Coming off a championship run doesn't leave much time to dwell on success, at least not for Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour.
Appearing Monday on The Fan Hockey Show, Brind'Amour addressed the unique challenges of entering a new NHL season as the defending champions with a largely unchanged roster.
"If you have a good team, you don't want to be losing guys," Brind'Amour told hosts Matt Marchese and Mike Futa. "So that's always kind of on the retool."
The team is still dealing with the uncertainty around defenceman Alexander Nikishin's contract situation, as the restricted free agent remains unsigned.
Brind'Amour admits that he can't dwell on Nikishin's status as he tries to get ready for camp.
"Whether they figure that out or not, who knows?" he said. "That's, you know, if he's here, great. If he's not, we're moving on. So we don't have a choice there."
Another wrinkle for the Hurricanes is that forward Seth Jarvis is expected to miss time at the start of the season after having surgery to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff in his right shoulder.
While the Hurricanes also saw some departures from their Cup-winning roster, Brind'Amour admitted that having familiar faces back in the fold is a major luxury when it comes to training camp.
"It feels like we were just at this yesterday, and so we just got to figure out how to pick up where we left off," he said. "We don't have as much teaching to do because there aren't new people. So that's a bonus."
However, maintaining the status quo after a deep post-season run brings its own set of hurdles. Among them, as Brind'Amour pointed out, is the shortened summer recovery window for players looking to make individual strides in the off-season.
"The negative part is the preparation part ... from the player's standpoint of getting better in the off-season," Brind'Amour explained. "You're a little behind the eight-ball sometimes with two, three fewer months to kind of get their stuff together, individual-wise. But it is what it is. It's a great problem to have."
