They Said It: Brind’Amour, Aho, Staal on shutout loss to Rangers

The Carolina Hurricanes’ 14-game home point streak came to an end Sunday night, as the Canes fell to the New York Rangers 2-0 despite outshooting them 44-18.

The loss was the fourth straight for the Canes, as New York netminder Alexander Georgiev posted his first shutout of the season.

Following the loss, Hurricanes’ head coach Rod Brind’Amour, Sebastian Aho, and Jordan Staal spoke with members of the media.

Here is what they had to say:

Rod Brind’Amour

On if coaching is the toughest when you’re doing the right things but you’re just not winning games: It’s toughest when you’re losing and you’re playing brutal. Because, now, you’re questioning everything you’re doing. That was probably one of our better games all year. Their goalie played great, and that’s end of story. I don’t know what else we could have done other than put pucks in the net. Everything we wanted to do, for the most part, we did. We just didn’t get rewarded tonight.

On if the answers to the team’s scoring struggles are currently in the locker room: Well, we scored lots of goals early in the year. It goes in waves sometimes. It’s just tough. I know everyone’s down because it’s a tough way to lose when you basically play in their end the whole game. We tip our hat. Their goalie played great. We just have to refocus tomorrow and do it all over again.

On the quality of the team’s 44 shots on goal: They got one that was a point shot that got tipped in, and that’s the game. I know you guys are gonna write “four losses in a row.” Go ahead, but three out of those four games, I’d take all day long. End of story.

On keeping everyone confident during this kind of scoring slump: That’s the hard part because everybody’s working so hard. You should be rewarded more for that, with the way we played. I think it’ll work itself out here as we keep going. We can’t change what we’re doing. Can we get better? Of course. We can be better on faceoffs, we can be better on the power play. We had some good looks on the power play, but we also gave up a breakaway. You don’t want to be doing that kind of stuff. There are things within that game we want to tighten up, but, overall, walking out of here, we should win that game 99 times out of 100.

On if it’s easier to toss this game out because they have so many games coming up: You toss them out, win or lose. The minute we walk out of here, the game’s tossed. You have to focus on the next one. We could have won four in a row, I’d be saying the same thing. It’s about the next game. In all of these games, our starts have been really good. Our first periods have been really, really good, but we just haven’t been able to put the puck in the back of the net. These are tough losses, but we have a good group in here. I just love the way they play. They come to play and give it everything they have. That’s all a coach can ask for.

On Tony DeAngelo’s performance in his first game back: For coming off the shelf for a month. One practice, really, with us. I thought he was really good.

Sebastian Aho

On if this was a case of bad shot selection or just a good goalie: I’ve got to give him credit. He played a great game. But we had too many good chances not to score. It’s on us. We’ve got to be more efficient when we get the puck on our tape. Including me, I’ve got to fight for those in games like this...I liked the effort. We battled hard. We believe that it’s going to turn our way. We’ve got to be better on those chances.

On learning from this stretch: The thing is, the way we played today is the way we want to play. We don’t want to start doing other crazy stuff. We’re not going to do that. As a team, we believe in each other. It’s a long season. These situations, you’ve got to learn from these. We’ve got to be better when we get back and play in two days.

On if the answers to the problem are currently in the room with the trade deadline Monday: Yeah.

Jordan Staal

On if the shot selection was bad: No. We played well. I wouldn’t say that all the 2-on-1s we had were bad shot selections or the two posts we hit were bad shot selections. We continue to play the way we do, and we’re going to be on the better side of most of them.

On if the answers to the scoring problems are in the room already: Yeah, I would say so. I can’t say I’ve been on a team that hasn’t gone through dry spells throughout a season. We’ve had a few games where we’ve completely controlled and outshot most teams. The goals will come. I’m one of them. I’ve got to be more on top of them and create more offense. It’s been that way all year. A few other guys are fighting it right now. It’s going to come, and it will be a great time.

On the mood: We feel good about our game, but obviously, it’s still frustrating. No one likes losing, especially in a room that’s a very competitive room. It’s not fun losing. The guys are pissed. We’re going to have to find a way to get over that hump and be mentally tougher and continue to push through.

On what they can learn from a stretch like this where the effort is still good but the results aren’t there: It shows our belief in what we’re doing. You’ve heard [Brind’Amour] say it plenty of times that when it’s not going in, guys start to stray. I thought we stuck with our game. Tonight it didn’t work out. But I think it’s a game that’s going to help us win when the guys believe in it. We’re going to continue to build on it and move forward from here.