The Danish netminder took part in his first practice with the Carolina Hurricanes since his knee surgery on Nov. 22. The Carolina Hurricanes had a resounding comeback win over the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night, winning 6-3 at Lenovo Center. Jordan Staal led the way with a hat trick and rookie Juha Jaaska picked up his first NHL point with a primary assist on the game-winner. After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Staal, Jaaska and Jordan Martinook spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rod Brind'Amour On Jordan Staal: It's rewarding and you're just happy for him. He does a lot for us that just goes unnoticed. Tonight it was nice to see him get rewarded. A great game by him and his line. He's a special player and he does so many things for us and he means a lot more than people give him credit for. On the fourth line: They've been really good. Every game that they've played together — it hasn't been a lot because Jaaska has only played three or four games or whatever —has been solid. You need that. We need contributions throughout the whole lineup. More than just contributing, it's the style of play. We have to have that and they're bringing it. On what was going through his mind in the first 10 minutes of the game: ...Yeah... Didn't know really what was happening there. It was beer league hockey. Beer league plays, to be quite honest with you. That's the stuff we're going to do with the old guys when we get together and go play. Like those were the kinds of mistakes we were making. I didn't know what I was watching. Especially if you're going to hand it over to those guys, one of the best players in the world: Here's a breakaway, here's another one, here's another one. That was hard to watch, I'll be honest. The key was we got that next one and then it was like, Okay, we're in the game and then we were able to get kind of a semblance of a game and obviously the guys we mentioned kind of took over for us. At least allowed us to get back into it and obviously win the game. Tough start. If you do that over and over, it won't be good. On the Jesperi Kotkaniemi line setting the tone: That's what I mean. That was a tone setter. That line, they had a good game too once they got their first shifts out of the way. Clearly, the start wasn't good, but it's how you finish and at least we battled back. On what he liked in particular about how the Staal line matched up against the Leaf's top line: It's two elite players, but I liked the fact that they were hard to play against. I'm sure if you ask them, they'll tell you it wasn't a fun game for the other guys to play against. That's what Jordo does. And with Marty, it's the same. If you look at that goal to start the third period, it was all Martinook, really. Again, it probably gets unnoticed too, the stuff that he brings every shift and every night. Again, we'll take the win. We needed it. Now we'll find a way to move and get ready for a tough one again tomorrow. On Pyotr Kochetkov: He was phenomenal, really. There was a ton of good saves. You have to have that. We talk about it a lot. It's the most important position and they need to keep you in the game and that's what he did for us. On Martin Necas: His line was good. Like I said, once you get rid of that first 10 minutes, then everyone kind of had a good game. He was dynamic, which is what you want to see. Shooting pucks, not always looking to pass. He had some good chances. So that's what we needed that out of him. On how important it is to follow up this performance tomorrow: That will be the key. That's what's hard about this league. You just play a game where you gave everything you had and prepared and now all of a sudden. That's what being a pro is. That's it. On the power play: We had a few chances. Had a couple nice entries. Fishy had one where we did it exactly right, just the goalie made a heck of a save. Actually had another one on a nice seam. You score one of those, you feel good about it, but we definitely need that to start connecting. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jordan Staal On setting the tone before his brother comes to town: I just wanted to play some good hockey before that big game. It was a good night. On getting rewarded: It's good obviously to chip in and play well for a win. Obviously it's been up and down lately. Even tonight was kind of up and down. We still need to be tighter and better, but obviously it's hard to win in this league and we'll take the win, for sure. On if he had any family in town for the game: I think my parents were here. The rest of the crew is rolling in shortly. On what a game like this means to him personally: It's cool. Obviously getting rewarded with cookies is always a good thing, but you guys have seen my game. It hasn't changed. It's being hard to play against and finding ways to win games. Usually it's in more simple fashion but when you get rewarded it always feels good. Hopefully will continue to help that way and any other way I can for this group. On not having to wait 13+ years between hat tricks again: Yeah, a bit of a shorter one that last time. I know the boys were all up about that one, but I shortened this one up. On Jordan Martinook assisting on all three goals: He was a beast tonight. He's been so fun to play with. He's such an Energizer Bunny and he just goes. Just makes it so difficult with the forecheck and then I'm just reading off of him. He made some great plays tonight and I can't say enough about being able to play with him. Has been fun. On Andrei Svechnikov joining his line: The first goal was great. They creeped in with two of them and he's big and strong and one tight turn and he's got an opportunity with an open guy. He's got the skill to make those plays too. He's obviously had an up and down season as well. I think he's starting to get his stride and play some good hockey. I really enjoy playing with him. He's physical, he's strong and he can really do all the things and we just have to keep doing that. On Pyotr Kochetkov's performance: Like I said, we were kind of sloppy. The first wasn't great and then giving up probably one too many scoring chances in the third, but Kooch made some great saves to not give them any momentum and found a way to bear down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jordan Martinook On Jordan Staal: I'll keep passing to him if he keeps scoring. It was fun. He takes such pride in playing against the top guys too. Showing up and knowing we're going to get Matthews, he loves that. And then for him to go out and put up three, that's awesome. Obviously we're not relied on for that every night, but when we can do it, it feels good and I'm sure he's pumped and I'm pumped for him. Andrei Svechnikov walks by shouting "Superstar" at Martinook: Not a coincidence that 3-7 joins the line and then we get hot. He's probably going to take a little more credit then he should for that, but we'll give him a little bit. On the team's resiliency: When you go down 2-0 early and everybody's like, 'Oh boy, here we go,' but then you have to give a ton of credit to Robby and that line to get us going there and then to get it tied going into intermission was big. Obviously they're a great team. They have a ton of firepower and we probably gave up a little too much, but at the end of the day, we got two points and we'll try and take that into tomorrow. On Pyotr Kochetkov: He was great. Obviously he needs to be. We have to make it easier on him, but he was great. I feel like we expect that from him and he delivers most nights, for sure. On moving on from little mistakes: Obviously you're not trying to screw up and let them score, but it's hockey and sometimes you get a bad bounce here and there. But we're giving up three breakaways to Nylander in the first five minutes it felt like. So you have to look and see what's going on there. But I felt like we tightened up after that in the first and obviously got our game going. It was definitely better after the first little five minute circus. On Jackson Blake: He's just so shifty. He's obviously not the biggest guy, but I feel like he never gets hit and he's obviously crazy creative with the puck and he's got great hands. You notice that on a lot of plays he makes. He's been great for us and obviously we need everybody. So for him to get that is big. Like I said we need everybody. On Juha Jaaska: He's been awesome. Guys like him, I can see a little bit of me in that. Just in how he plays. You just root for guys like that. He's such a great guy and he's fun to be around, always smiling even though he's got two black eyes. You root for guys like that so extremely pumped for him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Juha Jaaska On getting his first NHL point: I had a good chance in the first period of the last game too, like an empty netter almost with my backhand, but it's been super fun to play with Drury and Blake. I think overall we've had pretty good chances. On what the last week or so has been like for him: Oh yeah, last week was heavy. First NHL game and then back to the jungle. In the second period get the worst fu... oop sorry... worst high stick. Then back to here. But this has been pretty fun, for sure. You're just so excited to play in the National so it doesn't matter how I'm hurting. On having his dad at his first game too: Unbelievable. Like... just unbelievable. Whole week, the emotions and everything. Almost too heavy. Like now, it's nice to get a little bit more games and calm down a little and get used to this tempo. On sharing the spotlight with Jordan Staal: That's super fine with me. I like that. Thanks for that Jordo. On hearing his name announced in an NHL arena: I didn't even think. Like when I see my name on the board... same kind of emotion like when you had in the first game. Like holy moly. Is this real? Like as a child at some point, you wouldn't believe you were going to make it. Super nice, but like now, let's move on. On his non-traditional pathway to the NHL: It was longer, for sure. When the draft comes and then you're not there and you're likely to be struggling in the Finnish league and you're like think differently about playing in the NHL someday when you're like 20 years old. I don't know. I've just been trying to get better every day and every season. Like small steps. Now I've stayed healthy and I don't know, it's like you don't even see that you've improved. I just feel like other players just aren't good anymore. It's crazy how it feels. It's been long, but it's definitely a journey that I've loved. Work hard and don't quit. But let's write the next page.
