They Said It: Brind’Amour, Smith, Staal on 4-3 loss to Sens

It was a tough night for the Carolina Hurricanes in Ottawa Tuesday, as the Canes fell to the Senators 4-3 in a disappointing outing.

The Senators scored just 1:11 in and never looked back, making it 2-0 before the end of the first and 4-0 early on the second. The Canes played really well in the third period, with Andrei Svechnikov, Brendan Smith and Vincent Trocheck scoring, but couldn’t make it all the way out of the big hole.

Following the loss, head coach Rod Brind’Amour,

Rod Brind’Amour

On his team not quitting but also on them needing to get better starts: It’s a weird game. We came out and the first two shifts were actually great, and they threw one at the net and it bounced and we were behind the eight ball. Then just a couple real bad decisions with the puck. But I love the fact that we were down 4-0 going into the third and it would be easy just to roll over, but that’s not how these guys operate. Really a pretty good second half of the game, but we gave up too much at the start. Four goals, you don’t want to spot any team that. But I love the fact that we kept digging in.

On if they can take anything away from the late fight or on if they look at this as a missed opportunity for two points: I don’t know. Both, maybe. I like the fact that we don’t quit. I think that’s great. We’re going to have games where it doesn’t go your way and you’re going to have to keep digging in. To me, the game was the start of the second period. We came out and gave them two quick ones. That was tough. Give the other team credit, they were ready to go from the start. They played well. And I thought we didn’t get too many breaks today. Our power play was actually really good. We must have had five or six that were tap-ins that didn’t happen to go. We’ll move on.

On if some of it is that the puck luck is going against them: You can’t give a team, it doesn’t matter where the puck luck is going, you can’t give a team offensive opportunities. You want to try to win that game 1-0 and if you score four or five, great. You can’t give up these opportunities that we gave up early in the game. That’s just too hard to come back from, even though we certainly had plenty of opportunities to do that. You just can’t rely on that.

Brendan Smith

On if they can build on the third period: Yeah. The third period was good. That’s tough. If we want to be the best team in the world, straight when the puck drops you’ve got to have it. You’ve got to play the whole 60. You can’t spot them four and expect to win the game. We talked about after the second just coming in here and doing the right things, having the good habits and get ourselves prepared for the next game. Don’t let the bad habits creep in. We’ll take the positives out of the third, but that’s not what we want.

On his goal: We started buzzing in the third. Guys were starting to kind of grind down low and make plays. It came out to me. It seems that when you have guys in front the goalie can’t see it, and guys like [Staal], he’s so big the goalie can’t see. I was able to pick a corner, and I had a little bit of time. It’s nice to get that one, but I don’t really care about that. I really care about the two points.

On what the biggest problem was in the first period: Give kudos to them. They came out right away. They were buzzing, doing the right things and playing the right way, getting pucks in, getting on us. They were playing our game. They were playing the stress game and getting on us, and we didn’t do that. That’s just how it happens. Like I said, you spot them four and it’s a tough one to climb back to win. We’ve just got to play our system. We know when we play our game that we are on of the best teams in the league. That’s what we want to do. When we start being cute or trying to make too many plays in the neutral zone and turn it over, teams will shove it down our throats. We have to be smart and be right away. I know it’s cliché, but everybody talks about playing 60. That’s literally what you have to do to be the best team in the world.

Jordan Staal

On the effort and the game: I think it’s pretty obvious. The start was below average for us. Give them credit. They came out and played our style and were getting pucks forward. The first goal was a perfect example. It is a crappy bounce, but at the same time it’s in our end and going towards our net instead of the other way around. We got to our game, it was just a little late.

On what he can do from a leadership standpoint to get away from the rough starts: We’ve got to be better, obviously. I’ve got to do a better job of making sure everybody is ready to go. It’s all through the lineup. It’s just the little details and things that we’ve got to be sharper with. Just play the mentality and style of play that we want to play. It’s so obvious when we play the way we want to be playing. We can be pretty dominant if we do it.

On what they can take away from the late push: We could have lost 10-0, and we would have lost two points. We didn’t want to lay an egg in the third, especially for [Antti Raanta]. We left him out to dry in that first period. We wanted to get to our game, and we did. We were short, but in this league 60 minutes has got to be every night.