‘It’s very surreal for us’: Staal brothers bring sibling rivalry to Panthers-Hurricanes

There might not be one legendary game they all still talk about, but the rink where the Staal brothers grew up playing in Canada certainly is.

It started out humbly enough: Henry Staal, the patriarch of the family, flooded a small patch of mud next to the driveway at his home in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and let it freeze. The Staal family proving ground was born.

The makeshift rink evolved through the years with floodlights to let the boys play at all hours and chicken wire to keep the pucks from bouncing into the neighbor’s yard, but it would have been legendary even without any of those ingenious additions. After all, how many rinks have a 100 percent success rate of producing NHL players, let alone have all four of its products set to play a role in a single series in the NHL Eastern Conference finals when the Florida Panthers face the Carolina Hurricanes?

“Outdoor rink was hugely important to us finding love and joy in the game,” six-time All-Star forward Eric Staal said. “We weren’t out there to be sitting in this moment, but us being out there has probably put us in this moment.”

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On one side are Staal and defenseman Marc Staal, hoping to help the Panthers to their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1996. On the other is Hurricanes center Jordan Staal, who’s Carolina’s captain and trying to lead the Hurricanes to their first appearance in the Cup Finals since they won their only Stanley Cup in 2006. Off on the side is Jared Staal, now part of the Florida organization as an assistant coach for AHL Charlotte.

Nowhere to be seen, they said, will be their parents. Linda Staal and her husband can’t bear to be there to watch any of their sons end up unhappy.

“They’re going to hide out,” Jordan Staal said.

Eric Staal sees it differently. The Panthers have a 3-1 advantage in the Staal department.

The connections in this series are plentiful.

Eric Staal was Carolina’s captain from 2010 to 2016, and actually succeeded Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour in the role after they were teammates for more than five years and led Carolina to the Cup in 2006.

Eight Finnish players dot the two rosters, including the first-line center for each team.

Coach Paul Maurice was the first coach in the history of the Hurricanes, with the franchise when the Whalers moved from Connecticut to North Carolina, and spent time ahead of Game 1 on Thursday reminiscing on those ramshackle early days before the Hurricanes finally settled at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, after playing two years in nearby Greensboro.

The Staal factor is right in the middle of the action, though.

Eric Staal is the oldest at 38 and centers the fourth line, averaging 10 minutes, 23 seconds of ice time per game in the first two rounds of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs. Marc Staal is next at 36 and played 20:46 per game in Rounds 1 and 2 as the partner of star defenseman Brandon Montour. Jordan Staal is the youngster of the bunch at 34 and entered the Eastern Conference finals tied for third on the Hurricanes with eight points in 16:09 per game their third-line center.

Even Jared Staal, the youngest at 32, has his fingerprints on the East finals, as players he spent the regular season working with are now in South Florida for the Cup playoffs.

Eric, Marc and Jordan Staal are the only trio of brothers to all play in the same postseason since 1992, and they have never all played in the same series.

“It’s not lost on us, it’s extremely cool,” Marc Staal said. “It’s very surreal for us to be in this position at the stages of our career, to play against each other and compete with each other.”

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It is a little bit of a reversal from their youth. Back then, Eric and Jared Staal — the oldest and youngest — were usually teammates, facing off against Marc and Jordan Staal in their 2-on-2 hockey games. Eric and Marc Staal, though, shared a bedroom, across the hall from their younger brothers’ shared room.

Unsurprisingly, those hockey games could get heated and so would basketball games, video games and card games. Now, so do old-man activities like fishing, golf and darts.

Those stages all pale comparison to this one. At least one brother will get to play for a championship next month and at least one will grudgingly be rooting on a sibling — or three — from home.

No matter what happens, they will get past it. They always do.

“There’d be some fists being thrown by the end of it, half the time. My mom kept it really regulated and made sure we didn’t get out of hand completely,” said Jordan Staal, who wasn’t part of Carolina’s lone title team. “It really just ingrained competitiveness in us and really made it fun, as well. It helped, obviously, in the long for us, just how to approach big moments like this.”

Teravainen, Lomberg return for ECF

Both the Panthers and Hurricanes were as close to full strength as possible for the start of the Conference Finals on Thursday.

For Carolina, it was a huge boost. Star winger Teuvo Teravainen was able to return to the lineup after missing all of the second round with a fractured left hand. The only Hurricane missing for Round 3 is Carolina left wing Andrei Svechnikov, who’s out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

For Florida, Ryan Lomberg is available, adding a bit more depth to its lineup. The left wing is a fourth-line option and missed all of Round 2 with an unspecified injury. The only Panther missing for the ECF is right wing Patric Hornqvist, who’s out for the season with a concussion.