They Said It: Brind’Amour, Staal, Teravainen, Aho on season sweep of Bruins

The Carolina Hurricanes drubbed the Bruins in Boston Thursday night, win 6-0 behind a Frederik Andersen shutout and two goals from Sebastian Aho.

The Canes started well and never looked back, scoring in all three periods to complete the season sweep of the Bruins. Teuvo Teravainen had three assists in his return from injury, as the Hurricanes overwhelmed the Bruins on their home ice for two points.

Following the win, Canes’ head coach Rod Brind’Amour, Aho, Teravainen and Jordan Staal, who scored his first goal since Oct. 29, spoke with members of the media via Zoom.

Here is what they had to say:

Rod Brind’Amour

On if he was surprised by how effective Teuvo Teravainen was in his return: Not really. But he’d been out a long time with obviously no practices or anything, so that takes a special kind of player to do that. He does a lot for us in every situation. He was real important for us tonight.

On the Bruins coming out and playing a physical game: It seems that with this team, whichever way the game goes, I feel like we’re pretty much capable of playing that way. I don’t think it caught us by surprise though because they are missing their two top guys. Those are tough guys to have out of your lineup. The other guys might have been trying to play a little differently or whatever, but with those guys out of the lineup, we definitely should take advantage of it.

On Frederik Andersen: The game could have been flipped [in the first four minutes]. If they had got a power play goal, the game could be way different. So that was a huge part of the game. He was great and we were able to settle down and get playing.

On Jordan Staal breaking his month-long goal drought: It was great. We’ve all been there where you can’t get one to go and obviously he was in one of those ruts, but you have to give him a lot of credit because his game didn’t really change. His game was the same. Solid. Dealing with so many other things. He’s the leader of our group and the measure of his success is how well the team is doing. He was able to get one tonight, but look at how we played tonight. That was a direct reflection of our captain.

On Tony DeAngelo coming to Sebastian Aho’s defense: Tony steps up for everybody. I mean everybody. Got to give him a lot of credit. He’s done nothing but great things sinec he got here and the guys love him.

On if DeAngelo reminded him a bit of Tim Gleason with the amount of punches thrown: [Gleason] is one of the guys that loves him.

Jordan Staal

On finally scoring a goal: Yeah, I feel like my game has gotten better lately. You start getting rewarded with some offense. It was a long time, obviously, not scoring, but we were winning a lot of hockey games. In this group there’s a lot of guys who can score goals, we’re just trying to play the right way and do the right things and win games. But it’s definitely nice to get one.

On what he liked about the performance: I thought we rebounded well after last game with the slow start we had. I think we kind of carried that third period we had there into this game. Power play was ready to go. PK killed some big penalties early in the game which could have gotten the building going. Their power play is very good. It was a good effort all around.

On the physicality of the game and on Tony DeAngelo fighting Charlie McAvoy: Tony has been obviously an unbelievable player for us with what he does on the ice, but he brings so much emotion. He cares for the boys. He did a great job of there of stepping up and doing a good job taking care of our best player. I thought it was a physical game, and they did a good job of trying to get in that kind of style of game. It was difficult. The boys played through it and found a way to grind it out. We started getting some bounces, and the power play was big. That kind of got us going.

On getting the sweep over Boston, who has given the Canes so much trouble in the past: It doesn’t hurt. Obviously a team that has taken what we wanted the past few years. It doesn’t hurt. It always feels good winning in this building against a good team that plays well and plays hard. So, we’ll take the wins.

Teuvo Teravainen

On him not being 100 percent and on what 100 percent looks like for him if this wasn’t it: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s been a battle for me lately. But I’m starting to feel better, so that’s good. I want to play. It’s always tough to be out for a little while, but it’s good to be healthy now.

On getting back in the lineup and contributing: It’s awesome. The team played good, and it’s always nice to help. It’s way more easy for me to be on the ice and help the team than watch the games from upstairs. It’s good to be back.

On sweeping Boston: It’s good. They’re a really good team. In the playoffs they beat us a couple times, so that for sure makes us even more hungry to beat these guys. They play tough and are a good team, but we just stuck to our game plan and played a good game.

Sebastian Aho

On getting Teravainen back: Any team would miss a player like him. Obviously he played a great game and helped the team win this game, for sure.

On the intensity of these Boston games that maybe wasn’t there a few years ago and on the importance of the special teams: I guess. Yeah. We have had great battles. The games are always intense and physical. It’s high pace, lots of hits early on. For sure special teams are a huge part, and we were better tonight on those.

On sweeping Boston and winning in commanding fashion: At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what the score is. Obviously you want to win those games and get those two points. Sure, there’s history between them and us. You want to win. Obviously they ended our season two times in a row. For sure you want to have that fire in you and win those games. The score doesn’t matter. It’s just two points. Obviously we’ll take it.

On avoiding a hit from Charlie McAvoy and on DeAngelo stepping up in his defense: At the very last moment I saw him coming and tried to spin out of it. Just in time, I guess. I hit the brakes a little bit there and spun out, so nothing happened. He’s a strong D-man, so gotta keep your head up out there. Obviously Tony stepping up just tells you who he is. He’s a team guy. A great team player.

On if they were giving Staal scoring advice during his goal drought: No. The way he plays is always just high level. He’s definitely had enough chances to score. Sometimes it goes like that. I’m sure he gets on a roll now and will score a bunch more. That’s how hockey works sometimes. But yeah, it was nice to see that he got one in.