Jones, Hall embracing pressure of playing in Eastern Conference Final

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Think about where Seth Jones and Taylor Hall were less than six months ago, how they were feeling, the hockey they were playing as teammates with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Think about where they are now, the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and how far-fetched that must have seemed to them back in January.

"It's been a whirlwind the last few months for sure," Jones, the Florida Panthers defenseman, said before a 5-0 win against Hall and the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center on Thursday.

Jones and Hall might have been at their lowest point this season in the immediate aftermath of the Discover NHL Winter Classic on Dec. 31, having skated through a demoralizing 6-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues in front of 40,933 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Jones used the word "embarrassed" to describe what he and the Blackhawks were feeling at the time. Hall said he was "shocked" at how the Blackhawks played, that they laid an egg, and that it was a wakeup call for how hard they have to play to even have a chance to win.

It was an almost hopeless feeling for a couple of veteran players, Hall at 33 years old and Jones at 30, each with more than 850 NHL games played, who to that point never had come close to the Stanley Cup, never even making out it out of the second round of the playoffs.

"Just where we were, being at the bottom of the standings, being on a team, an organization where the pressure to win wasn't really there overall, to where we are now," Hall said, "speaking for him, I'm sure he's excited and so am I."

Where they are now is the Eastern Conference Final, Hall with the Hurricanes since being traded there by the Blackhawks on Jan. 24, and Jones with the Panthers since he was traded there March 1.

Where they are now makes the hard times they went through with the rebuilding Blackhawks feel like a distant memory.

Florida leads the best-of-7 series 2-0 going into Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

"I'm extremely happy that I've gotten this opportunity and that this franchise and this group believed in me," Jones said. "I wasn't playing probably the greatest hockey in Chicago, but I'm glad I came here and have the supporting group around me. Just trying to keep it simple and play defense first. I think I'm in a pretty good spot."

Hall has enjoyed his time in Carolina so much that he signed a three-year, $9.5 million contract ($3.17 million average annual value) on April 30 to stay with the Hurricanes.

"It's been a really good journey for me as a Carolina Hurricane," he said. "To be where we are now, it's just another step in that journey. It's been a lot of fun."

Panthers coach Paul Maurice can offer perspective on what Jones and Hall are going through now, the lows they lived through in Chicago and the highs they're enjoying now with the Panthers and Hurricanes, respectively.

"I spent about 18 years coaching those teams," Maurice said.

It actually was 19 seasons.

Maurice's teams made the playoffs five times in 19 seasons from 1995-96, when he started with the Hartford Whalers, to 2016-17, his fourth season with the Winnipeg Jets. Once during that stretch, in 2002, he got the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup Final. In 2009 they went to the Eastern Conference Final. The other three trips ended in first-round eliminations.

He was fired three times during that span and even coached one season in Russia (2012-13).

"I know what it's like to be on the other side of that," he said. "The team is not great. You know you're not winning, the chances of you making the playoffs are thin. You also are trying to set a standard in that room where you're grinding guys. They're going to do the right thing, they're going to play hard, but they know they're not [winning]."

That's exactly what Jones and Hall were feeling with the Blackhawks.

"And they're not 22 anymore, so the clock is ticking," Maurice said. "They've probably made enough money. They're not worried about that. That's not a driver for them, financial security. That day has passed."

Organizationally, what Hall and Jones were after as veteran players and what the Blackhawks were and still are trying to do didn't align.

They want to win now. The Blackhawks want to build so they can win in the future.

"At some point it becomes no fun," Maurice said. "They come in fired up and they want to do the right thing and they're going to play hard every night, but the losing takes its toll, especially on your top-end guys."

Maurice told the story of when he had Brendan Shanahan in Hartford entering the 1996-97 season. The Whalers were losing and the franchise's future in Hartford was in doubt. The next season it was relocated to Carolina and the Hurricanes were born.

Shanahan, who scored 44 goals with the Whalers in 1995-96, requested a trade before the 1996-97 season. He had made the playoffs seven times during his first eight NHL seasons before being traded to the Whalers in 1995. He didn't see that happening in Hartford.

"He said the thing he missed the most is there's no big games in Hartford," Maurice said. "Like, there's no night you're going, 'OK, we're playing this team and it's a rivalry' and so on. He's coming out of St. Louis and you think of Detroit and Chicago and all those games where, yeah, there's 82, but there's 10 on your calendar that you're thinking about a week in advance. When you get into that rebuild and you're 10-12 points out and you know you're not making the playoffs, it can be really hard on those guys."

That's why it was exhilarating for Hall on Jan. 24 and Jones on March 1. The Blackhawks gave them their reprieve.

"They get that fresh start," Maurice said. "Both those guys get to walk into a room and the camera is not on them all the time because there are other players carrying the mail too."

So here they are in the Eastern Conference Final, the furthest each has gone in his NHL career, Jones and Hall battling against each other, knowing the winner will earn the chance to compete for the Stanley Cup.

The loser surely will be disheartened and deflated, but maybe in a weird way also satisfied, because he will have gotten the chance to feel the pressure of playing in big games that matter once again.

"It's nice to come to the rink and, you know, just play winning hockey," Jones said.