Rod Brind’Amour knows a thing or two about how Jordan Staal is feeling. Now the Carolina Hurricanes’ coach, Brind’Amour was their captain when they won the Stanley Cup two decades ago, and now Staal wears the “C.”Before the final against Vegas started, Brind’Amour was clear about one thing.“We’re not here today without Jordan Staal,” he said. “I can promise you that. We’re very lucky. And as a coach, you’re super fortunate to have a guy like that be your leader.”Staal led the Hurricanes to the second championship in franchise history by being the two-way shutdown center and faceoff ace he has been his entire NHL career. By elevating his game and leading them in goals with six in the final against the Golden Knights in addition to all those things, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.At 37, Staal is the oldest player to win the honor.“He’s always really good, but yeah, he’s stepped it up at such a pivotal time,” teammate Seth Jarvis said. “It’s incredible to watch, and it’s so much fun playing with him and being around him.”Staal is the longest-tenured player in the organization. He joined in 2012 in a trade from Pittsburgh on his wedding day, and after winning the Cup with the Penguins in ’09, his first half-dozen years with the Hurricanes passed without a postseason appearance.“I don’t want to say that the losing that he had to do for four, five years when he got here might have fueled him even more, but I think it did,” fellow veteran Jordan Martinook said. “The fact that he’s seen some pretty dark days here and then to be on the other side of it … he stuck through it the whole time.”The past seven seasons, Staal and the Hurricanes made the playoffs but failed to reach the final. He became captain in the mid …
