After the Carolina Hurricanes let another game go in the last few seconds of overtime last night it feels like the Hurricanes season is dwindling down. The Hurricanes earned themselves a point on the road in overtime in Denver, but the Hurricanes are still in last place in the Eastern Conference with 51 points. The Hurricanes need roughly, at the least 90 points to make the playoffs...

There are high expectations for captain Eric Staal, and that won't change just because of a coaching change. The Hurricanes are intent on seeing more production out of the big center. That's where the coaching change comes in because an established former All-Star player such as Kirk Muller might be the remedy that Staal needs. How demanding Muller becomes in regard to Staal remains...

Jaroslav Spacek scored in his return to Montreal and the Carolina Hurricanes snapped the Canadiens' four-game winning streak with a 5-3 victory on Monday night. It was the first time that Kirk Muller - who played in Montreal for four seasons and was an assistant coach there for five - coached against the Canadiens. Captain Eric Staal scored twice for the for the Hurricanes...

Whether it's the new coach or the new year, something has gotten into Eric Staal. Since Dec. 29 -- incidentally, two days after his brother Marc Staal was cleared for contact after suffering a concussion at the hands of Eric -- he has been on a scoring rampage with 16 points in 13 games. Some fans were booing his every shift but after the dismal start it seems that Staal is...

Eric Staal used to be one of the elite goal-scoring centers in the game. He has scored 38 or more goals three times in his career.Carolina still pays him like a star, with a contract running through 2015 with an annual salary cap hit of $8.25 million.He ranks among the biggest NHL disappointments of this season, with just 20 points scored in 38 games and a minus-22 rating. He has...

Carolina Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford is sorting through his roster, deciding which players are part of his nucleus and which ones are not.Center Eric Staal and goaltender Cam Ward clearly are keepers. Rutherford decided defenseman Tim Gleason belonged in the nucleus, too, so he negotiated a four-year, $16 million extension with him.Now Rutherford wants to work a similar...

In the midst of a frustrating season in which little of what Eric Staal tried has worked, the Carolina captain leaned on his younger brother for advice after the Hurricanes faced Jordan Staal and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. Employing an aggressive approach, Eric Staal scored two goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, including the winner 3:09 into overtime...

Eric Staal used to be one of the elite goal-scoring centers in the game. He has scored 38 or more goals three times in his career.Carolina still pays him like a star, with a contract running through 2015 with an annual salary cap hit of $8.25 million.He ranks among the biggest NHL disappointments of this season, with just 20 points scored in 38 games and a minus-22 rating. He has...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Eric Staal scored a power-play goal 3:09 into overtime to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-3 comeback win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night. Staal had two goals and an assist, and Zac Dalpe and Brandon Sutter also scored for the Hurricanes. Cam Ward made 21 saves for Carolina, which rallied from a two-goal deficit. It was the Hurricanes'...

The Hurricanes captain has not been having a good season at all and he's fallen under harsh scrutiny from the most of the fanbase, myself included. With only four goals and eight points in 20 games played, everyone is wondering where the spark is from Eric Staal this season and if he's beginning to decline as a player. While I can agree that Staal's start to the year...

During the second intermission Wednesday night in Montreal, frustration boiled over for Carolina Hurricanes forward Eric Staal who was seen “throwing a goalie stick” into the locker room area and also seen “storming out of the locker room” on two occasions until being chased down into a separate room and being cooled down by coach Paul Maurice, TSN reported...

Eric Staal has the 673rd best plus/minus rating in the NHL. In other words he's off to an awful start. Staal is a -14 and has been held to only 5 points so far after 13 games this season. The former 100 point player and the Hurricanes captain is in a huge slump. A week ago Friday, Staal took a stick to his face and suffered a chipped tooth and a cut on his nose. The stick came close...

Sometimes a coaching change will jar a team to the Next Level of play, as we saw when Ken Hitchcock took the helm of the Blues.And sometimes change doesn’t help a bit. We saw this in Carolina, where newcomer Kirk Muller lost his first three games as coach. We saw this in Washington, too, where the Capitals lost three of their first four games under Dale Hunter. There is no magic...

Ryan O'Reilly scored on a slap shot with 1.2 seconds remaining in overtime and Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped a season-high 39 shots in the Colorado Avalanche's 4-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night. Gabriel Landeskog, Milan Hejduk and Paul Stastny also scored for Colorado. The Avalanche have won two in a row since snapping a five-game skid. The Hurricanes...

Carolina Hurricanes (18-25-9) vs. Boston Bruins (32-14-2) TD Garden, 7 p.m.TV: NHL-Network (US) If you told me at the beginning of the year that the only teams that the Hurricanes would be on the verge of sweeping the Boston Bruins then I wouldn't have believed you. Well, they are 3-0 against the Bruins this year and with a win tonight, they can make me look like a fool. Re...

Eric Staal scored a power-play goal 3:09 into overtime to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-3 comeback win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night. Staal had two goals and an assist, and Zac Dalpe and Brandon Sutter also scored for the Hurricanes. Cam Ward made 21 saves for Carolina, which rallied from a two-goal deficit. It was the Hurricanes' third straight home...

The New York Rangers currently sit in first place in the Eastern Conference with a tremendous 22-8-4 record through 34 games this season.  Making the record even more impressive is the number of injuries they have battled through on defense with the most significant being All-Star defender Marc Staal.  Staal has been sidelined for the entire season while he recovers from post-concussion...

Dan Rosen at NHL.com was able to speak to Eric Staal about the status of brother Marc who has been suffering from post concussion syndrome as a result of a hit by his older brother..."It's a process -- a slow process, but it's a process," Eric said. "He will be back. He's going to play again. His career in hockey isn't over. It's going to take some...

Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy has a great piece on whether the Rangers will be seeking retribution tonight against Eric Staal for his hit on brother Marc that has left the Rangers defenseman with a post concussion syndrome that has kept him from playing this season..."Had it been a dirtier hit — some, like Larry Brooks of the Post, still view it as "a mean, high, albeit not penalized...

BUFFALO (Dec. 16) - My old pal and radio colleague, Bill Watters, created some chatter this week when he suggested the Maple Leafs were interested in acquiring big centre Eric Staal from the Carolina Hurricanes, who pulled out of a 1-7-2 nosedive by upsetting Vancouver on Thursday night. By his own standards, Staal is having a terrible season (34-7-13-20 and a ghastly minus-18),...

Carolina Hurricanes (20-25-10) at Colorado Avalanche (27-25-3)Pepsi Center, 9 p.m.TV: FS-Carolinas, Altitude The Hurricanes have faced the Western Conference only 10 times this year and have a middling record of 4-4-2 against those teams. Out of who they have faced in the Western Conference, the division they have had the most success against it he Northwest as they are 2-1-0 against...

On Sunday night, most of the reports coming out of Philadelphia stated that Marc Staal would not be making his season debut in the 2012 Winter Classic. Those reports came despite Staal practicing on Sunday next to Dan Girardi on the Rangers’ top defensive unit. That apparently was mostly due to Ryan McDonagh being out with the flu, but the two would swap prior to gametime. Staal...

Raleigh, NC -- The Carolina Hurricanes have been hanging on, but it's unlikely the team can keep it up much longer without Eric Staal getting more involved on the scorer's sheet. Staal's frustration poured out on the ice during a 5-1 loss at home to the Washington Capitals on Friday night, resulting in a few scrums and a penalty. It didn't result in a goal or even an assist, and...

Eric Staal scored 3:09 into overtime to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-3 comeback win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

As well as the New York Rangers have been playing of late, one of the bigger storylines for them this season has been the absence of defenseman Marc Staal from the lineup. Staal has yet to play in a game this season as he’s still dealing with symptoms from a concussion sustained when he took a hit from his older brother, Eric Staal, last season. With the Winter Classic...