Hurricanes: Rod Brind’amour is the Perfect Coach When the Season Returns

The NHL season may be delayed as far as August and even September before it returns. Thanks to Rod Brind’Amour, the Carolina Hurricanes may be the best team when play continues.

The NHL still has no idea when play will resume and if the rest of this season will ever return. There are several proposals on the table from a 24 team playoff proposal that skips the rest of the season to a player proposal that has a training camp starting in July. If and when the season returns, will the Carolina Hurricanes be in good enough shape?

There is no secret that the Carolina Hurricanes are benefiting from the break in the season. With five players on their injury report in the game against the Red Wings, this break is an opportunity to get get up to four of them back and healthy.

But Hurricanes fans aren’t used to seeing this many players hurt at once. In fact last season ten players played a full 82 game season. This isn’t counting the players who sat out to let other play like Saku Maenalanen or players called up halfway in the season like Greg McKegg, or even either of the two netminders.

How did the Hurricanes manage to stay so healthy?

The answer is head coach Rod Brind’amour. Everyone knows him as Rod the Bod for his incredible physique and the fact that even several years since he retired from the league, he still can compete physically with some of the best players. It’s also no secret that he has been passing his workout ethic to his players with the support of strength and conditioning coach Bill Burniston.

But to be that strong and stay that strong requires something that Rod has, his players have been getting, and is the second half of Billy’s job; conditioning.

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Conditioning is how the roster manages to stay healthy outside of getting hit an physically broken by other players. It’s how the team manages to play a full 60 minutes most of the time. It’s how this roster has been getting stronger quickly. It is also how this roster will survive the hiatus and return to full strength faster than the rest of the league when play restarts.

If the league returns straight to a playoff format, it may spell doom to whomever draws Carolina in the first round. Think back to the beginning of the last two seasons, two seasons under Coach Brind’amour. Both started with incredible point streaks and more than a few wins. It’s almost as if the Hurricanes had caught the other teams slacking.

It’s because they have. The Carolina Hurricanes entered the last two seasons already in midseason form. It wasn’t until they saw several targeted injuries to key players that the points stopped coming and they fell in the rankings only to crawl back up when the injured players returned.

That is how Rod trains. When the season returns there is no other coach I would personally rather have for the Hurricanes. Regardless of if they do a short re-training camp or not, the Carolina Hurricanes will be the most prepared team in the league. Rod guarantees it.

Question for CC Readers: When do you think the season will return, if you believe it will?