Francis: Eric Staal must be Canes' hardest-working guy
/The Carolina Hurricanes’ web site outlines how captain Eric Staal changed his diet and offseason training routine. While a core muscle injury and surgery to fix it has slowed down those workouts, Staal’s recovery is going well.
Fresh perspectives may be the key to Staal turning his game around overall though. Between his own summer tweaks, Ron Francis now sitting in the GM’s chair, and the Canes having brought in new ideas with Bill Peters as the head coach – Staal should be in a good position to benefit from change.
Francis, for one, knows what he wants from his leader.
“The one thing you want from your captain is you want him to be your hardest-working guy. He’s got to be in on the forecheck, he’s got to backcheck and he’s got to compete and battle hard in every shift on every night,” Francis said. “The leadership of the team in the locker room doesn’t necessarily come from one guy. It comes from a lot of different areas. I know when I was captain, I leaned on a lot of guys. Roddy was the same way.
“The simplest thing for him to do is just go out and put the effort in and everything else will sort of take care of itself.”