The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Rangers 7-3 Saturday evening at Lenovo Center, officially knocking the Rangers out of postseason contention.
The Canes had a dominant first two periods and managed to weather the Rangers' final push to get the win and snap a four-game losing streak.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with William Carrier, Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On getting contributions up and down the lineup: That's what has to happen. I think Will, for being out as long as he has, was pretty impactful. I also thought our top line was really good. But everyone had a hand in it.
On if there's any satisfaction in eliminating the Rangers from postseason contention: Eh, not necessarily. We're focused on us. Not really too concerned about other teams right now.
On Logan Stankoven: He could of had a lot more [goals]. That line was good, as usual, but he contributed equally and probably could of had a few more. He's been a nice addition to our group.
On the goaltender interference challenge: I'll explain it to you. This is how I'm looking at it: Our goalie is at the top of the crease. Set. Getting ready for whatever comes his way. Their player pushes our player into the goalie, clearly because he ended up in the crease. Not just our player, but their player went in. A little contact, just a little, but watch where [Kochetkov] ends up. He ends up from the top of the crease to two feet back in the net and then he doesn't even a second to come out and the puck goes in the net. So by the letter of the law, that's an easy goaltender interference, from my end. They're going to have their explanation, but this is why [the challenge] needs to go away. Just take it out of our hands. That's all we're asking and every coach is asking. You see it over and over. It's hard. So why put it in our hands? You guys make the call and then we can live with whatever, but the penalty is too much because then the game is different, the stakes are different. It's an easy challenge on my end, but when you're not sure, and nobody really is... I just explained it to you and you say, 'Yeah, that's 100% goalie interference,' and is that not what happened? I'm asking you, what did you see? [I nodded my head in agreement] Is that not exactly what happened to the second of it. So that's the problem with this whole thing. It's tough.
On if there's any recourse the team can take: No. We might get an explanation, I don't know, but not then and certainly not after. The refs, it's not their call. It goes up. We'll get it all figured out, I know they will, because they have this great system up there with better looks than we have, but the way I just detailed it to you is how I've been described it, so that should be an easy one. But clearly it's not. Because it wasn't.
On it being too subjective of a rule: Obviously. Because how I just explained it like that, but obviously we're gonna get a different explanation. So I don't know.
On getting Pyotr Kochetkov back in the win column: He was good. Early, I don't know if had a ton of work, but then there were a few and that's the difference. You could see when they got ...
