The Carolina Hurricanes fell 5-3 to the Florida Panthers Wednesday night in Game 5 at Lenovo Center to cap off their 2024-25 season.

The Hurricanes had a multi-goal lead after one period, but the Panthers rallied back and found a way to get the job done.

After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Jordan Staal, Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis spoke with the media in Raleigh. Here's what they had to say:

Rod Brind'Amour

On losing the game on a play by Florida's best player: He made a great play. All of their goals were nice plays. They're a great team and it's obvious. Last couple of years, I think they were the standard obviously. I thought our guys battled really hard all series. But you're right. They have some guys that can finish.

On the five minute stretch in the second period where Florida took the lead: The way the game was going, I thought we couldn't do much better. And then we take an o-zone penalty and they score on that. A little floater, a nice tip and then all of a sudden, it just kind of got them going. Then a couple little errors that we made on coverage. Gave them a little room and they put them in the net. I thought we fought back tied it up, then their best player made an elite play.

On Sebastian Aho: Obviously those goals were great individual efforts. He's going to eat himself up over the summer because he let [the third goal against] go. Not like we were surprised by it. It's a play they run every time, but guy just beat him to the net. So that's going to be a tough one for him, but he was great tonight.

On floundering away the first few games of the series: Two was a tough one. One was fine, score looked bad and everyone talked about it, but we actually were really good in Game 1. And then the last couple of games, I thought we were good too. There's a level like I said. We came off a real hard, physical series and then all of a sudden it went to another level and it took us some time to kind of adapt to it, but I thought we did. We were good, it's just that you can't give these guys a 3-0 lead and expect to come back.

On if he thinks the team needs to change its style of play in order to win: Like what? What are you recommending? How do you think they play? They're the standard now. I see: out, in, forecheck, hard, wait for your chances, try to capitalize. I mean, it's hard hockey. If anything, we just have to figure out how to get that much more to our game [pinching fingers nearly together]. But that's the standard right there. I feel like that's been our game for a long time, they've kind of picked it up the last couple of years and made it that much better, so that's where we need to get.

On the physicality waning after the first period: It was them getting that momentum. It was a back breaker I think when they got that little run and then got another one. You could just feel us... it's natural. The building, everything. Kind of sucked a little bit of life out of us.

On measuring the disappoint of losing with the achievement of getting to this stage: Thank you. Everybody seems to... like it's the craziest thing. We're this far and all we're hearing is negativity from everybody. When I walked in this summer, with the pieces that left this organization, I was like, 'I don't think we're making the playoffs.' I was that worried about it. Because it was such a mass exodus of good players in free agency. We were able to find good players to fill in, but I was like, 'I don't know if they're that good.' But they hung in there. I have nothing but pride for this group. Yeah, we didn't love this series, but that's the standard right there. You're not giving Florida enough credit.

On being proud of the team: All the guys. I'm watching 40-year-old Brent Burns out here playing... I don't know how many minutes he played, and we've got two rookies back there, four in the lineup. That's a lot to ask and we were hanging right in there. I think there's a lot to be positive about. The guys we brought in and adapted to it were big parts of it too. And a lot of them are young guys. So it looks good moving forward.

On Seth Jarvis: Can't say enough about him. He does everything for us and he just keeps getting better and better. This big, heavy series and he didn't shy away. He's right in the mix. A lot of our maybe smaller guys are tough. They get it and they're big parts of the group and will be moving forward. So that's a huge positive and obviously he's at the top of that list.

On the difficulty of having the rookies on the backend: That's tougher than people realize. It just puts so much stress on the other guys. They did fine. But it's obviously not ideal at this stage of the season to throw new guys in plus rookies on defense. That's just hard. They did really well though. Give them credit.

On the power play going 0-for-6: That was the killer. The first one was great, we had a couple good looks, Blaker was all alone in front. Even the last ones, Svech is right there. Those have to find a way to get in the net. That's definitely... when you look back on this game, that'll be a couple of lost moments for sure, but... it's done now.

Jordan Staal

On the game: It was a great game. Both teams played great. We had them for a bit there, but they came right back in the second. Boys battled back though and tied it up.  Two good teams going at it for sure.

On the four-minute stretch in the second period where Florida took the lead: Obviously it's a power play goal that our PK has to have. I could have done a better job of blocking that one if we want to really break it down. I think they made a quick play out of our end on the second one. Not sure honestly how that one unfolded, but obviously we just got off of our game and they got going a little bit and got some momentum. A little faceoff play in the third. It's a nice play, but obviously we could have defended that better. They did a good job in the second getting going. They're a quick team that can make you pay when they get some momentum and they put the puck in the net very efficiently.

On if it's more frustrating being that they showed that they can play an effective game against Florida: I think we essentially lost in the first few games. You can't start a series like that and expect a better outcome. You hope for it obviously, but the first few games, we were a little hesitant and a little off a little bit. Obviously the group as a whole battled hard the last three games and played some good hockey. Give them credit. They played a great series through and through from special teams, five-on-five, goaltending. Everything was impressive from them.

On if he feels like this team overachieved: No. I think the expectation has always been the Cup here.

On looking ahead to next season: There's always opportunities to get better. I'm sure as an organization, management is going to try to get better, Obviously we have to be better. There's still room for improvement. I think with the group we have, the core we have here and the players adding to it, it will only make us more dangerous.

On what it will take to get to the end goal: Nothing I can think of right now. We've had slow starts in these series and when you get to the final four, they're all great teams. Having slow starts isn't great. We have to be more on top of it and then there's always little things. Power play could be better, special teams could be better. But yeah, we always believe in the group when we get here. Coming up short is never easy and it never gets any easier. We'll try to get better and try again.

Sebastian Aho

On the four-minute stretch in the second period where Florida took the lead: I thought we started good in the second as well and obviously had a few looks there on the power play and then they get their power play and they score a goal and got some life out of that. Next thing you know, they're up a goal. Obviously they used their momentum very well, but we came back. So, yeah.

On the resiliency of the group: It's a hard working group. As a teammate, you appreciate that every single one of your teammates come in and put the work boots on. That's kind of what we've been leaning on the whole year and maybe past years as well. So that's never a question with this group. That's something I'm proud. But at the same time, it's tough to find too many positive things. It just sucks. Will have to cool off for a day or two. It'll be easier to give you a better answer.

On the power play at the end of the game: Great two looks. Svech had a good look and I don't know if he made a save or not, but it came off the backboards and I last second saw the puck and whacked it. It went behind him I think or somewhere. We definitely had enough looks. So yeah. It's tough. Would like to see a power play goal tonight there. They got one and we didn't get any. It wasn't... again, I don't think it was bad effort but it doesn't matter at this time of year what the effort is. The score matters. Obviously they won the game.

On not being able to carry over the momentum from the first period: In my opinion, it did carryover. The start of the second period was good. I think we were still dictating the play and we definitely had the chance to score a third one. Like I said, they got their power play goal and got a lot of life from that and it kind of changed the momentum after that.

On if it still proved something to force a Game 5: To me, you either win or lose a series. It doesn't feel like right now... what's it matter? If you lose in four or seven, whatever. You lose the series, right? Like I said before, you're proud that the guys showed up to work and never quit. That's a great thing, but at the end of the day, we weren't able to push through. Obviously it's a great hockey team. Only one team has beat them in the past three seasons, right? We knew it was going to be a big task to try and beat him and we truly believed we had what it takes. But obviously we fell short yet again. Just really pissed off.

On if there's regret with how the first three games went: Honestly, I think Game 1 wasn't that bad. I mean the score was bad, but I thought we came out the way we wanted to early. Whatever. But that's hockey. That's why it takes a seven game series. Even if it doesn't go your way one game, you need to bounce back better than Game 2. I think that was the worst game of the series and that obviously... I mean, you don't want to live with regrets, but like yeah. You'd like to see a better bounce back and split the series there and then off to Florida. Obviously we were able to win one there, so it could have been 2-2 instead of 3-1, right? Whatever. I mean... I feel like it's tough to analyze right now, but I'm sure I'll be able to give you better answers in a few days.

On the difficulty of the group not being the same: It sucks. It's the bad part of the business because you build friendships and it's like a family, right? And everyone cares here a ton about each other. You try to push all the chips into the middle and go try to do something great together. Obviously I'm sure whenever we'll be able to do that, we'll share that bond. I'm still sharing the bond with guys, but it's different probably. I know it's different when you win. That sucks that we weren't able to do it. This was a special group. Lot of fun to come in to work everyday. But, yeah, I mean... it's part of the business.

Seth Jarvis

On if it's more frustrating given that they proved they can win with their game later in the series: I mean... yeah, a little bit. I think those first two games you probably want back, but it's too little too late. That's kind of the result tonight.

On the power play: I thought we had looks. I mean, we had a couple bobbled pucks, but for the most part I didn't hate how we were looking. I think near the end, we got a little more urgent, obviously, putting more pucks to the net. Maybe we could have done that a little more earlier. Obviously we need to score in games like this. They did and we didn't and that's kind of the result of it.

On the four-minute stretch in the second period where Florida took the lead: I don't know. You never want that to happen. Like you said, it was a tough four-minute stretch, but I thought we responded well. But I mean, giving up three goals that quickly, it's tough for any team to kind of come back from that.

On what makes Florida so good: The power play is good. Their special teams excel well. They can play different styles of games. They're a good team over there. They make adjustments well. I think we still have some stuff to learn from.

On if he feels like this team overachieved: No. We didn't get near where we planned on. Our goal is always to be the last team standing no matter who we have on the ice. We had that confidence in ourselves all year. That's why it sucks. It's the hardest trophy to win and when you're feeling like this, you just wish you could go back in time, but you can't. You just have to sit on it for the whole summer.

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