The Hockey News Wraparound show discusses expectations for Jackson Blake. The Carolina Hurricanes just keep finding ways to win, this time pulling off a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers Wednesday night at Lenovo Center. The Hurricanes scored twice on the power play with goals from Seth Jarvis and Jackson Blake (PPG) and at even strength, Jack Drury and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Spencer Martin grabbed yet another win in net, stopping 19 shots in total. After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Blake and Drury spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rod Brind'Amour On the game: I thought it was much different [than the game before]. I thought we were good the whole game. I don't think we were off at all. 60-minute effort. I mean, they had their chances, but it was a good hockey game and we made a couple of good plays and we were able to score on them. On Jackson Blake shaking off a turnover leading to a goal against en route to scoring the game winner: He's got a lot of confidence. Obviously you have to move on. Next shift. And he was able to do that pretty well. On the second unit finally converting on the power play: It was great execution. The power play is about execution. You always have a plan, but it's about if you can execute it. Obviously the penalty kill has a plan that they execute so that's kind of what's happening. Everybody kind of knows what everybody is doing, but you have to execute and it was a great entry and obviously you have to finish and he did. That was the obviously the difference in the game. On Spencer Martin: Listen, we've put him in a bit of a tough spot. He's been thrown to the wolves a little bit, but he's handled it and that's crucial. On Jack Drury: He's an underrated player, I think, just because of the kind of guys we have on the team. He kind of gets overlooked a little bit. If you think about it, he's a good faceoff guy, can kill penalties, is on the power play. There's a lot of value there for the kind of player he is. He's a 200-foot player and he does a lot of the little things that sometimes don't show up but tonight they did. On Dmitry Orlov: I don't know if he's doing a lot different, but I think we're relying on him a bit more. He had a bad break happen to him on the one goal where it bounces over his stick and leads to a goal against, but he's done a nice job of just focusing on the next play. He's also in really good shape. I think that's helped. He's a little quicker right now and you notice him up in the rush a little bit more. So his overall game is just that much better and that's what you're seeing. On Jaccob Slavin: Talk about a guy who, a little bit like Jack, that you just kind of take... I don't want to say take for granted, but it's just that you expect greatness every night and that's basically what you watch. You're going, 'That was a great play. That was a great play.' He stacks them one after the other and you just expect it and when he doesn't make one it's kind of shocking, right? He's just a tremendous player and obviously, we know that. On Slavin also having to face the Rangers' top talent: They got so much talent and he's out there every shift against somebody on the other team that is top talent. That's another thing that you have to take into consideration with how well he's doing because every shift is tough. On William Carrier: Since he's shown up here, he's been almost the exact same every shift. Again, it's not taking him for granted, but you just sort of expect that. He was doing it right, heavy, hard to play against and he was around it. Didn't get any breaks tonight, but his first shift he could have had one. But he's been just a great contributor so far. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jackson Blake On scoring against Igor Shesterkin: Obviously he's one of the best. I knew that coming into the game and that was in the back of my head, that if could score on this guy that it would be pretty cool. Fortunately it slipped in there. Super pumped that went in. On the setup from Jack Drury: We kind of talked about that in the first. We saw that. Great job by KK and Rosy driving through to open that seam up and then a great play by Jacko. I just had the easy part finishing it there. On having a lot of time and space to settle his shot: I was a little surprised. I took a little peek to see if anyone was next to me so I kind of settled it down. It was spinning a little bit and then I just kind of picked my spot and fortunately it went in. On shaking off his earlier turnover: Obviously that was not what I wanted to start the game, but the only thing you can do is look at the next shift. Same goes if you miss an empty net or something like that. You just have to look at the bright side and go for the next one. If you hang your head on that, you're probably going to feel pretty crappy the rest of the game so I tried to do the best I could to put that in the back of my head and move on. Just going to try not to do that anymore. On if playing in the NHL still feels surreal: Yeah. I don't think I'll ever not feel that way, at least this year. I'm still nervous before games but I was the same way in college. But this has been unreal. Playing a guy I like to watch in Panarin tonight and obviously Igor. Those two are some of the best at their positions and I've been watching them lately. It's unbelievable and I'm just super pumped to be here. On getting two big wins over top-end in a row: We're going to enjoy this one tonight and have a good Thanksgiving. I know some families are here and stuff, my family is in town, so I'll enjoy that with them and then right back to work. A back-to-back, those are always fun, but I'm looking forward to it. It's always fun playing these teams too. They're always so good. On what his dad will tell about this game: He'll probably critique me, he always does and now especially on the first period, that little screw up there. I'll hear about that, but to score with them in the building and to win a game with all my family here tonight, this is the first one where they're all together at a game, it's unbelievable. I'll probably get my dad down here to talk with Burnzie because I know they're old friends. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Drury On scoring against Igor Shesterkin: It's big. It was a great faceoff play and a great pass by Neci there. So it was good to finish that. On where he was aiming on his goal: I was just trying to get it up top quick, get it on net quick and see what happens. On if he was surprised he managed to get it to go off of Shesterkin's mask and in: Yeah. I think we practice shooting from a lot of different angles. Jeff Daniels our assistant coach does a good job with that after practices. Honestly I've taken that shot a few times. Working on it in practice gives you some confidence in the game. On if scoring a goal like that can be a confidence booster: Yeah. Obviously he's one of the best in the league so that's cool, but I think whether the puck's going in or not, you have to maintain confidence. Don't rely too much on things out of your control. Good start to the game and glad we got the win. On special teams: Big to get the two power play goals and the penalty kill did a great job. That's one of the premier power plays in the league and they shut them down. Jordo and Marty did a great job and all the D too. On the team having back-to-back come-from-behind victories: We have great leadership. It starts with the staff. We also have a lot of faith in ourselves even though we're down. Our veteran guys have been through it a lot and they keep us confident regardless of what the score in the game is. On if he'll send his uncle (Rangers GM Chris Drury) a text after the game: I'll definitely shoot him a text tomorrow. Good to get the win, but we know we have to see them later this year.
