“Everything I think the world should be, everything I think about the way people should act, the way people should treat other people, the way they should lead, this man does it.”
Tom Dundon obviously felt conviction in that statement when he introduced Rod Brind’Amour as the Hurricanes’ next head coach in 2018. But even he might have had a hard time imagining just how true his words would ring a little over three years later.
As the Hurricanes prepare to open their first round series against the Nashville Predators as division champions for the first time since 2006, there are a number of reasons the team has gone from perennial afterthoughts to bona fide Stanley Cup contenders in just three seasons.