It was announced yesterday that, effective immediately, the captaincy of the Carolina Hurricanes would transfer from Rod Brind'Amour, he of the insane workout regimen, meandering nasal bone and owner of the NHL's worst +/- for two years running, to Thunder Bay wunderkind and multimillionaire Eric Staal. It's been a roller coaster of highs and lows for Brind'Amour over the last few years; he won his (and Carolina's) first Stanley Cup in 2006 and two consecutive Selke awards the following seasons before going on to tear his ACL and slip slowly into punchline territory as his production and icetime began to shrivel and diminish like George Costanza in a cold pool.
Staal, too, has seen ups and downs since his 100-point, Cup-winning sophomore campaign in '06. He's never again reached triple digit points (the closest he came was in '07-'08 with 82, averaging exactly one point per game as the Hurricanes were knocked from a playoff spot by Washington on the very last day of the regular season) and in '08-'09 was actually second in team scoring to Ray Whitney. On the other side of that coin, he did pop 15 points in 18 playoff games that season as the Hurricanes rocketed from bubble team to Eastern Conference finalists. His franchise-record consecutive start streak came to an end this year after starting in every game but one of his first five NHL years, and goes into tonight's game second in team scoring, again to Ray Whitney, with 33 points in 36 games (though to be fair, Whitney only has one more point in ten more games played). Staal's tendency to be dominant against crappy teams only to disappear against powerhouse teams has been well documented and discussed all over the internet; here is a good example, and here is a rebuttal to it. Scroll down this very blog, and you'll see an example of an angry 'Canes fan bitching about Staal's performance this season and its inconsistency with the amount of money he's getting paid.
Right this second though, that's neither here nor there. The Hurricanes organization has made the decision that, moving forward, the basement-dwelling team they ice is Staal's to command, and his game tonight showed that they might just be on to something. Staal had his best goal output of the season with a hat trick, and the 'Canes were 3 for 3 on the power play (something that just a day ago would have seemed impossible for a team that's been dismal on the man advantage this year). For the moment at least, it seems Carolina is in good hands.
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