Jordan Staal: Theres a ton of sacrifices you have to make to win the cup – Canes Country

Hockey is returning around the league for those teams taking part in the Return-to-Play plan. With Phase 3 starting, training camp has kicked off and players are eager to prepare for postseason hockey.

Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal knows what it takes to be successful in the playoffs and he is ready to help push his team over the edge in his first full year as a solo captain.

He spoke with the media over Zoom following Mondays practice. Here is some of the highlights of what he had to say.

On if it feels exciting for hockey to return: Everyone here is excited to get going. Just a lot of energy out there. The boys are excited to see each other again and it was good to see them, but its back on. Were back on the ice and were going to be fighting for a chance for the Cup. Its exciting times and you dont get this opportunity a whole lot.

On if team still has a lot of work to do to get ready: Were going to want to get our level of play to the highest level we can at practice. It isnt easy to do just in practice, so were going to have to push each other and wrap up as best we can to get to a playoff level. Everyone out there is not quite there yet, including myself, and were going to push as best we can.

On if it feels like a new season: Its got kind of the same feel as a new season. Im sure well be going over a lot of system stuff and the video and working on all that stuff throughout the practices. Not a lot of games or exhibition games either, so its going to feel a little bit like a training camp, but still in the back of your mind you know youre going to be stepping into a playoff game very quickly. Its gonna be a little more intense and were going to have to keep the level up the best we can these next two weeks.

On how this training camp feels: The only difference from this and normal training camp is theres no extra players out there. Theres no guys fighting for spots. We already got a team thats all ready to push each other and thats ready to go. We got guys that are hopefully going to step into their roles and hopefully understand that we have to push each other to get some wins together and get a streak going.

I think its a little different in the regard that we have our guys. We have our group ready to go and we just got to step right into it too. Theres no tip-toeing into exhibition games and hoping to have a good start to the season. Were definitely going to have some urgency and were going to have to have that throughout this week. Thats going to be on the players, thats going to be on myself and a lot of the guys in this room that theyre ready to go.

On if the teams playoff experience last year helps: It wont hurt. Experience always helps. Just understanding the importance of every shift and every play. You could feel that throughout the playoffs. Every time you start to realize that little mistakes, if they add up, can end up in the back of your net and I think the guys started to understand that and realize when to take risks when we needed to and when to be smarter with the puck and just understanding how to win games. I think our team learned a lot last year and we got another group that is hungry for another run and hungry for a cup so hopefully its a good recipe for success.

On the sacrifices he has to make in regards to family: Its... unfortunate. Theres a lot of people hurting throughout this whole pandemic and its a sacrifice Ill have to make. A difficult one. Im going to miss my boys first steps and his first birthday and stuff like that and stuff I want to be there for. But opportunities like this dont come often and the guys in that room want it just as much as I do, so Im here to win. Its part of the sacrifices we have to make and theres a ton of other sacrifices that you have to make to win cups and thats just one of them this year.