Carolina Hurricanes’ Staal, Martinook absorb lessons learned at season’s end
The two Jordans, Staal and Martinook, will have no say in how the Carolina Hurricanes’ roster is tweaked this fall in response to a season that saw the Hurricanes finish sixth in the Eastern Conference and fall to the Boston Bruins in the playoffs for the second straight season.
As two of the team’s core leaders — especially if Justin Williams retires, or takes another extended vacation before returning — they will have some say in how the players who are still around handle that success and that eventual disappointment.
With respect to the latter, it was clear enough in the third period of Game 4 that the Hurricanes found themselves in a situation they were unprepared to handle, an epic collapse that saw a two-goal lead become a two-goal deficit in less than seven minutes. The Bruins managed to grind out four wins in five games even as each game was within a goal in the final minute.
“It’s obviously fresh in my mind, but looking back at the Boston series, you could just see they never got uncomfortable in a situation,” Martinook said on a Zoom call Thursday. “We almost tried to push too hard in situations where we could have kept doing what we needed to do. There’s an old saying when you try to do too much, it ends up going the other way. That’s kind of what happened to us in some of those situations.
“Boston’s the team obviously we’re trying to be like, in the upper echelon of the league right now. That’s where we want to be. Just to see how they handled certain situations, we obviously are going to learn from that try and be better in those situations.”
As for the first part, the Hurricanes’ success in making it back to the playoffs for a second straight year for the first time in two decades is no small achievement, and they did it while still laboring through goal-scoring and power-play droughts, critical injuries, goaltending issues and the inevitable dips in form that might otherwise have derailed them in the past.
“It’s a good feeling to have,” Staal said. “We have a great group of guys who are starting to really understand how to win games, how to grind out teams and stuff. It’s an exciting time in Carolina. The young core we have is very special, very driven. I love those guys. They work very hard. We have a bright future in Carolina.
“There is a learning curve of finding ways to win games and getting uncomfortable and being OK with that. I like the way our guys have responded over the last couple years. They’re only going to mature and get better.”
As for Williams, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour talked about the emotional moments for the former captain in Toronto after the Game 5 loss … but that was also true after the Game 4 loss to the Bruins in Raleigh in 2019 and Williams was back on the ice in January. He’ll be 39 by the time next season starts, and the Hurricanes are once again preparing to go on without him. Maybe.
“It’s well-known around the league what Willy’s all about,” Staal said. “He’s taken control of rooms. He understands what it takes to win. He’s done it plenty of times. He knows how to bring guys to their best. He’s a huge part of that room.”
The Hurricanes have a few months to rest and regroup before the next season begins, likely in December if all goes as planned. It goes against the hockey player’s internal clock to be resting instead of ramping up in September, but it has been that kind of year.
“It was unique, but at the same time everybody was going through the same thing,” Martinook said. “I don’t think any of us have had — nobody has done the pause and then you get back going again. It was almost like an offseason.”
Another unusual offseason awaits.
