RALEIGH, N.C. — Rod Brind’Amour has taken to the Stanley Cup Final podium three times over the past 26 hours and has vocally challenged the Carolina Hurricanes’ quiet top line in each of those press conferences.
This is the coaching equivalent of a fourth-liner laying three heavy hits on his first shift of the series. Brind’Amour is trying to get ahead of a concerning storyline that got masked by three rounds of relatively easy winning, but only needed 60 minutes to bubble to the forefront of this championship bout.
Set a tone.
No pussyfooting around here.
If Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, and Andrei Svechnikov — Carolina’s three most prolific goal scorers and three of their five highest-paid players — don’t start filling the net, this thing will be over faster than a plate of Lexington ribs.
Brind’Amour knows it. The Canes know it. The puck watchers know it.
Why duck the truth?
“They got to play in the other team’s end. They’re too much one-and-done — and not even one,” Brind’Amour said Wednesday morning.
In Game 1’s 5-4 home loss, the coach’s big guns had been sheltered from the Vegas Golden Knights’ top trio (shutdown centre Jordan Staal took care of the Jack Eichel unit nicely), yet they failed to splash the scoresheet for an eighth attempt through 14 playoff games. Despite Jarvis’s clean look late that got gloved down by Carter Hart.
“They got to get a little more offensive zone time. Kind of like that last shift they had. That was one of the shifts you could say, ‘OK, there you go. That's how it needs to look.’ So, we need them to get going.”
The tough love is happening privately, too, with Brind’Amour highlighting his group’s gaffes and giveaways in a sobering video session the morning after. Not unlike his attack-the-problem approach following Carolina’s only other loss this postseason, Game 1 versus Montreal.
“Guys nowadays, they don’t understand what ‘tearing in’ is. But you got to keep it real. I mean, there’s some not very good things happening in those games last night, so we keep it real. And then that’s the only way you’re going to learn. I don't think anyone said I tore into them. That’s not my style. But you've got to learn. We've got to get better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Bottom line: Aho is a point-per-game star performing at half that in the most important time of year. He lost most of his faceoffs Tuesday, registered one lonely shot, and made some atypically poor decisions on breakouts. His most noticeable moments on Tuesday could’ve been costly for his own club.
How wild is it that Svechnikov has a minus-1 rating for a 12-2 playoff team? Or that Aho and Jarvis (plus-3) are barely treading water most nights?
That doesn’t cut it for a $25-million line.
They must start picking up some of the offensive weight carried into the final by a middle-six hero rotation of Taylor Hall, Nikolaj Ehlers, Jackson Blake, and Logan Stankoven.
What’s tricky for Brind’Amour here is that he’ll be reluctant to turn one struggling line into two by tinkering with a consistent middle six that has thrived throughout.
“Yeah, a game like last night, you've got to find a way to score one there,” Aho agreed. “It’s not about work ethic or trying harder, but it doesn't matter at the same time. You’ve got to figure out how to produce in that game and help the team that way — and it’s on (us) to figure it out.”
That task becomes more difficult now, considering Vegas’s centre depth — Eichel, William Karlsson, Colton Scissons — trumps that of the opponents’ Carolina discarded to reach Round 4. The Golden Knights are heavier and smarter and more patient.
So, it doesn’t help the Canes’ cause when their best line must first win a 50/50 battle between their ears.
“We almost sometimes try to do too much, instead of just letting the game happen,” Aho explained. “Let the game come to you, in a way.
“Just go out there tomorrow with the highest confidence possible, kind of play the game and trust it’ll happen.”
Jarvis, too, admits frustration is seeping in. That the power-play (12.1 per cent) is a mess doesn’t help. No easy cookies.
“The chances are there. We’ve had our looks. We just have to capitalize more now than ever,” the three-time 32-goal man said. “We can’t dwell on the past. We can’t dwell on the stuff we missed. It’s about the next shift and next shot.”
What’s fascinating about the hockey culture of the Hurricanes, which essentially abides by the "Word of Rod," is that blue-collar ethic and waves of systematic skating reign supreme. Buy into a Staal-like approach, join the army of worker bees, and you’ll be buzzin’. But it can be a challenge for high-end skill guys to find their balance.
Aho, Jarvis, and Svechnikov better take care of their man on D and make all the safe plays as their middle-class teammates, but find a way to break the game open with timely finishing.
That hasn’t happened often enough this spring.
And now they’re hearing about it every day they show up and punch their card at the rink. By a no-nonsense coach who won’t sandwich his criticism between slices of praise nor make excuses for the misfiring of his most dangerous weapon.
“Tomorrow it’s a fresh new game, and you just kind of go out there and do your best. I know we have a better in us, and we gotta show it,” Aho said.
“We just got to find a way, especially our line, to be a little better.”
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