Hurricanes center Logan Stankoven shares his outlook for the playoffs as the Hurricanes get ready to take on the Ottawa Senators
We just got to focus on getting to our game as quick as possible and then being consistent with it. What do you think of a player like Tim Stutzlow? Obviously a lot of people look at Ottawa and Brady Kuck gets a lot of the headlines, but Tim Stutzlow plays on the top line and as a top line center for that. Yeah, he’s, I mean, it’s fun to watch. Obviously we’re going to have to do a good job of shutting him down, but just the speed and skill and even last regular season game when we played them, like he had an incredible goal and just the pure speed. He brings and his skill and jam, um, player we’re gonna have to watch out for and try and make it hard on him. I remember you talked about before the season making the move to the middle and talking about goals that you had. How do you, when you look back, I know you’ve got things to worry about in the postseason, but as far as the regular season goes, when you look at the goals you set for yourself and know where you ended up, I was pretty happy with how things finished. I think after the break I was pleased with how my game, uh, finished and how I played down the stretch. There were some times there where I had a little bit of some droughts and Puck wasn’t going in, so. Didn’t think I was going to get to where I wanted to be, but I felt like my last chunk of games there down the stretch was where I wanted to be, and now it’s about just keeping keeping that up and doing it consistently now. What about faceoffs? I remember we talked about, if I can get over 50%, I’ll be happy. Maybe not for the whole season, but as things came down the stretch here, it seems like you’ve gained confidence there. Yeah, I think just trying to get in there. Still just kind of just trying to listen to what Rod has to say. Um, I think, yeah, just being more confident and, uh, getting into the dot more, being a smaller guy. So, um, yeah, I think everything resets, all the stats reset for playoffs. So try and, uh, you know, get, get around 50% or above would be unbelievable. So that’s what we’re trying to aim for. Is there a different feeling. the whole year this time as opposed to last year, even though this year was still an adjustment from what you were doing on the ice. Yeah, it has. I just feel a lot more comfortable with the systems and how we play, and I feel like the way we play is so predictable and, uh, it’s just easy, I guess for me it’s easy to go in there and just, uh, you know, play the way I can and, and, uh, within our, our kind of team systems that we have and it’s just like I said, it’s predictable, so it makes it easy. As you go through the playoff games and, and most everybody fails, right? Yeah, there’s only one team and then do those lessons or scars or whatever you wanna call them, do they end up helping you? Yeah, I think it makes you more mature and uh sometimes you got to be patient. Um, it’s, it’s a race to 4 wins, so obviously you want to get off on the right foot, but uh you can’t get, you know, too overconfident or too down on yourself because things can change within minutes of the series. So I think just being more mature in our game and then um yeah, hopefully have a great start that’s going to be key for us. What do you think the biggest challenges Adi presents to you? Um, I think their, their depth within their scoring and then, uh, I feel like their defense is gonna really solid. Um, I think those are going to be the two main things. Do you relish, you know, there’s some guys on that team led by Brady who really like to get after it physically like a lot. Do you relish that kind of gig? Yeah, I think it’s great. Uh, I think, uh. When guys are kind of in your face or playing physical, um, at least for me I feel like that’s when I’m most involved in the game and gets you into the game quick. So, yeah, obviously being a smaller guy you got to be ready for it, but I’m not afraid to go into the corners or go to the front of the net. I think that’s where you can find some goals. Great, thank you.
