Former Hurricanes captain back in the post-season after long seven-year wait

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – It had been a long wait for Eric Staal.

Nearly seven years, in fact, between playoff appearances for the player who long ago captured the Stanley Cup as a 20-year-old wunderkind for the Carolina Hurricanes. Staal last suited up in the post-season way back in May 2009 prior to his Game 1 appearance with the New York Rangers last Wednesday night.

The 31-year-old said he got goosebumps immediately upon his return, thrilled to once again soak in the energy and atmosphere of post-season hockey. He absorbed the raucous crowd at Consol Energy Center, the intensity that came with each and every moment of his first playoff game in so long.

“Those are moments you want to have every single year,” Staal said. “For me it had been a while.”

Staal was dealt to New York from the only NHL team he’d ever known in Carolina back in February. He was gaining not only the opportunity to play alongside one of his brothers, in this case Marc, just two years his junior, but another crack at the post-season as well.

It had been some time and Staal certainly missed it.

“It’s everything,” he said in describing his favourite aspects of playoff hockey. “Every seat’s filled and everybody’s excited. Every moment matters, not that it doesn’t in regular season, but it’s a different feeling, it’s a different vibe and different energy for everybody in the building and everybody that’s watching.

“Those are moments you want to be apart of and you want to play and you want to be out there.”

A native of Thunder Bay, Ont., Staal got used to watching playoff hockey from his couch. The Hurricanes missed the post-season in the six seasons that followed the 2009 run to the Eastern Conference final, finally opting to rebuild under general manager Ron Francis in recent years.

That led to the early exit of the long-time captain of the franchise, his contract expiring at season’s end.

Staal tracked the playoffs closely every spring. He’d watch the highlights, peruse the box scores and keenly keep an eye on all the happenings of the hockey he was rarely a part of.

He paid particular attention to his brother’s Rangers squad, which went the Stanley Cup final in 2014 and Eastern Conference final last year.

“It was honestly more and more frustrating and tough every season because of that, because you know what it is,” Staal said. “I’ve been there. I’ve won. I know the feelings and when you’re constantly missing it, it can wear on you. And it’s tough watching other guys and other teams and guys that you know well and guys you compete against all season long getting to enjoy it and you’re watching it, it’s tough.”

Staal isn’t the same player who ripped apart the 2006 playoffs with 28 points in 25 games for the Hurricanes Cup-winning team. Nor is he the same guy who scored 10 goals in 18 games during the ’09 run, when the Hurricanes were eliminated, oddly enough, by Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.

Staal scored in only two of his 20 regular season games with the Rangers, empty on the scoresheet in the first two games of the opening round series with Pittsburgh. But the second NHL team he’s ever played for say he’s added a dose of needed veteran experience.

“I think he’s right where we need him to be,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said of the of the six-foot-four, 200-plus pounder. “Very vocal being a former captain. (He’s) got the right leadership to help out our group.”

“I think he’s fit in nicely,” added Vigneault. “I knew it was going to take some time, but that big body in abest-of-seven series can wear down the opposition and that’s what we hope is going to continue to happen here.”