Brind’Amour’s pregame messages carry meaning, motivation for Hurricanes

LAS VEGAS -- Rod Brind’Amour, it seems, speaks almost as well as he played during an outstanding 20-season career in the NHL.

That’s the scouting report from members of the Carolina Hurricanes when asked about the oratory skills of their coach.

“I don’t know if you can call him a philosopher, but every pregame speech you think it is going to be the same, but it’s always something different,” defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said. “It’s not the same old cliché where you are like, ‘Yeah, we get it Coach, we’re going to play hard.’

“It can be something different. A story, something he thought of that morning on his run. It seems genuine. He gets those messages through and it is pretty unique to have a coach that can do that.”

Brind’Amour will be put to the test Sunday when the Hurricanes play the biggest game of Brind’Amour’s eight-year tenure as their head coach. Carolina has a chance to win the Stanley Cup with a victory against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, CBC, TVAS).

Win and they fly home with the Cup, which Brind’Amour won as a player with the Hurricanes in 2006. Lose and they fly home facing a make-or-break Game 7 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

Nobody knows what Brind’Amour will say in the dressing room in the minutes before the players storm onto the ice to a cascade of boos and worse.

Brind’Amour probably doesn’t know yet, either. Like all good orators, he pulls inspiration from everywhere, working in the past, the present and the future as needed.

But rest assured, it will involve the Cup that was won in 2006. It was the pinnacle of his hockey career, a moment so joyous he has been chasing that dragon since.

It might also involve the two Stanley Cup Final series he lost, disappointments he would like to forget, but can’t fully excise. He’s gone to that well in the past.

“He says he had three chances to win the Cup,” defenseman Jaccob Slavin said at Stanley Cup Final Media Day. “He doesn’t remember the two that he lost, but he remembers the one that he won and he talks about creating memories. We have an opportunity here to create awesome memories for all of us inside that room.”

It all has gravitas because Brind’Amour did what he is asking his players to do. He played through pain, suffered through back-to-backs, blocked shots and shed blood for the crest on the front of his sweater. He wore the "C" and led others in the dressing room and on the ice.

Brind'Amour had 1,184 points (452 goals, 732 assists) in 1,484 regular-season games. He played 159 postseason games, pushing his body further than it wanted to go each night, and had 111 points (51 goals, 60 assists).

“He says that a lot. ‘I’ve been where you guys are and I’ve been on the other side and I know what this is and I want you guys to figure this out immediately and not later on and have regrets like I did,’” Gostisbehere said. “It’s like listening to your elders.”

Brind’Amour said he has taken motivational tricks from all his coaches at the NHL level, although Peter Laviolette, his coach on the Cup-winning team, stands out.

But it was Barry MacKenzie, his coach when he was an impressionable teenager playing at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, who made the biggest difference.

“That guy did the most for me,” Brind’Amour said Saturday. “That one guy, the way he did it, that is how I try to go about my business.”

Whatever speech he delivers, it will have an impact. The players have no doubt.

“He’s a great motivator and he puts in time to do what he does,” captain Jordan Staal said. “He’s played before, so he understands the feel of a team; looking across the room and looking in everyone’s eyes and understanding they need to bring it and (that) you need to bring it for them. I think he understands that.

“The motivation to run through the wall is there for him.”

It’s not just Staal.

Defenseman Alexander Nikishin is in his second season with the Hurricanes. He is still learning English, but he is riveted, saying sometimes with past teams, he would tune out. Not with Brind’Amour. When he thinks he missed something important in translation, he seeks out teammate Andrei Svechnikov for clarification.

“I like every time he speaks,” Nikishin said. “It’s good motivation.”

Defenseman Jalen Chatfield copped to clapping too early or bouncing his legs because he is so fired up by the speeches Brind’Amour delivers.

“I have never had a coach be able to say what he says,” Chatfield said. “It just shows his leadership. Bar none, he is one of the best to pull on that jersey and lead and he transitioned that to coaching.”