Jordan Staal is just now settling into summer mode in his hometown of Thunder Bay.<\/p>\n
But the captain of the reigning Stanley Cup champions admits it\u2019s still hard to fathom what exactly happened during a magical spring run to hockey\u2019s holy grail.<\/p>\n
Staal, the Carolina Hurricanes star and Conn Smythe playoff MVP, was a guest on an episode of the Netflix podcast, Spittlin\u2019 Chiclets, on Tuesday. Speaking candidly with hosts and former NHLers-turned-media personalities Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonnette and Keith Yandle, Staal covered a variety of topics from the Hurricanes\u2019 playoff success, family, his future in hockey and his impending Day with the Cup in Thunder Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot into Thunder Bay (last week),\u201d said Staal, who along with his brothers own lakefront property outside the city. \u201cJust a place to turn my mind off.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has been laying low so far, only venturing out to local ice rinks with older brother Eric and his sons who are budding hockey players.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old Jordan Staal turned back the clock and then some as the Hurricanes finally got over the hump to reach the NHL final where they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in six games.<\/p>\n
Staal scored at least one goal in the first five games of the championship series \u2014 matching a record set by Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice (Rocket) Richard.<\/p>\n
Staal finished with six goals and one assist in the final (eight goals, four assists in 19 playoff games overall) while maintaining his role as Carolina\u2019s top defensive forward and face-off ace. It all culminated with the Conn Smythe trophy going to a Thunder Bay NHLer for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings were clicking. I was feeling it. It was an incredible ride,\u201d Staal told the podcast. \u201cI would never have dreamed of anything like that. . . . It still hasn\u2019t sunk in. I\u2019m sitting at the lake and getting it to sink in and I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staal said the recent shortcomings the Hurricanes experience in the playoffs had potential to be a distraction. Entering the 2026 postseason, Carolina had been swept out of the Eastern Conference finals in two of the previous three seasons by the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n
However, the Hurricanes kept building \u2014 kept improving by only adding pieces to a solid core that included Staal, Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jacob Slavin, Jaden Chatfield, Seth Jarvis, Jordan Martinook and Frederik Andersen.<\/p>\n
Notable additions that helped put them over the top were Taylor Hall, Nikolaj Ehlers, Logan Stankoven and minor-league goaltender Brandon Bussi, who took over for an injured Andersen midway through the championship series.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone wants a quick fix at it, which I get, but what I went through just gives me chills. The whole journey was incredible,\u201d Staal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were ups and downs. There are ups and downs in everyone\u2019s life. I learned so much about myself and my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Hurricanes overcame the conference final barrier by defeating the Canadiens in five games, Staal and Co. fell behind 2-1 against Vegas after a furious rally in Game 3 that fell short with a 5-4 double-overtime loss. Carolina responded with three wins a row, including the series-capper in Las Vegas on June 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were kicking ourselves down four (goals in Game 3). We did have momentum. They had incredible bounce and we had incredible bounce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a moment in any run where you feel you might lose it all. And we had that. We came back. That Game 4 (with Staal scoring two goals) was incredible and then we took over that series. We were the better team from then on out and more consistent in what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the date for Staal\u2019s Day with the Cup in Thunder Bay hasn\u2019t been finalized, Staal is anticipating a busy day with friends, family and fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Cup day, I\u2019m excited for,\u201d said Staal, who brought the Cup home in 2009 as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. \u201cI\u2019m excited to share it with them. My cousins, they all have kids. I have 40 cousins and they each have four kids. . . . Hopefully we have a massive bash with all of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019d love to share it with Thunder Bay,\u201d he added. \u201cLove the city, love the people. I\u2019d love to do something with them and then take it out to the lake and do something smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staal, who will turn 38 years old during his 21st NHL training camp in September, knows the end of his career is getting closer. He has one more year remaining on his existing deal with the Hurricanes. But Staal \u2014 who has already suited up for 1,401 regular season games and 181 playoff contests \u2014 isn\u2019t ruling out the idea of prolonging the run beyond 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hurt but I feel fine at times. There\u2019s definitely times where you\u2019re thinking \u2018What am I doing?\u2019 You\u2019ve got game 52 and it\u2019s a back-to-back. You barely wake up for the bus for the game,\u201d Staal said with a laugh. \u201cFor the most part my body feels great. My mind, I\u2019m having so much fun. This team is so incredible. Raleigh is home, but now my kids call it home. . . . I\u2019m on a team that can win every year. You can\u2019t picture it at the end being any better. Enjoying the grind and I appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordan Staal is just now settling into summer mode in his hometown of Thunder Bay. But the captain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[1363,1360,29,15708,5364,5,6,1284,285,1355,1357,4,60,1366,1354,1361,14,104,718,54098,1353,1356],"class_list":["post-625930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl-playoffs","category-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-american-ice-hockey-trophies-and-awards","tag-canadian-ice-hockey-trophies-and-awards","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-champions","tag-conn-smythe","tag-hockey","tag-ice-hockey","tag-jordan-staal","tag-national-hockey-league","tag-national-hockey-league-teams","tag-national-hockey-league-trophies-and-awards","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-playoffs","tag-north-american-sports-trophies-and-awards","tag-seasons-in-american-ice-hockey","tag-seasons-in-canadian-ice-hockey","tag-stanley-cup","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl","tag-thunder-bay","tag-top-level-sports-leagues","tag-top-tier-ice-hockey-leagues"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625930","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=625930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}