Brind'Amour doubted Hurricanes' playoff chances before season

Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour admitted after Wednesday's Game 5 elimination in the conference final that he had serious doubts his team would even make the playoffs before the season began.

"It's the craziest thing that we're this far, and all we're hearing is negativity," Brind'Amour said, per WSJS' Josh Graham. "When I walked in this summer, with the pieces that left this organization, I was like, 'I don't think we're making playoffs.' I was that worried about it because it was such a mass exodus of good players to free agency.

"Then, we were able to find good players to fill in, and then I was like, 'I don't know if they're that good,' but they hung in there. I got nothing but pride with this group. We didn't love how this kinda went this series, but (the Florida Panthers are) the standard right there."

Forwards Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen, and Stefan Noesen, along with defenseman Brady Skjei, left the Hurricanes in free agency and signed with new teams for a combined cap hit over $24 million. Evgeny Kuznetsov also terminated his contract to return to the KHL.

Despite the turnover, Carolina made the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three years, ultimately losing 5-3 to the defending champion Florida Panthers in Game 5 after blowing a 2-0 lead.

Brind'Amour added that he sees similarities in the Hurricanes' and Panthers' playing style but noted Florida's edge in execution.

"How do you think they play?" said Brind'Amour when asked if Carolina needs to change their style, per TSN. "They're the standard now. I see out, in, forecheck hard, wait for your chance, try to capitalize. I mean, it's hard hockey.

"If anything, we gotta figure out how to get that much to our game. But that's the standard right there. I feel like that's been our game for a long time. They've kinda picked it up the last couple of years and made it that much better. So, that's what we gotta get."