Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour: "I don't waste much time thinking about the [past]"
Start front right
Rod this series has not turned on special teams in
the classic sense except that your penalty kill has that's
half of the equation right It's been very good
It's been very good throughout the uh the playoffs
Can you speak to what's been especially good It's been
18 kills in a row and I think 42 out
of 44
Um well it's been pretty solid all year and uh
You know I think we are we're we're certainly everybody
knows we're aggressive and but at the right times and
Just being on the same page I think the killers
all have a pretty good idea of what we're doing
out there and Um obviously you have good players
We have good you know penalty killers
We have good players that understand how it works and
I don't want to jinx it here but um
I think just being in sync helps
Back right Afternoon Rod
Um right or wrong you know a lot's been made
of the Hurricanes' struggles in the Eastern Conference Final in
the past
Um I'm curious if you could just kind of step
back and appreciate the gravity of last night's win not
just for the series but for the franchise as a
whole to kind of reverse that
Uh uh yeah I don't make a lot about this
to be honest with you
It's
It's 1 win in this you know we need 3
more and
Um the past is the past
I mean I don't I I don't really know what
to say about that a lot
And I thought in all of our past uh times
in this whatever Eastern Conference Finals whatever it is we
played pretty well and that's the the way I judge
it and it's just not good enough
And so we're we're right back in this same time
frame
We played a good game last night
Now we got to play another one that that
All that stuff
I know it gets talked about
It's just I spend zero time thinking about it and
my players do too and because it's so irrelevant
Trust me
We've learned from every game we played every win every
loss and you know we've definitely I think are better
for it but
I don't waste too much time thinking about that
It's too much to worry about right now
Left side second row uh Rod obviously last night you
got the matchup you wanted with Jordan's line on Suzuki's
line
It worked
Um you may not get that as much as you
want obviously in in Montreal
What was repeatable about the way that Jordan's line played
that is repeatable for whoever gets that Well it's our
team game
I mean I think we've played these guys enough you
know they got more than just that line that's dangerous
but obviously they have those guys are special special and
Whoever gets a hold of them has to do the
job
We understand what what that is
And I feel pretty good about whatever line we get
out there can do it
Obviously Joe ro is one of the best in the
league at doing that
So if you can get him out there against one
of their best guys that's probably what we want to
do
It may not happen
They've got other guys that are playing really well too
So um you know I I don't focus a lot
on the matchup matchups
I mean that's more a D matchup
A lot of times you get you want to make
sure you're Right the pairs out there
I mean that's kind of obvious um
But yeah on the road other guys are gonna have
to handle handle that line
Front right Rod you before last season you add Will
Carey and we know it's physicality is what he brings
in north-south but this this playoffs seemed like you're getting
that physicality up and down the lineup
Like last night you have the puck and you still
out hit them 3 to 23 to 1 pretty much
What do you what do you attribute that to Well
It's our style a little more than their style
Like they have a different way to beat you you
know I I I don't get caught up in those
things at all ever
Like some people oh you guys don't block shots
You know why we don't have a lot of blocked
shots because we had the puck that night you know
like like there's a reason for things to happen
So you know
That's part of our makeup
We gotta finish checks you know like that's Will Carrier's
game
I think him and I think Gordo had what 11
last night
Like that's a big bulk of that process
So um Yeah I don't again those are all little
things that they add up but if that's part of
our identity then we need to do it and we
did last night
Take 3 more questions on the right side 3rd row
Good afternoon
Uh your team like to shoot a lot and uh
play a stress game in the eozone but Montreal was
pretty good to block shots the 1st 2 games and
even close uh the slot
Do you feel you you have to find a tweak
to get more often to the net for deflections rebounds
traffic Yeah that's the game
I mean that's I mean
Yeah everyone says we like to shoot a lot
I don't know a team that doesn't like to shoot
Like that's just kind of a weird thing but it's
kind of you know you look at where we're shooting
those you're right we're right there they're getting their sticks
on and they're doing they're doing a great job
And that's talked about your identity
That's part of their identity making sure that you know
they have a great goalie but let's help them out
And it's to your point you're right
We got to find a way to get in
We got the first one
What is it 3 minutes into the game
That's there you go
There's a shot that we get to the front of
the net and you get a little stick on it
Didn't get one the rest of the night right Like
but you got to keep trying
I mean that's really you see us buzzing around we
get ozone motion
We're doing all the stuff that they're doing
Everyone's doing it
That's why we're still playing right We both teams do
it well and they both defend well
Two more questions right side 3rd row
Rod uh Leonelson was really good against Buffalo in Tampa
Bay yet he doesn't have a point against your team
Would you say it's a big part of your game
plan to neutralize them Well all of our guys but
you know again we always get fascinated on the points
Uh it's what do you do How do you impact
the game You know he does a lot of other
things too
breaks pucks out and he's you know talk about getting
stress off your team when you can just skate it
out or you know that that's part of that too
So yes we all our guys we just mentioned you
talked about the one line OK yeah you got to
know about them and you got to know about this
D and that that again that's why they're still playing
now
There's more than just one guy to key on
Um hockey is a team game and you got to
have a bunch of guys and you look at up
and down everyone's rosters who's scoring who's contributing and everybody
is right Or you wouldn't be here
Last one front left
Yeah Rod road teams have been pretty successful in the
playoffs this year
You guys are 4-0
Vegas is 1-2 in Colorado
Just what goes into making a good road team
Again I think it just goes you have to have
a good team
You you can't you're not playing now if you do
you can't play on the road
You you're you it's you know your game can't fluctuate
So dramatically at home on the road or you won't
play now
So you know like in Montreal I think they have
more road wins than home wins
Like I mean because their game isn't changing from when
they go from one spot to another and you know
when we're doing it right too I think our game
is very similar
Thank you for your time Ron
Thank you