Jordan Staal’s power-play promotion is Rod Brind’Amour’s subtle nod to 2006
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- Rod Brind’Amour revived a 2006 tactic, deploying Jordan Staal on the power play.
- Staal scored in consecutive games, lifting Carolina’s power-play success to 25%.
- Coach prioritized faceoffs and net-front traffic to convert more man-advantages.
Amid all the good memories and positive vibes of seeing the 2006 champions back together again, it’s hard to shake the sense that there’s suddenly a big similarity between that team and this one.
No, not a rookie goalie coming out of nowhere to save the Carolina Hurricanes’ bacon, as good as Brandon Bussi has been. Cam Ward, at least, was a first-round pick, even if his contributions came slightly earlier than expected.
And no, not a blue line that’s been racked with so many injuries it seems like it’s never the same six guys two games in a row. People forget that about the fall of 2005, how defensemen kept falling one right after another, so many that Oleg Tverdovsky — nominally the seventh and spare defenseman — ended up playing 72 games.
Perhaps there was something about the reunion that jogged some synapse deep in Rod Brind’Amour’s brain, something long forgotten from that season surfaced by the familiar faces. Perhaps it was just desperation at having one of the NHL’s worst power plays, even with Shayne Gostisbehere back and healthy again.
But here’s the 2006 connection no one saw coming: When all else fails, send the thirtysomething captain out there with the man advantage to win a few faceoffs and maybe even get his butt in the way.
After scoring on the power play in each of the past two games, Jordan Staal has more power-play goals this season (2) than the previous four seasons combined (1), going into Thursday night’s game at the Washington Capitals.
“There’s some skill set he brings to that,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s pretty clear what he does. It’s what power plays need. Every power play starts with a faceoff, every one I’ve been around. OK, he’s our best one. And obviously you need traffic and he’s our best one, he’s our biggest dude.”
Peter Laviolette did that with Brind’Amour, 35 in the fall of 2005, and he scored a career-high 19 power-play goals after scoring only one the previous season. He scored more that season as he had in his entire 4 1/2-season Hurricanes career to that point — and didn’t stop in the playoffs, either.
And now Brind’Amour has tapped into Hurricanes history and done that with Staal, 37, now the owner of a two-game power-play goal streak after scoring his first in more than four years.
“It’s a privilege, it’s an honor, and I want to contribute throughout the lineup in all aspects,” Staal said. “I was able to get out there and get one, which was nice. Power play’s going to be huge for us going down the stretch.”
In the four games Staal has seen significant power-play time — a total of 6 minutes, 9 seconds, after seeing a total of 64 seconds in the previous 22 games — he not only has two goals but the Hurricanes are converting at a 25 percent clip, up from a dismal 13.7 before that.
There’s no excuse for a team with as much skill as the Hurricanes to be that profligate with their chances, but sometimes it takes a big body willing to take some abuse to let the fancier fellows do their thing. If nothing else, neither Sebastian Aho nor Logan Stankoven have been good enough in the faceoff circle; with Staal, you can at least count on that.
“We’re just messing around a little bit,” Brind’Amour said after Staal’s first practice with the power-play units, but at a time when the Hurricanes were honoring their most cherished history, it was a subtle nod to the past that worked.
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This story was originally published December 11, 2025 at 5:45 AM.
