3 takeaways as Canes suffer first overtime defeat in San Jose
By Conor Power
The captain plays his 600th game with the team
When we talk about the important players for this team, we often talk about the members of the SAT line, we talk about Jarvis, we talk about the top six. One of the Hurricanes’ most important players is often their captain who very quietly does his job and does it so effectively that opponents struggle to get the better of his line. He’s one of the best in the league at his job.
Jordan Staal is not only a leader on the ice but a leader in the locker room. He is the leader of the team and it applies in every sense of the word. He plays in every situation, he’s the best guy on the team when it comes to the faceoff dot, and he was a very prominent feature of this game. While he didn’t have the best of games for himself, he was still Jordan Staal.
He may have lost his scoring touch from last year, where he was a lot like Midas in the fact that everything he touched turned to goals. Carolina’s captain doesn’t have the same goal-scoring touch that he did last year. His point production is way back down, and he’s not getting the same puck luck that he was last year. It’s just not going in for him right now.
However, this doesn’t mean he’s not playing to the same level as he was prior. He’s still dominating games, and he’s still shutting down the opponent’s best lines. He’s a big-time player for this organization and he’s expected to continue to be a big player while he remains in Raleigh. Finding his successor at 3C is going to be an interesting conundrum when he retires, but for now, that’s not a problem.