Flyers Alumni Rod Brind'Amour Leads Hurricanes

RALEIGH - Leadership is usually a subjective quality -- one of those hard-to-quantify auras determined by inspiration. But in the case of Carolina Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour, it actually can be measured:

* More than 24 minutes of ice time per game during the playoffs, tops on the team and third among NHL centers.

* Five postseason power-play goals, tied for first in the league.

* Thirteen points -- including a team-leading eight goals -- in 16 playoff games.

None of those 16 has been as important as tonight will be, with the Canes taking on the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals with a trip to the Stanley Cup finals on the line.

Up 3-2, the Canes need to win one of the next two games against Buffalo to play for the Cup for the second time in four seasons, with the Edmonton Oilers waiting for a winner to emerge from this series.

As always, they will be following the lead of their captain.

"Whether you see him at 8 o'clock in the morning and he's tired, or it's 11 o'clock after a game, or any moment between -- he's still the same guy doing the same thing -- leading by example," teammate Aaron Ward said. "And you know that he's going to set a level or a bar for the players to perform to, and he's going to achieve it irrespective of what anyone else is doing -- and he expects you to do the same thing."

There likely won't be any screaming or cajoling from the 35-year-old from British Columbia, either on the ice or behind the scenes. Rallying speeches are short and rare in his repertoire, left only for key moments, such as when the Canes trailed Montreal 2-0 in the first-round series.

Instead, you'll see him inspiring his teammates by whipping his game-worn body around the ice, bouncing opponents off the boards, muscling in the faceoff circle and preparing to score game-tying goals, if necessary -- such as his one in Game 3 against the Canadiens, which sent the game to overtime and eventually kept Carolina from falling behind 3-0 in the series.

Or his one Sunday night at RBC Center against the Sabres, which knotted the score 3-3 and led to an overtime victory that helped keep the Canes from falling a game back in the conference finals.

"I think [leadership] means a steadying force,'' said Brind'Amour, who took over the captain's 'C' from franchise legend Ron Francis. "I think it means a way to lead other people, do the right things. I don't think it's being over the top; I think that's overdone. I think you just be who you are and you hopefully make people better around you. That's really in a nutshell what you are trying to do."

Brind'Amour, a gym rat himself, said his leadership style was most influenced by longtime Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, whom he teamed with during the 1996 World Cup and the 1998 Olympics on Team Canada.

Impressed by Yzerman's off-the-ice work ethic -- "There were a lot of great, quality players there but they weren't working like he was," Brind'Amour said -- the young center latched on to his would-be mentor, submersing himself in a new passion for the game.

"He's always enjoyed every minute,'' said Brind'Amour, who served as an alternate captain when he played for the Philadelphia Flyers. "And I think I was never really enjoying the ride; I was so caught up in trying to win, and trying to do the right thing, that you miss out on enjoying the ride. And [he taught me] to try to have some fun with it. ... That's something you have to do. And this year, I've especially tried to do that."

While playing big minutes, winning big faceoffs, scoring big goals -- and helping it all carry over to his teammates.

Which is the point.

"They see it in work ethic and what is said and demeanor," Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said. "You can't cheat that. You can't lie about that. That always seems to come through, that character part of the leadership.

"Plus, he's been one of our top players, as well. I think that helps."