WRAL Sports Fan

Hurricanes

Brind'Amour out at least two games, headed back to Raleigh

By Tim Hall

Feb 5, 2009

Wednesday Carolina Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour was headed back to Raleigh and not to San Jose with his team, finishing his road trip.  After yesterday's team practice in Vancouver coach Paul Maurice classified Brind'Amour as having a "nagging lower body issue."

Hurricanes TV voice John Forslund told Mike Maniscalco on 99.9 The Fan that coach Maurice ruled out that the injury has anything to do with the captain's knee.

The captain had reconstructive surgery on his left knee in February and another surgery on the knee in September to remove cartilage.

Brind'Amour lost 11 out of 14 face-offs in Tuesday night's loss at Vancouver, a reason Forslund believes the groin might be the issue.

"Usually when a player has a problem with that area of the body they don't have a lot of strength, they don't have the foundation they need to dig in and be as strong as Rod is in the face-off circle," Forslund said.  "Usually he out muscles the other guy and that's how he wins so many draws, it wasn't happening Tuesday night."

The Hurricanes recalled Jakub Petruzalek from Albany to fill the open spot on the roster.

Forslund also fully expects Michael Leighton to start in goal tonight against the first place Sharks.  That would end Cam Ward's streak of 17 straight starts.

"The time had to come at some point,  you can't just sit and wait, and then the final push is going to be on for Cam," Forslund said.  "I would bet that Cam virtually plays every game from this point forward."