Staal's season of hope and heartbreak
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 | 3:33 PM ET
Joe O'Connor, of National Post for CBC Sports
Eric Staal's private life entered the public realm when the Hurricanes revealed he would be taking an 'indefinite leave' to attend his sister-in-law's funeral. (Paul Bereswill/Getty Images) Take a good hard look at Eric Staal, and even then, it is impossible to guess what he is really thinking. Sure, his mouth is moving, and there are words coming out: about battling injuries, a season where everything that can has gone wrong for Carolina, and playing for Canada at the Olympics next month.
Staal will talk about that stuff. Every hockey player does. They do all the time. But what Staal is really thinking about, what really matters to him — beyond the wins and losses — is a mystery to the general manager who knows him better than most.
"He is a real private guy, real quiet," says Jim Rutherford, the longtime Hurricanes boss, who drafted Staal second overall in 2003. "Not that he holds back on things when it has to be said about the team … But about himself, personally, he is a real quiet guy."
Quiet and polite, the kind of hockey player who says "pardon me" to a reporter when he does not quite catch the question.
For a few days last week, Staal's private life did enter the public realm when the Hurricanes revealed he would be taking an "indefinite leave" of absence from the club — which lasted a week — to attend his 26-year-old sister-in-law's funeral in Thunder Bay, Ont. Tamara Stephenson died of cancer.
For a quiet hockey player who keeps his injuries to himself, her death was deeply personal.
"He was carrying a pretty heavy load there, with his wife's sister being sick and passing away," Rutherford says.
"He has dealt with a lot this year." In his hockey life, Staal tweaked a groin at the Olympic summer evaluation camp. It was slow to heal in training camp, and it was clearly hampering him once the games began to count.
Ironman streak ends
Staal's slow start had some questioning whether the Staal brother bound for Vancouver would be Pittsburgh's Jordan rather than Eric. (Larry MacDougal/Canadian Press) When he further sustained an upper body injury at the beginning of November, the ironman streak Staal started as a rookie in 2005-06 ended after 349 games.
"It was no fun," says Staal, who had three goals and five points in 13 contests before missing three weeks. "I hadn't been in that situation in my career yet. Missing 10 games in a row was difficult."
Staal's slow start, coupled with the nagging injuries, had some questioning whether the Staal brother bound for Vancouver would be Pittsburgh's Jordan rather than Eric. But the younger sibling did not get the call from Steve Yzerman, while the older brother never panicked, right up until the moment he got his.
"I had a good feeling," Staal says. "I like to think I have played well over the last couple years, and been in some big situations and played well and performed. I know they look at that."
Rutherford is proud of his impenetrably private franchise player. He deserved the Olympic nod. He needed a good and happy bit of news in a season full of painfully hard ones.
"I think, no matter what our situation was or is this year, I would have been looking forward to the opportunity," Staal says. "It is the Olympic games, with the best athletes in the world, and I am going to be a part of that.
"It is going to be fun."
