ATLANTA -- Erik Cole is doing everything he can to help the Carolina Hurricanes claw their way into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
He's scoring big goals. He's banging people. The power forward is gathering in the puck and driving down the ice with extreme force, with an inner fury. He's working hard in the defensive zone.
"This is the best year he's had," Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said Thursday. "The way he has played the game, being a good all-around player and being a threat on the ice all the time, this is his best professional year."
Cole scored his 25th goal of the season Wednesday as the Canes topped the Detroit Red Wings 3-0, pulling to two points out of playoff position in the NHL's Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes, ninth in the East, go into tonight's game against the Atlanta Thrashers chasing the eighth-place New York Rangers, who lost to the Thrashers 3-0 on Thursday night.
Asked this week to rate his season, Cole shrugged.
"It's been pretty good," he said.
Just pretty good?
"There have been stretches of games where I wish I had felt better or played a little better," Cole said. "I think I've had a pretty good year, but I think I'm capable of more in term of my numbers, but as far as some other things I've done this year I'm very happy with it."
It is an important year for Cole. Now 32, he is due to become an unrestricted free agent in July. He helped the Hurricanes win the 2006 Stanley Cup and would like to think he will end his career with the franchise that drafted him in 1998.
Just after Thanksgiving, Cole's agent, Steve Bartlett, talked with Rutherford in Boston about Cole's play, about his future with the Hurricanes, about some assurances.
"The major point of discussion was not a contract, just an overall discussion of the club and their feelings about Erik," Bartlett said Thursday by email. "Those discussions are between the parties, but overall I think it was fair to say Jim was pleased at the time with Erik and his play. I relayed that to [Cole]."
Rutherford said Thursday that contract negotiations would come after the season, noting Cole "has a very good future here and it will be one of our priorities."
Still, Cole said he initially struggled after the Boston meeting.
"I think for a couple of weeks I was disappointed with that - through a stretch in late November and early December," Cole said. "It was kind of frustrating and was weighing on me a little bit.
"My agent and I talked a few more times, and he kind of said it's not something you can worry about, to just worry about playing hockey. He said you can't worry about where you're going to be in future years. Enjoy what you have in front of you. I think that made it easier, for sure."
The next step, Cole said, was coach Paul Maurice moving him back to right wing on Eric Staal's line.
"He said he needed me to play there with Eric and be the player I can be," Cole said. "Those two things coming together helped." Few would argue that. Cole is among the NHL leaders with eight game-winning goals. Twelve of Cole's 25 goals have come in the third period of games.
"He's skating hard, he's driving the net, he's making a difference in the hockey game," said Cory Stillman, who is playing with Cole on the Staal line. "He's a powerful player. Every time he's on the ice people take notice of him."
The Thrashers have noticed. Three of Cole's winners have come against the Thrashers, two in overtime.
Cole said before the season he believed he could be a 30-goal scorer again. He did that in the 2005-06 season despite missing the final 22 games after being hit from behind by Brooks Orpik of the Pittsburgh Penguins and suffering a fractured vertebrae.
"He's had a lot of injuries, and he's played through a lot of injuries the last two years," Maurice said. "He would never get a body of work behind him where he could get back to being the goal scorer that he is.
"He's found that now. He's got the confidence on his stick. His overall game is very good. He's a threat to the other team's defense. He's pushed himself to be this good."
Cole has not missed a game this season. That's durability, and he has been at his best down the stretch.
Cole scored the winning goal Saturday against the New York Islanders, then had 11 hits in the 2-1 overtime loss Sunday to the Buffalo Sabres. He has 25 points (13 goals, 12 assists) in the past 32 games.
And after the season? Cole, who signed a two-year contract after the 2009 season that paid him $3 million this year, hopes to keep wearing No. 26 for the Hurricanes.
"I'm not really sure what's going to happen this summer," Cole said. "I like our group. It's a good group. It would be pretty special if we could find our way into the playoffs and see what we can do."
