Yahoo Sports Brendan Lemieux, Felix Unger Sorum, Bradly Nadeau, Rod Brind'Amour on Hurricane Helene Support, Preseason Loss
The Carolina Hurricanes lost 6-4 to the Nashville Predators Wednesday night at Lenovo Center in the fourth pre-season game of the year.
While Carolina was icing mostly a prospect-based roster, Nashville brought the big guns to town and it showed on the ice.
However, the biggest storyline from the night was the fact that the Hurricanes raised nearly $300,000 for Hurricane Helene relief efforts.
— Ryan Henkel (@RyanHenkel_) October 3, 2024
After the game, Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Felix Unger Sorum, Bradly Nadeau and Brendan Lemieux spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the money raised: Obviously that's the most important thing coming out of tonight. I think just everybody coming together... anything can help. What's going on down there... this is just having fun. They're dealing with real stuff so anything we can do to help is great.
On standouts: I think just overall, as a group, it was a tough start. But you still saw a lot of resiliency in some guys. Could have went the other way. We battled hard all night, we were just overmatched clearly. I think we hung in there and you take the small positives. There were a few guys that definitely hung in there a lot better than others and showed well.
On takeaways from the game: I don't need to get into it. I gotta rewatch the game. There was one team that was clearly better than the others so it's hard to really get a good feel for it. But we did some good things and I think we ended up winning the second and the third overall. So you take the small positives that we didn't fold. It could have easily gone the other way and I gotta give Yaniv [Perets] credit. Tough couple of goals to start the game is not the way you want to start the game, but he battled back and made some nice saves the rest of the way.
On the penalty kill: Yeah, that's a positive. They didn't score on the power play, right? They probably had their looks, but I appreciate you bringing that up. That's a good one. They were what, 0-for-5? 0-for-4? That's definitely a positive.
On Charles-Alexis Leagult's fight: Listen, that kid, since he's shown up here, he's tried to prove himself and show that he belongs and he's doing a nice job.
On Felix Unger Sorum: He's fearless. He's just a kid still and learning a new position and all that. He's just right here, right now and I think there's still a lot of room for growth when he gets stronger naturally and figures out the game a little bit, because he's still asking a lot of questions and he should. We're excited about him.
On his willingness to go into board battles: He's competitive. I don't know how many board battles he's winning out there against those guys, but it's not from a lack of effort. Like I said, once he gets a little more strength and just understanding the game a little better he's going to be a really good player.
On if it's hard to assess the game in a mismatch like it was: Yes and no. A few of the goals we scored were direct on doing it exactly the way we needed to get it done and a few of their goals were exactly not. A couple of turnovers in the neutral zone when we had full possession of the puck and when you're playing a real NHL team, they're just going to make you pay and that's basically what happened in the first period. Take a couple of those off the board and that game's maybe a little different. I don't think the outcome would have been much different, but it would have looked a little different.
On his message to the guys after the first period: You just have to start over. We're not making that up. So let's just try to win the next period. We tied the next one and then I think we ended up winning the third, so it was just trying to focus on doing your next shift and trying to be the best you can. Like I said, considering we were smoked in the first period, we regrouped fairly well.
Felix Unger Sorum
On his goal: Of course it was fun scoring a goal. It was nice getting that first goal there, but we lost, so it is what it is.
On how he feels the transition to center has been going: I'm just trying to learn as much as I can. It's new for me, but I'm just trying to make the best of it and just take tips from everybody and everything. It's been fun so far.
On playing against what was essentially a real NHL team: It was really fun. I was really excited before the game. It was really cool. It was fun.
On how he felt the team did: It was a tough first period, but we won the second and third period, so that was good. I thought we fought well out there, but we lost so...
On if he felt he learned anything from going against a veteran NHL lineup: I don't know actually. I haven't really thought about it yet. Just got off the ice, but of course you learn all the time on the ice and especially now when I'm new to center. So I'm just trying to learn every day and try to watch a lot of players and how they do their game and try to take tips.
On how he feels he's come along in the faceoff dot: I don't know if I was good, but I've been practicing after practices. It's something really new to me. I've barely never done it since I was 13, 14 years old so I'm trying to get a lot of tips from a lot of players here. I'm working on it every day.
On how he feels camp has gone: It's been okay. It's a new role for me like I said and I'm trying to learn every day. Just go out and play my game but still trying to play mature and make the right decisions. Not to cheat as the last guy and stuff like that.
On what the biggest adjustments have been: It's a lot of board game. A lot of battle in the boards compared to Sweden, so that's really new for me. A lot of dump-ins and rims. I'm trying to learn that.
Bradly Nadeau
On the game: I think it was a hard battle. Obviously they had most of their lineup in and we had a lot of younger guys, but I think we battled hard the last two periods and I think we played more like how we can play. We didn't win the game, but I think there's a lot of positives.
On facing some big name players: We were obviously playing against players you watch growing up, and I think it's fun to get to do it, but obviously you're playing against them so you have to play hard. You can't be friends with them on the ice.
On how training camp has been going: I think it's been pretty good to just get out there. Every player has just been working hard and getting a couple of games in and trying to show what you can do and I think it's been pretty good.
On how he felt he's performed: I think I've been giving my 100% every time I'm on and off the ice. Working hard. Obviously sometimes you get some bounces and sometimes you don't. If you give your all, you can't complain after with whatever the results are. We'll see what happens after camp.
On the biggest eye opener: Obviously, they know where to go. If you make one mistake, it's probably going to end up in the back of the net, so whenever you're out there, all the small details are important and making sure you stick with your guy and don't let them make plays.
Brendan Lemieux
On the affect of Hurricane Helene: My mom's from Vilas just outside of Boone and our family is from there, my grandpa and my grandma are buried there and we feel for all the people in Vilas and the surrounding areas. Western Carolina has just been hit so hard. Frankly I just don't think that there's been enough attention around it and it's sad because I was just on the phone with a friend today and they were talking about how there's still people missing and there's still hundreds of unaccounted for people that are presumed dead and you barely hear about it and it's mind blowing to me that in our country, something like this can happen and obviously I understand how remote and how hard it is to access for people to help, but it's scary and it's something that we can all come together for whatever side of the aisle you're on and get behind supporting these people that are in dire need of help. So I'm looking forward to my first chance to get out there and help. I've been praying for these people. My family was very lucky to be safe, but just the videos we got from on our own porch, it's scary. I've never seen anything like that around a hurricane with that magnitude of flooding. It's very scary.
On the game: It was a great night for a lot of the guys. It was a tough challenge for these guys to play against a veteran team, but it's exactly what they need. It was good for me too. I enjoyed playing with these guys and they got to showcase a lot of their skills. The future is bright here in Raleigh. A lot of great players coming up and I was happy to be a part of the game. It was fun and I'm looking forward to building on it. For me, there was some stuff I need to clean up and for our group, I think there's still some stuff we need to clean up, but we're looking forward to getting it going here.
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