After long wait, Justin Faulk savoring playoff success
The weight of it was oppressive. Seven years in the league without a playoff appearance, an endless succession of seasons going nowhere, even before Justin Faulk was thrust into a co-captaincy he didn’t want. A year ago, Faulk was one of many Carolina Hurricanes players who looked in desperate need of a change of scenery, a fresh start, something – anything – different.
“Especially guys that have been here for a while,” Faulk said Saturday, a year and 180 degrees later, “we had some gray, cloudy days.”
The Hurricanes defenseman then saw everything around him change in a whirlwind offseason. Bill Peters left, Rod Brind’Amour was promoted to head coach, Justin Williams was elevated to captain. Players came and went. The mix in the room changed.
Faulk, having become uncomfortable in the only home he had known in the NHL, felt at home again.
The game that had become a grind became fun again.
Faulk became the defenseman the Hurricanes once thought he was again.
And, finally given the chance to play in the postseason after 557 regular-season games, Faulk has been even better than that.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Minnesota Wild forward J.T. Brown, who won an NCAA title with Faulk as freshmen at Minnesota Duluth. “I’ve gotten to see what he can do in pressure games. He hasn’t been in those situations lately, but I knew all along that player would show up – and has showed up – in big-time games.”
With the exception of a rocky start to Game 2 of the Washington series, when Faulk helped spot the Capitals an early 2-0 lead, he’s been a rock on the Carolina blue line in the postseason, playing first with Brett Pesce and more recently with Calvin de Haan after the reshuffle late in the Washington series.
While Jaccob Slavin’s offense has gotten a lot of attention, Faulk is right behind him in ice time – Slavin, at 26:39 per game, is second among active players in the postseason, while Faulk is sixth at 25:58 – and has seen as much duty against the opposition’s top lines. He played a team-high 24:27 in Friday’s Game 1 overtime win over the New York Islanders.
But the roots of Faulk’s postseason performance were planted in the fall, when the Brind’Amour-Williams regime took over and the mood in the room changed. On the day Williams was announced as captain, Faulk was visibly elated, the rare player relieved by an ostensible demotion.
Winning helped, to be sure, but the new coach and captain both demonstrated a lighter touch than the dour Peters, who visibly lost the support of the players last January.
“It’s been enjoyable to come to the rink,” Faulk said. “That goes a long way. You can probably ask some of the guys who have been here for a while, that really does help a lot.”
In Faulk’s career arc, it’s a timely rebirth. There was a point in his career, when he was young and raw, where he looked like he might have long-term Norris Trophy potential, because of his shot and two-way game. That’s not how things panned out, but the Hurricanes also knew he was better than he had shown the previous few years.
It was just a matter of getting back to that level, if he could.
“He had a couple years where I felt like he wasn’t Justin Faulk,” Brind’Amour said. “This year, for whatever reason, he’s been the player we all saw early when he was with us. For whatever reason, he’s turned the corner this year, and he’s continued on into the playoffs.”
With a logjam of right-shot defensemen after the Dougie Hamilton trade, Faulk appeared ticketed to join the offseason exodus. It worked out for both Faulk and the Hurricanes that there was never really an offer that made sense.
With everything else that went on around him, he ended up playing for another team without changing his jersey. He got the change of scenery he needed by staying in place.
