He said it: Brind’Amour on tonight’s matchup with Florida

The Canes will face the Florida Panthers tonight in a pivotal early-season Central Division showdown.

Rod Brind’Amour spoke to the media ahead of the game, here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say:

On the Panthers: Just watching, they’re a high-end team… Their power play’s great, and they score a lot of goals on the rush. They’re a fast team. We’ve got to be ready for that pace for sure.

On the lineup: We’re not changing the lineup, so everything’s going to stay the same. We’re leaning towards [Alex Nedeljkovic] right now in net.

On similarities between the Canes and Panthers: It kind of has morphed into that a little bit. That’s not the way I would intend it. I’m hoping that we can get back to a little more of a style of play that I’d like to see, not so much run and gun, if that’s the way to describe it. We, definitely, the last few games, have played that way. It’s not necessarily the way I want to see it.

On Joel Quenneville and his coaching style in Florida: I don’t think he’s changed too much. A lot of the stuff he’s done his whole coaching career, I think you can definitely see it in the way they play, whether it’s Chicago or whatever. You can tell it’s a Quenneville team, for sure, a lot of the things they do in the O-zone with their D and all that stuff. Not a lot of differences there.

On Brock McGinn elevating his game: I think he’s been taking advantage of an opportunity that’s been presented to him playing with a little bit different role, obviously. I think those kind of guys that do it right cash in on those opportunities. Brock’s one of those guys, you know what you’re going to get every night out of him. He’s going to play hard, he’s going to do the little things right. That’s paying off right now.

On if COVID’s been an issue for staff or others besides players: No, other than what everybody else has to deal with, just the regular lifestyle changes and all that. But we’ve been pretty lucky, I guess.