Staal, Svechnikov, Brind'Amour on First Home Loss: "It doesn't look like we've completely bought in."
© James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports - Staal, Svechnikov, Brind'Amour on First Home Loss: "It doesn't look like we've completely bought in."The Carolina Hurricanes suffered their first home loss of the season, falling 3-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers Wednesday night at PNC Arena.
After the game, head coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Jordan Staal and Andrei Svechnikov spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the game: The first period wasn't really that bad, especially the start. We had a few grade-As, I'd say you probably want the first one back, but we had a couple chances. We had a breakaway, another one right in front, but then we got behind. It was good intentions and we're trying hard, but we're trying to, sometimes, do a little too much and we didn't really get a good flow going. The third one was a tough one. We just coughed it up. It wasn't our best, but I thought we had moments in there. Like we've been saying all year, sometimes it's just not consistent enough. It's tough to play when you're not consistent.
On the inconsistencies in the team game: We're not consistent enough with our game. It's hard enough to win anyway and then we kind of make it harder on ourselves by just getting off a little, trying to be too cute here or there. And they blocked a ton of shots. Give them credit. They played exactly how we said coming in that they would. Probably 50 high-flips out of the zone, chase it down, put the pressure on you, block everything that you can. That's winning hockey, right now. I give them a lot of credit for sticking to their game plan. I think that's something we've gotta do a little more. Just sticking to what we do. We had a ton of opportunities to shoot, but we're trying to be too cute. Firing it looking for an open guy on the backside who's covered. Power play, that was really the difference in the game, to me. If we score on the power play, we get some momentum but we were not good on it. At the same time, we only gave up 23 shots. There's some things we're doing really well, I think the word is we just have to do it a little more consistently.
On if the inconsistencies are puzzling: We know exactly what's going on. It's frustrating, but it's gotta stop. That's going to be on me here pretty soon to start shaking things up if we continue to do that, because we're too good to be inconsistent. That's our calling card.
On if the inconsistencies are with the little details: It's not hammering home details, that's the thing. It's the mental toughness to stick to those details. That's where we're kind of deviating a little. Again, working hard. Everybody's trying to make plays when there's three people on you instead of there maybe being a simpler play. It wasn't terrible. That game could of went our way very easily, but even had that happened, I'd probably be saying the same things right here.
On the first period: It wasn't a bad, bad period and actually in the first 10 minutes, they had two shots but one was in the net. We were going and looked pretty good, but then we gave up that second one. Then it was, 'We're really in one here.' That's tough.
On Martin Necas trying to do too much: You want guys that are trying to be the difference and that got high skill, but yeah, he at times tries to do too much too. He's trying to always make a play when sometimes there's just nothing there. That's part of our issue right now, probably.
Jordan Staal
On the game: Getting down early never helps. I don't think we really started on time. They got a quick on and chasing games in the NHL is never easy. They did a good job of just kind of flipping it out and taking the pressure off themselves, but we still, as a group, it doesn't look like we've completely bought in to how we want to do things. It's going to look like that. We'll be a 0.500 club that wins some game and loses some games and just is kind of ho-humming. Starting to get a little frustrating. We're going to need to have everyone. I've gotta be better, my lines gotta be better. We need contributions from everyone and it's gotta start soon.
On the team's lack of consistency: The effort's not terrible. The effort of the way we want to play is what's kind of holding us back. The edge you have in the NHL is you kind of know where the puck's going because that's the way we do things and it seems right now, we're just not sure what's going to happen. It starts to look like that sloppy stuff you saw in the neutral zone where pucks are just kind of bouncing around and guys are just twirling around and looping around. It's a less direct game than the Hurricanes know and love and I'm sure the fans love to watch. Tonight, they didn't look like they really loved that game and I don't blame them.
On the hot and cold nature of the team: It's been one or the other. When you have an expectation and you see it done and done well, you expect to see it again. That's our standard. It's just been hit or miss. It's like everyone's on, let's go or it's literally just I don't know what it looks like. It's just not consistent enough in the way we play. I think the guys are still trying and trying to find ways to score goals. I know it's hard when you're down and they did a good job of clogging it up and just blocking shots, so I get that part, but right from the start we just looked a little off tonight.
Andrei Svechnikov
On getting the team going in the same direction: I wouldn't say we're going in different directions. We just have to figure out the little things. The little details and then we'll be fine. But in that second period, we were losing 3-0 so I had to do something. I was trying to hit a couple of guys. We had a couple of good shifts there.
On effort: We played our hardest, trust me. We're all tired and we played our hardest. We tried to win all the battles, but it didn't go our way. We're going to try to figure that out tomorrow.
On if you have to just tip your cap to the Flyers for blocking as many shots as they did: That's probably what we should do. We knew they were going to block everything. That's the way they play."
On if he's frustrated that he hasn't score yet: No, not really. I know I'm going to score and it's all about the time.
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