An original Predator, Hurricanes assistant coach Jeff Daniels has watched two markets blossom
Jeff Daniels was there at the creation, an original Nashville Predator during that team’s inaugural season in 1998-99. Daniels was also an original Carolina Hurricane, moving with the team from Hartford in 1997. Needless to say, he’s been a witness to the massive growth of two markets not originally thought to be hockey-friendly.
“It was a newer market. People were learning when to cheer, when not to cheer, no different from Raleigh,” Daniels said. “But now people are true hockey fans.”
As the series moves to Bridgestone Arena for Game 3, some of the trappings used to drum up interest during that initial Predators season live on, for better or worse, from the inane “fang fingers” when the Predators go on the power play to the bands that play during intermissions. But there’s no question that just as Raleigh grew into a hockey market — with the 2002 run to the Stanley Cup finals serving as an unlikely catalyst — Nashville has as well.
“I had a cup of coffee in Florida, too, and just to see the growth down in Florida and these newer, not newer now, but these southern markets where people didn’t think hockey would work,” Daniels said. “Sure enough, you’re seeing that now. Especially in Raleigh, you’re seeing youth hockey take off and a big reason why is the Hurricanes, the kids growing up with a team to watch, a team to cheer for. You’re seeing kids now, boys and girls, going to college on scholarships, getting drafted.”
The Predators went a long time without much success to speak of, going 13 years before winning a playoff series, but by the time they made the Stanley Cup finals in 2017 — coached by Peter Laviolette, who had Daniels on his staff when the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006 — there were tens of thousands of people gathering in a public park outside the arena to watch the games on a big screen, not to mention a long line of country-music star celebrity fans. The 12,000 fans in Bridgestone on Friday will be just as loud and rowdy as the 12,000 in PNC Arena were for Games 1 and 2.
“Nashville’s been here how many years? A long time. And they’ve had success,’ Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You’ve got to have success. You’ve got to give people something to be excited about to come watch your team and they’ve done that and so have we. It’s great to see.”
Daniels played only nine games with the Predators in 1998-99 after they took him from the Hurricanes in the expansion draft, and he spent most of the season in the AHL. In retrospect, it’s amazing an expansion team wouldn’t find a spot for a leader like Daniels, a hard-working if limited fourth-line forward but a consummate glue guy in the dressing room. The Hurricanes saw his value: They brought him back the next season and he played 260 NHL games over the next four seasons before he retired and months later joined Laviolette’s new staff when Paul Maurice was fired.
“When you go out and have good shifts and you’re rumbling around and making some energy down low, he really appreciates that,” Hurricanes fourth-line forward Steven Lorentz said. “I never really got to watch him play but I can guess at the kind of style he played with, that kind of bulldog mentality back then.”
The feeling, Daniels said, is mutual: “I can relate to those guys and have a special place for those guys, because that’s the kind of player I was.”
Daniels has been with the Hurricanes in some capacity ever since: seven years as an assistant coach to Laviolette and Brind’Amour, seven years as an AHL coach in Albany and Charlotte and three years as a pro scout. (Brock McGinn is the only player left in the organization from Daniels’ last Checkers team, in 2014-15.)
Lorentz’s rookie moment
Lorentz had an assist in his playoff debut in Game 1, but that wasn’t what the 25-year-old rookie will remember from his first postseason experience. From seeing fans tailgating to walking out of the tunnel to be greeted by a loud crowd for the first time in his Hurricanes career, Lorentz has been soaking it all in.
“Standing out during the national anthem, I was able to start that Game 1, just looking around seeing all the people,” Lorentz said. “And then when Adam (Lee Decker), the singer, said ‘rockets’ red glare’ and everybody screamed it, it was like, wow, OK, this is what it’s like.
“Then when he finished and you step off the blue line and put your helmet back on, you see people going absolutely nuts and it’s like OK, I don’t have to worry about anything here and emotion’s just going to take over and be there. The first five minutes of that, from running out of that tunnel to the very first shift, to getting my first point, that was all so special. Those are moments I’ll never forget.”
Lorentz has also had an impact on the series, getting under the Predators’ skin in Game 1 as part of an energetic performance by the fourth line of Lorentz, Jordan Martinook and McGinn that helped set the tone for the series. That’ll be even more important as the series moves to Nashville and the Predators benefit from having their crowd behind them.
“The hitting, everybody’s finishing checks and you really want to make sure you’re trying to wear down the opponent,” Lorentz said. “That’s why playoffs are so gut-wrenching and long, because guys make those extra efforts and finish their checks, and it wears the body down a little more. But it’s all worth it in the end.”
Not expecting Slavin
Jaccob Slavin did not participate in the Hurricanes’ pregame skate Friday. Brind’Amour said Maxime Lajoie, who spent the entire season with Chicago (AHL), would play if Slavin cannot.
“I don’t think he did anything in Game 1,” Brind’Amour said. “I just don’t think he’s 100 percent.”
Lajoie, who had 21 points in 27 games for the Wolves, would presumably replace Jake Gardiner, who played only 9:07 on Wednesday. Alex Nedeljkovic is expected to make his third straight start in net.
“No changes other than (Slavin’s) availability there,” Brind’Amour said. “Other than that, it’ll be the same.”
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 1:39 PM.
