They Said It: Rod Brind’Amour, Derek Stepan, and Sebastian Aho on Hurricanes win against the Kings

The Carolina Hurricanes went into Staples Center and managed to escape with a 5-4 win on Saturday, but it very easily could have gone the other way thanks to lackluster play for large chunks of the game.

Rod Brind’Amour, Derek Stepan, and Sebastian Aho spoke to the media after the game and shared their thoughts on an up and down game against the Kings.

Rod Brind’Amour

On the Canes’ start: I thought it was okay. At the end of the day, that was just a bad game for us. Like, really bad. Give the other team credit. They played hard and the way they wanted to play. We didn’t. We’re fortunate to get that one.

On Frederik Andersen: He had a great third. That was the difference in the game. He held us in. We were just doing nothing. Just surviving. That’s where a good goalie, he got us two points by his play in the third period. We’ll move on. You’re happy to get two points in a game like that because we were not the better team.

On Seth Jarvis after his ninth game and what he thinks will happen with him: They haven’t talked to me about it, but it’s pretty clear what’s gonna happen. I could have told you that eight or nine games ago, but they love the drama.

On the team’s defensive play: We weren’t good. When everyone’s not good, it’s hard to find. I mean, we had a couple of our defenseman who were really good, but the rest of the group, in general, was off. When you’re a little off, it’s going to look like it did. We couldn’t get any sustained pressure on them and we were chasing around a lot in our end. That’s it, in a nutshell.

On who stood out: Well, your usual suspects are always good. They’re logging lots of minutes and playing heavy. They were the ones getting pucks out in crucial times. We rely on our top d quite a bit and they came through tonight. I thought Tony was good, too. I thought, defensively, he was battling. He was engaged, but I don’t think our forward group was very good.

Derek Stepan

On getting back into the lineup: It was good. Obviously, when you’re out, all you want to do is try to get in and contribute and be a part of it. Once you’re in it, it’s all about compete. It was good.

On the back and forth nature of the game: I don’t think we were at our highest level, but our goaltender, who hasn’t dipped at all this year, stood tall for us and we get two points from it. Throughout the season, you’re going to have games like this where you maybe don’t have your A-stuff, but Freddie was able to bail us out and that’s what good teams do. We have some work to do to get this thing going in the right direction, but Freddie was big for us. We got two points and we move on.

On if this kind of game surprises the players: I don’t really know why it happens or for what reason, but sometimes it just happens and you’re in it and you really can’t grab a hold of it. It’s just the way it’s going to be for the evening and you need to have someone step up and make some big plays and we scored a big-time goal to take the lead and our goaltender who — to no surprise — was our best player again tonight, stood tall. It was the difference.

Sebastian Aho

On growing chemistry with Seth Jarvis: It’s a lot of fun. He’s a good kid. He can really skate and is a smart player. It’s fun to play with him and I just try to find him and, obviously, he can score.

On winning despite the team having an off night: I think it’s always a good thing when you can win at the same time where you know you could’ve played better. You try and learn from the mistakes, but we got two points and that’s the main thing here. We know we have to play a little bit better and with the little details out there and be more careful. Other than that, it’s a big win.

On Frederik Andersen: It’s what Freddie does. It probably wasn’t the easiest game for him either because they had quite a few chances and goals there too, but in the third, he was huge for us and gave us a chance to win. That’s all you can ask for from a goalie.