Carolina Hurricanes’ television play-by-play announcer John Forslund said that there were not just a \u201cfew things wrong\u201d with the Triangle-based professional hockey team but \u201cmany things that will take some time to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to a crowd of approximately 180 people at the Raleigh Sports Club Wednesday, Forslund said while it says a lot for the organization\u2019s loyalty to \u201cstaying in the family,\u201d a \u201cmuch needed change\u2019 in leadership was needed. <\/p>\n
\u201cJim Rutherford needed to go outside the organization to get some fresh new ideas,\u201d stated Forslund. “They will get that from new head coach, Kirk Muller. He will bring fresh, new energy to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forslund spent time discussing the Hurricane\u2019s defense in front of goalie Cam Ward noting that the dismal plus-minus ratio was indicative of the Hurricane\u2019s poor play in the defensive zone. He indicated that while management was looking at trading for a forward it was his belief that the Hurricanes should be looking to upgrade it defensive presence.<\/p>\n
Forslund also indicated it was a huge mistake for the Hurricane\u2019s General Manager Jim Rutherford not to pursue in retaining Eric Cole in the offseason. Cole is now playing with the Montreal Canadians. <\/p>\n
\u201cI do not believe he is worth the money he signed for,” Forslund emphasized. \u201cBut I do think he took the pressure off Eric Staal. That is contributing to Eric\u2019s struggles offensively. Rutherford would admit that there are some personnel decisions he made in the offseason that he wishes he could take back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forslund also indicated that fans will see assistant coach and former Hurricanes forward, Rod Brind’Amour behind the bench assisting the team going forward. Brind’Amour has been coaching the Hurricane\u2019s \u201cTriple A Pee Wees\u201d but management has been wanting to see him spending more time coaching on the bench during the games. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat expectation (Brind’Amour behind the bench coaching) has always been there but with the addition of Muller and the struggles of the Hurricanes in winning games, the expectation is there more than ever, Forslund stated. <\/p>\n
Raleigh Sports Club meetings are held most Wednesdays at Highland United Methodist Church in Raleigh. The meetings are from noon until 1 pm; however, the Southern Buffet line opens at 11:30 am. For more information on the club, including upcoming speakers, please visit www.raleighsportsclub.org.<\/p>\n
– By Greg Pierce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carolina Hurricanes’ television play-by-play announcer John Forslund said that there were not just a \u201cfew things wrong\u201d with the Triangle-based professional hockey team but \u201cmany…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-uncategorized","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2941,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions\/2941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}