about being back on the power play.
While that move may cause many to scratch their heads in confusion as Staal has never been a prolific scorer, it makes sense in the greater context of how the season has gone for the power play.
Carolina has scored just 10 power play goals this year, which ranks tied for last, and overall, they have just the 30th ranked power play in the league at 13.7%.
A big struggle for the man advantage too has been faceoffs. The Canes top two power play centermen, Sebastian Aho and Logan Stankoven, have not had good seasons in the dots, which makes it that much harder to run a successful power play (Carolina has won just 47.6% of PP faceoffs).
"Faceoffs are important always," Staal said. "The longer you have the puck in the zone, moving it around, obviously the better chance you have of scoring. I'm gonna do what I can on the faceoff and try to get us to start with the puck and try to make something happen right off the bat."
Staal gives the team a better chance to start with the puck and can provide a big body at the net front and, like I mentioned before, perhaps some offense as well as he's third on the team in goals.
Before his three-game absence for what he accredited to meningitis, the captain had the hottest hands on the team with four goals in four games.
Staal also has a career power play stat line of 46 goals and 114 points, which isn't bad whatsoever.
The way that the Canes were practicing with Staal also looked to have a bit of overtime strategy in it as well.
The captain would stay on the ice after a successful draw, but should the puck get cleared, he'd go to the bench and swap out on the fly with Jackson Blake much like how the team operates to start overtime.
After practice, Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour downplayed Staal's involvement on the power play, but don't be surprised if you see the big man out there in the coming days.
"We were just messing with something specific like a play or something in the game," Brind'Amour said. "We were just messing around a little bit."
Also of note, the Hurricanes' second unit consisted of Alexander Nikishin as the lone defenseman with Blake, Ehlers, Stankoven and Taylor Hall.
Again, it may all have been just a little messing around, but it's certainly something to keep an eye on.
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