The Carolina Hurricanes dropped their first game since the All-Star break, losing 3-2 to the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night at PNC Arena.
Jordan Martinook and Sebastian Aho scored for Carolina while Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 16 of 19.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Martinook and Aho spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the game-winning goal: It's just a bad bounce. That's hockey. That's what happens sometimes. That was a tough one because it went right on their tape and then it bounced again right to their guy and he taps it in. That was a tough one.
On if he considered challenging the play: Yeah, but you know our history with those so I wasn't too keen on hoping anything would come out of it.
On Jesperi Kotkaniemi's game: He was fine. He had the chance to tie it up in the third. Was a great play by Necas and the goalie made a good save. That was a real good chance in the third. Third period, we played great just unfortuante we weren't able to have more of that in the first two periods.
On the first game out of the break: It was what I was afraid might happen. We were terrible to start and they were good. We got lucky to get out of the first period even. Then we got a little better. I could tell we were going to get to it, and we probably deserved better in the third. That was a pretty good third period, just didn't happen. If you had gone into this game and said, 'You'll give up one even-strength goal against these guys on a bad bounce,' I'd be like, 'Okay it's pretty good.' But they did a nice job just floating a couple in on the power play. They got the bounces there. Tonight just didn't go our way.
On Pyotr Kochetkov: You can't blame him on the couple of tips and then there was a bad bounce. Bounces just didn't go our way tonight.
On the game: It was a frustrating game. Like I said, they were good. They did what they wanted to do and then I thought we did what we wanted to do in the third. But we got that one bad bounce and we weren't able to capitalize on anything really significant offensively.
On the power play goals against: They were just throwing it at the net and that's what happens sometimes. A lot of the time you do that and you get nothing out of it. It's a bad shot, but when you got a guy that can tip it in front... Those were good plays by them. We didn't get the bounces tonight on those. A lot of those don't go in.
Sebastian Aho
On if the team had to knock off the rust at first: I don't know about rust. That would just be an excuse. I thought they played really good, especially in the first half of the game. They were a little better off the start, but as the game went on, I thought there was two really good hockey teams playing against each other and there wasn't a lot out there. Obviously special teams was big. They got a bounce at the end, but obviously it was a pretty tight game. The first period was theirs, but the third, even though we lost the period, I thought we were maybe better there.
On defending against net-front tips on the penalty kill: I'm sure we'll watch some video on it and go over what we could have done better, but a couple of pretty high-end tips there. That's a good power play there. They have really good players so have to stay out of the box.
On the lack of possession early: It was both ways. It was two good teams. They try to make our night as hard as possible and it goes the other way too. There was not a lot out there. Just a tight-checking game.
On facing a high-end opponent out of the break: You get a lot out of playing these games. These are good teams that will most likely make the playoffs so if we want to get better, we have to get these tests in. We couldn't find the result today, but for sure we'll learn a lot from it.
Jordan Martinook
On it being a weird game: I don't know if it was a weird one. I think that they were the better team for the first period for sure. The second period was a little more even, but it was two good teams going at each other. They were playing the style we want to play for the first two periods and then in the third we had our push because we were playing the way we wanted to play and then it kind of flipped. Obviously they got the bounce in the third and it was in the back of the net.
On the slow start: You have to give some credit to that team. They came out and they knew what they wanted to do and they were doing it every shift. Give a lot of credit to them. We needed to have a little more urgency to be able to withstand some pressure and go and do what they were doing to us in the first and the second. Obviously in the third, we figured it out and were pushing as hard as we could.
On his goal: It was a good breakup by [Teravainen] in the d-zone and then he put it in a good spot for me to get it back and then when he joined I thought we could make a play out of it and it was a good one to get.
On looking ahead to the next game: You definitely judge the season in sections and we're in the home stretch. I don't know how many games are left, 30-something games, but it feels like the home stretch and every game is going to be so crucial and you're playing good teams every night. This is obviously a big week for us. We wanted to get this one, but the Avalanche are coming in next. They're a good team and we have to be ready on Thursday.
On defending net-front tips on the power play: I feel like we need to watch it and see. They had two similar goals so we'll do some video on that and see what we can do better on those ones.