The Danish netminder took part in his first practice with the Carolina Hurricanes since his knee surgery on Nov. 22. It's not every day you get a Jordan Staal hat trick. In fact, despite him having four total in his career, it is still one of the rarer occurrences in the National Hockey League. The last time the Carolina Hurricanes captain scored a hat trick was on April 10, 2022: 1,005 days ago. But before that, Staal waited over 13 years — more precisely, 4,898 days — between hat tricks (Nov. 11, 2008), which set an NHL record for the longest amount of time between hat tricks for a player. Luckily for him though, his parents were in town to see this one as the family prepares for his brother, Eric's, jersey retirement ceremony on Sunday. "He does a lot for us that just goes unnoticed," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "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." Staal was a dominant force Thursday night in the Hurricanes' 6-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and he did it while matched up against some of the best players in the league. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are two extremely dynamic and talented players, but last night, both combined for just five 5v5 chances and finished as a -6, meaning that they were on the ice for every single goal against. "If you ask them, they'll tell you it wasn't a fun game for them to play," Brind'Amour said. "That's what Jordo does." Night in and night out, Staal gets the hardest matchups, facing the league's best and brightest, but more often than not, the 36-year-old Selke-caliber center is coming out ahead. "He takes such pride in playing against the top guys," said linemate Jordan Martinook. "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." The long-time veteran has never been a prolific scorer — he's five games away from 1,300 but has less than 300 goals — and while he does relish the ones he gets, playing that solid defensive game is more than rewarding enough for him. "It's cool," Staal said. "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."
