‘Resilience Is The Key Word’: Sean Walker, Jordan Staal, Jackson Blake, Rod Brind’Amour On Win Over Wild

The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Minnesota Wild 4-3 in what looked like the beginnings of a wild game.

The two teams combined for seven goals on the first 12 shots of the game, but then went scoreless the rest of the way.

After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour along with Sean Walker, Jordan Staal and Jackson Blake spoke with the media. Here’s what they had to say:

Hurricanes Defenseman Jalen Chatfield Exits Game With Injury Following Headshot
A brutal headshot sidelines defenseman Jalen Chatfield, marking the Hurricanes’ fourth blueline regular injured this season.

On the injury to Jalen Chatfield: Injuries any time are no good, but it’s just the way this year’s gone. Just can’t get healthy. Keep losing key pieces. That’s rough. Hopefully… I mean… I don’t know how long he’s gonna be out, but it was a tough hit.

On K’Andre Miller: His reach is incredible and because he’s so fast, he can close quick. He broke up, I don’t know, many, many opportunities for the other team and then created a bunch for us. For a guy who missed a couple weeks, that was pretty impressive.

On the Logan Stankoven, Jackson Blake, Nikolaj Ehlers line: Blake’s probably the one who needs the most credit for tonight. I mean, on the one goal, it was all him and then the other one was just a great pass. All three of those guys have that ability and two of those guys especially hound pucks like crazy and keep getting it back. Can’t say enough about the work they did tonight. That’s why we won the game.

On the goaltending resetting after a tough stretch: He shakes off everything. He can just move on to the next one really well. I mean, it was a rough start for both goalies. Just everything went into the net. Thought it might be a high scoring game and then there was nothing. It was weird how it settled down and both goalies made some big saves on both ends to give their teams a chance to win.

On resetting after the flurry of goals: It was tough to get the game going with all the penalties and then it kind of settled down and I thought we played a pretty good second period after that and then the third period was fine too, it’s just that they’ve got some talented players too that created some chances. Again, I thought it was a good effort, especially considering we were down to five D and the young guys that are playing back there did a great job.

On Jordan Staal stepping up for Chatfield following the hit: He’s our leader. We’ve talked a lot about him and I can’t say enough great things. That’s just another one of those things that he does for our group and is willing to do. That’s why he has the ‘C’ on his jersey.

On another injury to the blueline: Obviously it’s not great. Chatty’s a big part of our D-corps just like all the other guys. It’s unfortunate that we kind of have this strain of injuries going on but it was great to have Key back tonight. We’ll just stick with it, keep battling.

On seeing Staal stand up for Chatfield: I said it on the ice, he set the tone and we talked a lot about supporting each other and standing up for each other. To see your captain go out there and do it and be the first one in there… he’s an amazing person, great player and a better captain. It was good to see.

On refocusing after the flurry of goals: Again, we just got back to our game plan. You lose a guy, so it’s a little scrambly there, you’re playing with a lot of different D partners, but the forwards did a great job answering after any goals were scored. We stuck with it.

On having a constant rotation of partners in a game: It can be a little challenging, for sure. You’re trying to get used to playing with guys, I feel like we haven’t really had the chance yet with all the injuries, but maybe that’s making it a little easier because we are switching up so often. Again, just battling. Everyone knows the game plan. We just stuck with it.

On his goal: We definitely have talked about getting a lot more pucks to the net. I knew the power play was kind of winding down, Jarv made a great pass to me and when I looked up, I saw that I could definitely get it by the first guy and luckily there was a good screen by their guy. It was good.

On if he needs to put bubble wrap on at the end of every game now just to make sure he’s available: That might not be a bad call at this point. Again, it seems really unfortunate that every game it seems like someone is maybe going to go down. We’ll just stick it. Everyone’s done a good job, including the guys we’ve called up. They’ve stepped in, battled hard and really played well.

On his response to the hit on Chatfield: Obviously it wasn’t a good hit. Didn’t like it. Hopefully it’s not as bad as it looked on the ice for him and he can get back quick.

On the blueline’s resiliency: The blueline’s been tough. We’ve been fighting and working hard and finding ways and digging in. It’s been good to see. Resilience is a key word there for those guys and us forwards are trying to help as best we can and continuing to play a simple game so we don’t have to play in the D-zone too much. It’s been tough going, but hopefully we can get those guys back quick.

On having to watch the flurry of goals from the box: 4v4 has been kind of on and off for us, so nice to see us get a few and answer right back. It’s not going to always be perfect and it’s never going to be a perfect coach’s game all the time. I think the guys answered the bell quickly and found ways to use their skill and get goals and get back into it right away.

On becoming the all-time team leader in games played: It’s great. Appreciate the boys battling it out for me there and getting a good memory out of a big milestone game. Glad we got the two points. It’s been a fun ride, had a lot of fun with these guys here and all the other teammates I’ve played with. It’s been such a joy and a blessing and just happy to keep going.

On having a fight for the first time in seven years and having to explain that to his kids now: They might have been watching that first period too. I think it’s just about protecting your teammates and being there for each other. That might be a tricky one to explain to a five year old, but I think he’d understand. I hope Chatty’s getting back soon.

On the final 6-on-5 stretch: It’s just a matter of grinding it out. Keeping pucks to the outside, trying not to let it get to the net. Really just giving it all you’ve got with whatever juice you’ve got left. I thought the boys did a great job at the end of keeping the chances to a minimum and finding a way to get two points.

On resetting after the flurry of goals: We didn’t change what we were doing when we were scoring, right? Obviously not a lot of shots in the first couple of periods and then in the third, I thought we were just kind of shoving it down their throat a little bit and just hammering it. Every time we got the puck, we were just putting it at the net. I mean, it causes chaos, right? Loved the way we played tonight. Obviously some things to clean up on the goals and stuff like that, but overall, I thought we were really food tonight.

On his goal: It was 4v4, so there was a little more ice there than usual out there. I kind of just winded it up a little bit and yeah, I was a little surprised by how much space. Figured it was kind of a broken play, so that kind of played a factor into it, but I think for the most part I had a lot of open ice and just tried to take advantage of it and fortunately it went my way and went in the net.

On if his eyes get big seeing that much space: I think any forward when they see that much ice is going to try to at least take advantage of it. Kind of caught me by surprise a little bit. Was kind of shocked to see that much ice, but it was 4v4 and I knew that going into it.

On Nikolaj Ehlers: He’s unbelievable. A stud. I love playing with that guy. He’s so fast and makes really good decisions all the time. Obviously back-to-back goals is really big for him and he’s been solid all year. To play with him and obviously Stanks too, I think we can build some serious chemistry and hopefully be a really good line.

On what it’d be like to have Jordan Staal mad at you: I mean, I’d skate as far away as I could from him. He probably almost has 100 pounds on me. I would not mess with him, for sure.

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