They Said It: Brind’Amour, Staal, Aho, Slavin on Game 6 loss

The Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins are headed to game seven, as the Bruins held their own on home ice once again Thursday night in a 5-2 win.

The Canes got two goals from Andrei Svechnikov but just couldn’t get anything going on the power play again, as Boston took charge and made it a sixth blowout win for the home team in six games this series.

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

Here is what they had to say:

Once again, we’ll just include answers since questions couldn’t be heard on the Zoom.

Rod Brind’Amour

That was a big part of it. I thought we had a real good first period. Everything was fine. It would have been nice to capitalize. We had a couple of real-good looks and didn’t get them. And then obviously on that 5-on-3, we didn’t do it right. But we did have a good power play on the first one. We hit, I think, two crossbars, and [Teuvo Teravainen] hit one too, so maybe three. But you’ve got to convert, and we didn’t. And they got that one where we made a mistake on the change, and they got it in the best player’s hands and he made us pay. And then we started chasing the game a little bit. Every mistake we made, it felt like they capitalized. They had that monster shift in the third when we got back in the game. We got the puck like four times, and that’s not how we normally do things. That’s what you get.

Little bit. We got down and instead of sticking with it we kind of tried to do too much. Playing a team like that, they’re going to make you make those kinds of mistakes.

He came right back up. But yeah, that could have been scary for sure.

You never know what can happen. You just don’t know. Even tonight it’s a bounce here or there early and the game is different. That’s hockey. On their power play they rip one and we block it, and it goes right to their guy. You don’t know how it’s going to work out. But the good news is that we have another game to play.

Right now it’s tough. It should feel brutal, to be honest with you. You wake up and feel excited that you have an opportunity.

The score has been lopsided in all of them, but I think the games were tighter. It was just weird the way the bounces went.

I hope so. We say it all the time, but we’ve got to get everyone going. We had some guys who didn’t play well tonight. Let’s just be blunt. If you play poorly here then you’re going to be in trouble. It was nice to see him get a couple, but we need everybody to be ready to roll next game.

In the third period we were out of sorts there. [Raanta] was actually making some amazing saves in that game. He was good.

If you’re going to lose a game, you’d much rather lose like that than maybe catch up and lose in overtime. Those are devastating. We have guys who know that they have to be better. When you lose you lose. If you lose by 10 or one it’s a loss, and you’ve just got to move on.

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Jordan Staal

Yeah, it didn’t help. Obviously everyone wants to convert, especially on the 5-on-3. Our power play, we hit three posts. It looks a little different after that. I thought we should have done a better job of sticking with our game and just being confident in what we do, even 5-on-5. We didn’t do that, obviously. It was kind of a tailspin. In that third period we had it right there and didn’t stick with. Give them credit. They capitalized on their chances and made it harder for us to get shots and create havoc. We’re going to have to find a way to do it at home.

It’s still game seven. Anything can happen. But we love playing at home in front of our fans. It’s a big boost for us, like you said with the way the series has gone. But we’re gonna have to obviously bring a better effort than tonight. It wasn’t us. It’s frustrating this time of year and series, but we’re going to have to wash it and get ready for a big game seven.

I think that’s just not trusting our game. That’s really trying to do too much at times, trying to push for a goal. Maybe trying to make that little extra play that you think might be the difference. That changed quickly. Obviously they’re a team that thrives off of that. It’s a little bit of that, but a little bit more that we have to trust our game and what we’re about and the way we play. That wasn’t it.

Not really, honestly. Home ice has been big. It’s been big numbers on either side. I expect a big game seven, and it’ll be interesting.

There’s a lot of things, but you need everybody for one. You need everyone playing detailed hockey and limiting your mistakes as best you can. And obviously just trusting in our game. Those are all the things we faltered at tonight. We have to come out in game seven with an effort that we obviously need to beat this team.

Raanta was really good tonight. Really good.

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Sebastian Aho

Obviously a good hit by him. It caught me kind of off guard. But yeah, it was a big hit. It is what it is. It’s playoff hockey. You’ve got to expect to have a couple of those.

Special teams probably was one of the areas. You’ve got a 5-on-3 there and it’s a big chance to score a goal. At the same time, we had some good looks. I think we had two crossbars. It shouldn’t change how we play 5-on-5 if we don’t score on the power play. But we’ll be better on the power play and at 5-on-5 for the next game.

I don’t know. Sometimes it’s a little bit tough to say five minutes after the game. It starts with competing out there and executing our game plan and trusting each other. That’s the main thing we have to focus on in game seven.

I’m sure he’ll get some confidence from those goals. It’s not just goals. I think we could have been a little bit better as a line today, and I’m sure we will be.

We had our chances, I felt like. I just think we gave in a little bit too much. That got us tonight. I felt we had enough chances to come back and take a lead or whatever, score goals and win a hockey game. So chances I’m not too worried about, but we can’t give them that much.

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Jaccob Slavin

Yeah, we would have loved to finish the job here, but it is what it is. This is hockey. This is the playoffs. We’ve got to go home and take care of the job. Obviously being home we get last change and it’s an advantage, but we’ve still got to come out and play. We have confidence in our group and the way we play, we’ve just got to do it.

Just mental mistakes. I think we beat ourselves a little bit. They’re a good team, but we like to go north with the puck and a couple times we took the puck back. Obviously penalties and not executing on the power play was huge, but we didn’t play our game in the third period.

No, it’s just getting off of it. We’ve identified with the way that we’ve played. We’ve had a full season of doing it the right way. Obviously there were lapses throughout the year, but we can’t have lapses like that during the playoffs. We know our identity as a group and our structure, and we just got away from it.

It’s frustrating, obviously. But flush it, and game seven is on Saturday. But we know the job that’s before us. We know we’ve got to do it. We’re a confident group. Flush this, and go get the job done on Saturday.

It’s never good when guys go down like that. Especially with [Aho], we know how much he means to our team. But he’s a tough guy. He’s a warrior. We definitely want him out on the ice, so it’s never a fun thing to see that happen. But you battle through it.