Carolina Hurricanes will welcome ‘Mr. Game 7’ as fifth member of team’s hall of fame
Rod Brind’Amour was both a teammate with, and coached, Justin Williams, winning a Stanley Cup and later leading the Carolina Hurricanes back to the playoffs.
Brind’Amour was the captain of the 2006 Stanley Cup champions and often had Williams on his right wing. As head coach of the Hurricanes, Brind’Amour’s first move was to name Williams as his team captain as the Canes began what now has been a five-year run in the playoffs after a nine-year playoff drought.
For Williams, the 2006 Cup with the Canes was his first. He would win two more with the Los Angeles Kings during a 19-year playing career that ended with him retiring with the Canes in October 2020.
It seems fitting that Williams be formally honored Monday as the fifth inductee into the Hurricanes Hall of Fame before the Canes’ game against the Kings at PNC Arena. Williams, 42, joins Ron Francis, Cam Ward, Glen Wesley and Brind’Amour in the team’s hall.
“It’s a special moment and I’m looking forward to it,” Brind’Amour said Sunday, smiling. “It will be nice to watch him sweat it out a little, get up there and do his thing.”
Sweat it out? In a sport full of nicknames, Williams earned the moniker “Mr. Game 7.” It came from being cool and clutch in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“Oh, wow, can you get any better than that?” Brind’Amour said. “The moment, he never shied away from it.”
To wit: Williams played in nine Game 7s and had an 8–1 record, producing seven goals and 15 points.
Williams’ goal late in Game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers sealed a 3-1 victory in the 2006 Stanley Cup final for the Canes. It was an empty netter, although Oilers defenseman Chris Pronger tried in vain to stop him, and left PNC Arena — then called the RBC Center — in bedlam.
“I was the older guy and he was the younger kid and I kind of watched him grow as a player,” Brind’Amour said. “It was great to watch that and be a part of it.”
Later, with the Kings, Williams held up the Cup in victory in 2012 and 2014, receiving the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP after the 2014 Cup run.
Williams spent two years with the Washington Capitals, who twice won the Presidents’ Trophy and were on the verge of winning their first Cup when Williams left in free agency and signed with the Hurricanes in July 2017.
“Everyone liked him and respected him as a leader,” said Canes defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who played with Williams in Washington. “Great person, great player.”
Brind’Amour said having Williams as his captain was “crucial” in building a winning culture that has endured and made the Hurricanes one of the league’s best teams.
“We had the good pieces here, it was just, I don’t know the right word is, but it was a little off in how things were put in place,” Brind’Amour said.
Brind’Amour said Williams’ consistency, in games and in practice, helped set a proper standard, noting, “You couldn’t tell if he was playing in a preseason game or Game 7. He was the same.”
Bill Peters was the Canes’ head coach in 2017 and named Jordan Staal and Justin Faulk co-captains when nearly everyone, including Brind’Amour and Williams, expected Williams to be named the captain
“That’s what everyone assumed, but he’s professional,” Brind’Amour said. “He was a pro.”
Peters left soon after the 2017-18 season, new team owner Tom Dundon promoted Brind’Amour from assistant coach to head coach and Brind’Amour turned to Williams to be the captain.
“It was an easy decision, because I knew what kind of person he was as a player and what kind of impact he could have in the room,” Brind’Amour said. “I was very lucky to be able to walk in and have that guy lead this group.
“It wasn’t so much in how we were playing but how we prepared – how we did everything away from the rink, getting yourself ready to be a Hurricane. He was instrumental in that, along with other guys. But Justin certainly was the leader in that.”
Williams could be brutally honest with his teammates. He knew when to coax and when to be more fiery. He said his goal was to make the Hurricanes “relevant” again in the NHL and he was a big part of that with his leadership and his play on the ice.
During the 2020 playoffs in the Toronto “bubble,” Williams dropped the gloves and slugged it out with Ryan Strome of the New York Rangers. He’d do that, too, if need be.
In 2019, the Canes returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2009 and knocked the Caps out with a Game 7 win in the opening round. Brock McGinn had the winning goal in the second overtime – off a centering pass from Williams.
“Obviously, that second coming back (to the Canes) and being able to coach him was very unique, and we’ve got a special relationship because of that and the experiences we’ve had,” Brind’Amour said of Williams, who serves as an adviser to Canes president and general manager Don Waddell.
One lasting memory for Brind’Amour will be after Game 7 against the Caps at Capital One Center in Washington. Williams was kept out for a postgame interview while the Canes players, exhausted in victory, returned to their locker room.
“The whole room was just silent because he was on the ice still doing interviews,” Brind’Amour said. “They just got quiet. And then ‘Willy’ walks in and they wait for him to sit down and then they erupted.
“It’s a pretty special moment that I’ll always cherish.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
