Staal hopes to end 17-year chase for Stanley Cup as Hurricanes captain

MONTREAL -- Jordan Staal still gets asked by his teammates about what it was like when he won the Stanley Cup.

"And, he's like, 'Man, that was a long time ago,' " Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said.

It was 17 years ago when Staal was a 20-year-old third-line center playing behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin when he won the Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009.

No player in NHL history has had a longer gap between Stanley Cup championships than Chris Chelios, who went 16 years between winning with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986 and the Detroit Red Wings in 2002.

So Staal, a 37-year-old third-line center with the Hurricanes, is chasing history as much as he is chasing another Stanley Cup championship this year.

He has never been closer to winning it again than he is now, five wins away as the Hurricanes hold a 3-1 lead on the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Final heading into Game 5 at Lenovo Center on Friday (8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Staal scored his second goal of the postseason in Carolina's 4-0 win at Bell Centre on Wednesday. He has five points (two goals, three assists) in 12 playoff games for Carolina, which is 11-1 this postseason.

"You can ask anyone, you're always chasing it, obviously, but when you win it you want to do it again," Staal said. "There's no better feeling. There's no better camaraderie. There's no better ride. There's no better accomplishment as a group of guys than finishing it off and winning your last game. It's something I've been chasing and I want it really bad for this group for how hard it's been and how much we've gone through."

Staal has been through it all in Carolina, but before he got there, he had a feeling in Pittsburgh he could be a part of a perennial contender for the next decade-plus, that winning in 2009 was the first of many times he'd get to bring the Stanley Cup home to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

His older brother, Eric Staal, got it first, winning the Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006. Then Jordan in 2009. A Cup day in Thunder Bay every three years sounded about right.

"It's not like we took it for granted as young guys to win, it's just that you didn't really know any different," Eric Staal said. "You didn't know he was going to play another 17 years and not have another crack at a Final."

Jordan said he didn't expect to keep winning, but it kind of felt like it would happen.

"Obviously, it's been quiet ever since," he said. "So it's been a long grind."

Evidenced by the third Staal brother, Marc, who reached the Cup Final twice in a 17-year NHL career, but never won it.

After Carolina acquired Jordan Staal in a trade with Pittsburgh on June 22, 2012, the Hurricanes missed the playoffs in each of his first six seasons with them. Meanwhile, the Penguins, with Crosby and Malkin, won the Cup twice, in 2016 and again in 2017. 

Attendance in Raleigh suffered. Losing was a part of the culture.

Eric, Carolina's long-time captain and a big reason why Jordan signed a 10-year, $60 million contract on July 1, 2012 before ever playing a game with them, was traded to the New York Rangers late in the 2015-16 season.

Dreary days indeed.

"I, for sure, wish we were better and a juggernaut like they are now, but that just wasn't in the cards at the time and that's not how the team was at that moment," Eric Staal said. "But I wouldn't change anything. It was a tremendous experience to be able to play together."

And as Jordan reflects on those days, before and after his brother's departure, he said it makes the journey, the potential he sees in this year's team and the possibilities that await them even sweeter.

"There's so much piled up into one," Staal said. "Obviously, the ups and downs here, all I've personally gone through in this organization, seeing my brother go, just struggling, and battling back and finding ways to be competitive again and having chances, I couldn't write it up better myself. I'm glad I stuck through it, kept grinding and I am able to be here now."

He's not the only one.

Eric is watching from afar and marveling at what his brother is still doing in Carolina.

"I'm just super pumped and thrilled that they are where they are now knowing what we went through those years, him slugging away and him sticking with it after I was gone, just building," he said. "I left and he stayed and he kind of took the reins from the bottom up. It's his team. He's the captain. He's the leader."

Staal's ability to consistently grind through the struggles, and now in the better days since Rod Brind'Amour took over as coach in 2018 are at the heart of the respect and admiration from those around him.

"Well, you're kind of touching on the thing I think that makes him so special," Brind'Amour said. "It's 17 years ago he won and there hasn't been a day that he hasn't shown up here that he hasn't played to win. He never cheats a day. He's not always going to be great, but he comes every day like he wants to win something. That could be in a preseason game. He just does his job. 

"Now his job is to try to win something very, very special, but it doesn't change anything with the way he goes about his business. I think that's the most special thing about him, that consistency over time. Anybody can do it for a short time, but can you answer the bell night in and night out, day in and day out, year in and year out? That's what he's been able to do."

Staal was named the Hurricanes captain before the 2019-20 season. Spend any time in their dressing room and it's obvious it is Staal's room, he runs it, he's the boss and his voice carries the most weight.

"In all the big moments, he's out there," forward Seth Jarvis said. "Just a real calming presence for us, someone that I think a lot of the young guys lean on and look up to as someone that the moment's never too big for him. 

"He enjoys the experience. He enjoys the little things. That's why he's played so long and that's what keeps him motivated. I think it's just the little things in life and in the game, and moments like this, where you can go on another Cup run and just enjoy it with your teammates."

And his family. 

Staal didn't have one when he won the Cup as a single bachelor in 2009. He's been married to his wife, Heather, since 2012 (ironically, his wedding day was the day he got traded to Carolina). They have three kids between the ages of 6 and 11. 

They also sometimes ask him questions about what it was like to win the Stanley Cup. Doing it with Heather and the kids by his side is the dream.

"Exactly, and that's the main reason I'm still here, a hundred percent," Staal said. "I don't know if my kids really realize how much fun and how much excitement it will be. … It's bigger than just coming to the game and coming into the room after a win, seeing the guys excited throughout the season. For them to go through a parade, something like that, it would be something cool to experience with them and that's another main reason I'm still kicking."

That and the chance to finish a job he started in Carolina nearly 14 years ago and to stop getting questions about what it was like to win the Stanley Cup, and instead earn the right, 17 years later, to talk about what it is like.

"He's obviously had a phenomenal career, he has won, he's been a top player for a really long time," Eric Staal said. 

"I mean, he could call it and be totally satisfied and content from the outside, but knowing him, knowing his personality, knowing what he's put into the whole process there in Carolina, kind of building from pretty down in the bottom to where they are now, you just want to see it through."