Brind’Amour eager to lead ’Canes back to glory
RALEIGH, N.C. » Rod Brind’Amour helped deliver the greatest moment in Carolina Hurricanes’ history — a Stanley Cup championship.
His next challenge is to create more memorable moments as their coach.
The captain of the Hurricanes’ 2006 Cup-winning team has his first head coaching job in the NHL, taking the next step in a career arc that during the past 18 years has brought him from team leader all the way up the coaching ladder — and all with Carolina.
“It’s a job, but it’s not,” Brind’Amour said Wednesday. “It means more to me.”
The Hurricanes gave Brind’Amour a three-year contract, with team owner Tom Dundon declining to discuss the financial terms. But Dundon did praise Brind’Amour for his willingness to put his reputation on the line while trying to things around. Carolina hasn’t made the playoffs since 2009, a nine-year drought that ranks among the longest in NHL history.
“He didn’t need the job,” Dundon said. “He’s got a good life here, he’s well respected and the risk that he’s taking with his reputation and his legacy is real.”
The Hurricanes have changed coaches three times and general managers twice since their last postseason appearance.
Brind’Amour said Dundon and team president Don Waddell, who also added the title of general manager during the shake-up, have “high expectations, which is huge.
“For whatever reason, our expectations have fallen a little bit here, and we need to raise those,” he added.
He also wants to raise the effort level from the players, pledging to push them in much the same way he pushed his teammates during his time as team captain.
“We have a lot of guys in that room that need to times and fined three.
Now Marchand is thinking about cleaning up his act.
“After having a couple days kind of looking back on the year and seeing what’s happened the last few days I guess, with all the media and everything, I think the biggest thing for me now is to really take a pretty hard look in the mirror and realize the actions, some of the things that I’m doing, have much bigger consequences,” Marchand said during the Bruins’ breakup day.
“I think I’ve gotten my game into a pretty decent spot, but I got some character things and things that I’ve done that clearly need some fixing.”
give more,” he said. “I think there’s more there . ... They didn’t produce the way they could produce . ... We’re going to demand more from our players, at the end of the day, and I think they want that.”