They Said It: Brind’Amour, Svechnikov, Necas on the bounce back win

The Carolina Hurricanes got themselves back into the win column with a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks Saturday afternoon at PNC Arena.

Martin Necas, Andrei Svechnikov and Vincent Trochcek all had multi-point games and Frederik Andersen turned away 30 shots in the win.

After the game, Rod Brind’Amour along with Svechnikov and Necas spoke with the media via Zoom. Here’s what they had to say:

Rod Brind’Amour

On the best part of the game: The win. Actually, you know what? Maybe it wasn’t the best part, but you know what I really liked? During the national anthem, when the young girl had a little problem with the Canadian national anthem, the whole crowd helped her out and finished it. I was like, ‘That’s impressive.’ Good job to the people that were here. I don’t know if this gets out to them, but that set the tone for the day to me.

On Jordan Staal and his line setting the tone early with physical shifts: Jordan’s obviously a leader. We knew we had to have a bounce back game, bounce back effort. We weren’t happy with the game before and those guys set the tone right away on how we wanted to play. That’s the way we need to play, but it’s not an easy game to play. 82 of these in the regular season and to play like that is hard. I thought they set the tone and it was definitely something we needed.

On the Vincent Trocheck, Martin Necas and Andrei Svechnikov line: That’s what should happen with the talent and kind of players that they are. There’s three parts to a player and you can’t just be flash. You have to have the grit and grind in your game because that’s hockey. It’s just so hard. I thought they brought it, but you’re not going to have those kinds of results every night, but if we want to be successful as a group and those guys want to be players, that’s how they’ve got to play.

On bouncing back: You don’t want to play good and still lose a couple here. I just felt too that this was the first time were we played a couple in a row and you could see it was a much better rhythm and flow even thought we took a ton of penalties. I thought the guys were engaged and just kept to our game. There wasn’t really any lulls in how we played. That’s how we need to play.

On the penalty kill: There’s a ton of factors, but I think at the end of the day, the guys are taking pride in how they go about their business. It’s hard work. Essentially to me, the penalty kill is hard work. You have a structure obviously, but those guys have to go out there and bring it. And obviously your best penalty killer is your goalie and Freddie was good again tonight.

On Joey Keane getting into a game: We’re obviously down a guy, so we wanted to make sure we had another guy and just thought we should give Joey a chance. I thought he got better as the game went on. Obviously a tough first period, but I thought as the game progressed, he got better.

Andrei Svechnikov

On setting a physical tone: We were excited because it had been a while for us since we had a good start to a game. I was focusing on that for my first shift and I tried to find a hit to get myself going. It was great.

On getting a bounce back win: It was very nice. It had been two games we lost and we need a win. I thought the effort was there and that’s why there was success tonight.

On the penalty kill: It’s huge. Our guys are one the best in the league and it’s huge. Everyone is blocking shots and helping out Freddie save pucks and it’s a great effort by our guys for sure.

On what he liked better today than the last game: Like I said, it was a great start by our guys and we just played a physical game. We were moving the puck up and down pretty well and we were beating those guys on the rush pretty well. That why there was success today, I think.

Martin Necas

On the connection between his line: Not just us three, but it’s gotta be with the D as well. We have to play together to forecheck the puck and just play hard. If we play hard than we get some chances to show our skill and it pays off. We need to keep doing that.

On Frederik Andersen: He always keeps us in it. Maybe we were a little bit of a better team today, but they still had a few really good chances and it’s really hard for a goalie to stop those and he made some huge saves today. It’s great that we have not just him, but every goalie that’s stepped in our net. He’s been great this season and it’s nice that we can trust him as well. He’s been unbelievable.

On the secret to the penalty kill: I feel it’s just the pressure and knowing when you can go. And it’s if one goes, we all go. It’s just hard to play against. Even trying to play against it on the power play in practice, it’s pretty hard to score against. It’s just the way we do it and as you can see, it’s been successful.

On what the mindset was coming into the game: Just thinking of the fans and how almost every night is a full rink and they see us lose 6-0. It’s not a good time, so we couldn’t let it happen two games in a row. Maybe it can happen once a year — we don’t want it to happen once a year — but if it happens, don’t make it twice.