Hurricanes
Staal honored by teammates, writers
Published: 2012-04-05 12:48:00
Updated: 2012-04-05 14:40:27
Apr 5, 2012
The Carolina Hurricanes voted their captain, Eric Staal, the 2011-12 winner of the Steve Chiasson Award. The team honor goes to the player who "best exemplifies determination and dedication while proving to be an inspiration to his teammates through his performance and approach to the game."
Staal was also named team MVP Thursday, an award voted on by the Carolina chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Staal, 27, led all Carolina skaters this season with 24 goals, 45 assists and 69 points, and ranks 21st among all NHL players in scoring (through games of April 4).
The Thunder Bay, Ont., native notched his 250th NHL goal on March 30, making him just the third player to score 250 goals for the Carolina franchise, and the fastest to reach that mark, doing so in his 637th game.
Past winners of the Steve Chiasson Award include Ron Francis, Sean Hill, Kevyn Adams, Bret Hedican, Tim Gleason and Rod Brind’Amour, who won the award five times.
The Carolina Hurricanes will play their final home game of the 2011-12 season Thursday night, at PNC Arena against the Montreal Canadiens (7 p.m., FOX Sports Carolinas HD, 99.9 FM The Fan ESPN Radio).
Copyright 2013 Carolina Hurricanes. All rights reserved.
Most Recent Comments
RE: Staal honored by teammates, writers
I know that some people love to hate Staal right now, but you have to look at this year as if it was two different Staals. Staal #1 ended up at the very bottom of the NHL this year in the +/- stat, and was suffering from a painfully slow scoring start. Staal #2 showed up around the end of December(same time as Muller hmmmm...) and really motivated this team to kick it into gear for the final season push. His -17 is an amazing improvement over where he was in December.
Rod, as Staal is so often compared to, had two seasons back to back that were much worse than that for the +/-. 08-09 season was a -23 and 09-10 was a -29 and he is regarded as possibly the best Captain we ever had.
Yes, Staal had a horrendous start to this season, but I think we are going to see a lot more of Staal #2 next season. Let's hope he has an explosive beginning and still finishes strong, and a top shelf winger would be the perfect thing to make that happen. Staal has not had that this season.
- Posted by jazzmanjim
The difference being that Rod was at the end of his career when he put up those numbers. Staal is not. Brindy was a much better leader than Staal could ever hope to be.
I did not mean to imply that Staal is in any way, shape, or form better than Brindy. Brindy is probably my favorite player to ever wear the Carolina Red. I still have the picture of him lifting the cup as one of my wallpaper images.
I was just pointing out that Staal had a bad year. It was actually just a bad half of a year. I really think he will have a better beginning next year and will hopefully carry that all the way through. If you notice I also made a correlation to the addition of Muller to Staal's achievement for the second half of the season.
I actually also believe that Brindy's involvment has lead to Staal's improvment on the face-offs as well as leadership.
RE: Staal honored by teammates, writers
I know that some people love to hate Staal right now, but you have to look at this year as if it was two different Staals. Staal #1 ended up at the very bottom of the NHL this year in the +/- stat, and was suffering from a painfully slow scoring start. Staal #2 showed up around the end of December(same time as Muller hmmmm...) and really motivated this team to kick it into gear for the final season push. His -17 is an amazing improvement over where he was in December.
Rod, as Staal is so often compared to, had two seasons back to back that were much worse than that for the +/-. 08-09 season was a -23 and 09-10 was a -29 and he is regarded as possibly the best Captain we ever had.
Yes, Staal had a horrendous start to this season, but I think we are going to see a lot more of Staal #2 next season. Let's hope he has an explosive beginning and still finishes strong, and a top shelf winger would be the perfect thing to make that happen. Staal has not had that this season.
- Posted by jazzmanjim
The difference being that Rod was at the end of his career when he put up those numbers. Staal is not. Brindy was a much better leader than Staal could ever hope to be.
RE: Staal honored by teammates, writers
I know that some people love to hate Staal right now, but you have to look at this year as if it was two different Staals. Staal #1 ended up at the very bottom of the NHL this year in the +/- stat, and was suffering from a painfully slow scoring start. Staal #2 showed up around the end of December(same time as Muller hmmmm...) and really motivated this team to kick it into gear for the final season push. His -17 is an amazing improvement over where he was in December.
Rod, as Staal is so often compared to, had two seasons back to back that were much worse than that for the +/-. 08-09 season was a -23 and 09-10 was a -29 and he is regarded as possibly the best Captain we ever had.
Yes, Staal had a horrendous start to this season, but I think we are going to see a lot more of Staal #2 next season. Let's hope he has an explosive beginning and still finishes strong, and a top shelf winger would be the perfect thing to make that happen. Staal has not had that this season.
RE: Staal honored by teammates, writers
Well deserved honor.
RE: Staal honored by teammates, writers
This award was an honorable mention - Staal is not a Captain, he is/was a good 1st shift. IMHO the captain role is too much for him and needs to go to a leader that demonstrates true grit, leadership on and off the ice and in the locker room. -17 does not do it and his character does not appear to bring the team together. Trade him and start fresh, OR think real hard on the next long term contract.
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