{"id":418975,"date":"2026-01-21T02:13:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T02:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/418975\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T02:13:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T02:13:26","slug":"carolina-hurricanes-postgame-bites-brindamour-on-svechnikov-more-the-hockey-writers-carolina-hurricanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/418975\/","title":{"rendered":"Carolina Hurricanes Postgame Bites: Brind’Amour on Svechnikov & More – The Hockey Writers – Carolina Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Buffalo Sabres 2-1<\/a> on Monday, Jan. 19, which moved them to 31-15-4 on the season. It was their third consecutive victory, which turned into the Brandon Bussi Show. After making what could be the save of the year on Tage Thompson, he was the main topic of discussion in the locker room, on TNT, and on social media. Following the game, Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour<\/a> was asked about Bussi and the game overall.<\/p>\n

During the postgame press conference, The Hockey Writers spoke with the head coach about Andrei Svechnikov<\/a> and how the coaching staff gets the team prepared on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n

Brind\u2019Amour on Svechnikov Being Productive<\/p>\n

When asked about Svechnikov, regarding him scoring five goals and tallying seven points<\/a> in the last three games, Brind\u2019Amour stated, \u201cIf he\u2019s on the top line, he\u2019s got to score. I mean, at the end of the day, that\u2019s what has to happen. Those guys have to connect. I didn\u2019t love the penalty at the end, it wasn\u2019t much of a penalty, but certainly it put us in a jammer there, but we need him to be impactful, and he was certainly tonight.\u201d The penalty in question was his roughing call in the third period to negate a possible Hurricanes power play after a delayed tripping call on the Sabres. Svechnikov finished his check before the whistle but was still given a penalty on the play, making it four on four with 2:39 left in the game.<\/p>\n

Through 50 games this season, Svechnikov has 17 goals and 42 points. He is currently three goals and assists, along with six points, away from tying his numbers from the 2024-25 season, and is currently on pace to tally between 55 and 65 points this season. The last time he had 55 points was in 2022-23, where he played in 64 games before tearing his ACL. The last time he had a 60-plus point season was 2021-22, when he finished with a career high 69.<\/p>\n

\"AndreiCarolina Hurricanes right wing Andrei Svechnikov celebrates his goal against the Vancouver Canucks (James Guillory-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

If Svechnikov hadn\u2019t had a slow start to the season, when he did not tally a point in the first eight games, he could already have 50 points. The run he has been on is what the Hurricanes need, especially in the playoffs. Brind\u2019Amour has stated in the past that they need Svechnikov to score goals and be productive overall. Right now, even with his slow start, this is the power-forward version of Svechnikov they\u2019ve needed since the injury.<\/p>\n

Related: 3 Takeaways From Hurricanes\u2019 2-1 Win Over Sabres<\/a><\/p>\n

Last season, Svechnikov was a minus-8 with an 11.1 shooting percentage (S%) in 72 games. This season, he is a plus-1 with a 12.3 S% in 50 games. If he can maintain his current pace, there is no reason he cannot reach 30 goals for the first time since 2021-22 and second time in his career. He\u2019s already three away from 20, and has 32 more games to score 13. Are we on \u201cSvech for 30\u201d watch?<\/p>\n

Preparing Players Every Night<\/p>\n

The second question THW asked was about how Brind\u2019Amour and his staff are able to get everyone prepared night in and night out, especially considering the injuries they have dealt with all season, especially on the blue line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I have the best staff in the league in terms of preparing guys,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s never really been a question in any game we\u2019ve ever played. So I appreciate that. With our group, I think we have great leadership that helps to drag us in. The Groundhog Days that are going on here, you just have to find a way to perform at your best every night. That\u2019s what good players, good teams, elite teams do, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

It goes to show how much preparation goes into getting these guys ready with three games in four days and two sets of back-to-backs in the same week. The Hurricanes are 31-15-4 on the season with 66 points, and seven points clear of second-place New York Islanders, who have one game in hand. While they have played three more games and sit two points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Hurricanes are the number-one seed in the Eastern Conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Hurricanes\u2019 Brandon Bussi Has Been a Lifeline in the Crease<\/a><\/p>\n

Furthermore, they are second in the NHL points-wise behind the league-leading Colorado Avalanche (76). The fact the Hurricanes sit second in the NHL in points, even with all the injuries they had to deal with between October and December, is astounding. They did not have Jaccob Slavin for 40 games this season; his first stint of being out was 34 games. The Hurricanes had to deal with that, along with not having Shayne Gostisbehere, Jalen Chatfield, Seth Jarvis, and Charles Alexis Legault in different parts of the season. The Hurricanes, as a whole, just kept plugging and playing guys throughout the lineup and have been successful at it.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes are a team to be reckoned with as we get closer to the Winter Olympic break. It\u2019ll be interesting to see what the Hurricanes do ahead of the 2026 Trade Deadline to get better. However, no matter how it plays out and who they bring in, this Hurricanes team could go on a run that could see them at least reach the Eastern Conference Final for the third time in four seasons.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Monday, Jan. 19, which moved them to 31-15-4 on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5107],"tags":[1742,194,29,5176,5,195,4,1535],"class_list":{"0":"post-418975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-hurricanes","8":"tag-andrei-svechnikov","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","11":"tag-carolinahurricanes","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-hurricanes","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-rod-brindamour"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115930674837506212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}