I just finished watching the remainder of the Carolina Hurricanes 2013-14 season exit interviews. While serving as decent hockey content filler to get me through the 1st day (I count Monday as a day of hockey morning leading into the offseason) of another long offseason, there was minimal content of interest. With Anton Khudobin doing his tomorrow and a Kirk Muller press conference scheduled for late morning, I guess there is still hope that we get something interesting.
The summary mostly uncreative line of questioning and the answers was disappointment about missing the playoffs of course and everyone needing to work hard to get better. The overwhelming theme throughout the interviews was "consistency." It was in at least a dozen of the 20ish interviews in some form but Patrick Dwyer summed it up pretty well saying, "To be a good team, you need to play nightly and I don't think we did." (or pretty similar to that) As secondary theme was comments by a decent number of players (Eric and Jordan Staal plus a couple others) along the lines of Eric Staal saying, "We found ways to lose games."
A few small tidbits and thoughts:
--I liked Jay Harrison talking about Manny Malhotra even as a kid being someone special but also just always being a hard worker.
--I like that Justin Faulk took a moment to be sincerely proud and smile about being named to the Olympic team rather than just sluffing it off with a random set of clichés about 'it being an honor' or whatnot.
--Maybe most interesting segment was Cam Ward being asked "Is it tough for Kirk to get his message across in this room?" He kind of hmmed and hawed and did not answer the question. I will skip the insertion of reading his mind and just say it was interesting. It was probably about a little past the midway point of his interview if you have not seen it yet and want to.
--Elias Lindholm, when asked about what he learned, made a comment about "learning when he can hold the puck." He struggled and had issues getting comfortable with the smaller ice surface and the lack of time space in the NHL game especially early in the season.
--Eric Staal's interview had many of the common themes and what you would expect. Two things stood out to me. First, he said, "I believe in a lot of the players in this room..." followed by something about "need to add a few pieces." This is another quote subject to various interpretations, so feel free to make your own. I did not interpret it to mean that there were bad apples but rather that maybe he thought the team could improve at a few positions. Second, he made a comment along the lines of "We need everyone to elevate a little."
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That gets me to a little bit of a tangent. Like many Canes fans, I have been scratching my head about how this team can be 1 notch better and a playoff team. Over the coming months, I will write all kinds of details about players they should add, players who should be let go, who is overslotted, what difference injuries made and a ton of other things. I will offer my thoughts on the power play and possible free agent additions.
But when I net it out, I think it comes back to the consistency thing and how you get there. I think a common theme over the past few years is that the Canes (like about any team in the NHL) has proven capable of standing up against the league's best some nights. The team is not grossly understocked in terms of top end NHL talent. The ceiling is high enough. The problem is that the floor is too low on bad nights and more significantly the team hits that floor too often.
I think it comes down to finding a way to be competitive on nights when things do not come easy. The Canes struggle in this regard for a few reasons:
1) They are small and not very physical. When you work through the Canes forwards, they actually have pretty good size in the top 9 in players like Jordan Staal, Eric Staal, Alexander Semin and Jiri Tlusty. That set of 4 clocks in at an average height of 6-3 and an average weight north of 210 pounds. But of the bunch, are any really the kind of physical warriors that opponents dislike playing against? And once you get past there, the rest of the lot is below average in size. It is not about old school fisticuffs and staged fighting. It is about banging people and being difficult to play against.
2) I think the team lacks an energy rod who cranks the dial on the nights when the team starts slow. In better times recently, Tuomo Ruutu could help the team find a higher level on the sluggish nights. He still tried to fill this role this season, but seemed to get lost fighting bigger battles personally. If you asked me this season if the Canes got off to a slow start, who would I hope would help jack up the bench, I most pause...Nathan Gerbe had a natural spark to his game. Brett Bellemore brought a brand of physical. But that is really about it. Mostly on slow nights, the Canes recipe for success was hoping Khudobin stood on his head for the entire 1st period and then hoping that someone could score a big goal to get the Canes in the game. Relying on scoring to get you going on nights when you do not have the jump is a dicey proposition.
So how do the Canes remedy this situation?
At a basic roster level, you can bet that the team will gradually move to get a bit bigger and more physical over the next few years. That is the tactical path.
But I think the more direct path could go straight through Eric Staal. I recognize that his natural style of play is not that of a rugged forward, a pot stirrer or a nasty physical force. And to be clear, I do not think it is a requirement for him to do this to be an effective leader of this team. Ron Francis was a fine captain and even less in the fire, brimstone and a bunch of banging category of NHL player. I am not of the mind that Eric Staal either needs to change his game or be shipped out.
But I think that is exactly what makes it more powerful. He has enough of a track record in the league as the milder, less physical version of power forward, that a change would be can't miss it, blatantly noticeable. If Eric Staal shows up for opening night and goes even 60% good Tuomo Ruutu and shows a little of reckless abandon, everyone notices. And with it, I think the intensity level of every single player underneath him increases. It does not instantly convert every player into a rugged, physical warrior, but I think it amps everyone's adrenaline across the board. And I think that is the most direct path to Eric Staal's comment that "We need everyone to elevate a little." I realize that is not straight in Eric Staal's comfort zone, but sometimes that is exactly what leadership is - figuring out what you can to make everyone that you are leading a little bit better and doing what it takes to make that happen.
What say you Canes fans? Am I completely off my rocker even hypothesizing about this? Is the only path to bigger, more physical and more difficult to play against through offseason moves? Is it crazy to ask a player to step outside of his normal comfort zone? IF it did happen, does anyone else think that I am right that the intensity level of the entire team would immediately dial up a notch or 2?
I have mostly written a blog debating (literally because I am on the fence on this one) whether or not to keep Muller. His press conference is tomorrow, so I will try to post my Muller blog along with thoughts on the press conference tomorrow night.
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