Williams: 'We're a Stanley Cup contender, and we know that'
ByMichael Smith @MSmithCanes / Hurricanes.com
When Justin Williams ended months of speculation and signed with the Carolina Hurricanes in January, his intent was clear: He was returning for another shot at winning the Stanley Cup.
"I'm focused right now on these next four," he paused, as he used his fingers to count off the months through June, "these next five months of my career."
An unforeseen global health crisis threw off his timeline estimate by four months, but no matter - Williams' end goal remains the same.
"I didn't come back just to play 20 games," he said in a video call on Tuesday. "I came back for a chance to win a Stanley Cup."
The NHL's 2019-20 regular season abruptly ended in early March when the COVID-19 pandemic forced sports leagues around the world to shut down. Now, the NHL is closing in on dropping the puck once more with the Hurricanes and 23 other teams returning to vie for the Cup.
The league and its Players' Association reached agreements in principle for Phase 3 (training camp) and Phase 4 (resumption of play) of the Return to Play Plan, as well as a four-year extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
All that's left in order to make summer hockey and extended labor peace a reality is to dot the I's and cross the T's, with formal ratification needed from both the NHL Board of Governors and the PA membership.
Training camps are now slated to open on Monday, July 13, and Stanley Cup Qualifiers will begin on Saturday, Aug. 1, a new play-in wrinkle in an otherwise familiar tournament that aims to award the Stanley Cup by early October.
"This isn't just going out and playing some exhibition games. This is legit. This is for it all. This is what you play for," Williams said. "It's a unique circumstance, obviously, but at the end of the day, you're going to get your name on the Stanley Cup, and no one will be able to take that away from you."
Williams and a growing number of Canes players have been participating in voluntary skates (Phase 2) since June 30, as the start of training camp draws near. As with everything this calendar year, camp will be a bit different. It will be brief - teams will spend 13 days in their home markets before flying to their designated hub city (one for the Eastern Conference and one for the Western Conference) on Sunday, July 26 - but it will also be hard-working, as players skate and grind their way back into game shape and brush up on systems details that escaped the brain since early March.
"Everybody's in the same boat," Williams said. "It's like starting the season again."
Williams started his 2019-20 campaign on Jan. 19 against the New York Islanders, which was the Canes' 49th game of the season. Mr. Game 7 morphed into Mr. Round 8, scoring the deciding goal in the eighth round of the shootout to lift his team to a 2-1 divisional victory. He was running on adrenaline, scoring two goals in his second game and recording an assist in his third. Over the next 12 games, though he did continue his shootout wizardry in two more wins, he found the scoresheet just once with a pair of assists in Nashville. The veteran winger was having to catch up to a league that was already humming along.
He got there, though. Williams' regular season ended with him scoring goals in five straight games (6g), as he became the oldest player in franchise history to do so.
"Selfishly, I was really upset when we stopped playing. I had just come back, I played catch-up and I finally felt like I was where I wanted to be. Got abruptly halted, and now everybody's in the same situation," he said. "Leadership is going to be a huge key for these teams coming back, and the best leaders, I believe, will have the best success."
Leadership isn't just limited to the on-ice aspects of this return, either. The bubble, or "Phase 4 Secure Zone," in each hub city is designed to prevent a viral outbreak, but Williams added that the players have to take responsibility, as well, even prior to the Canes departing Raleigh.
"Once you're in [the bubble], you're in there. I think, more importantly, is during training camp. We've addressed this, and we'll address it in the next few days, that you need to tighten up the bubble of people you're hanging out with," he said. "You need to make your inner circle pretty darn small because what you do affects everybody else. That's pretty much the basis of what a team is anyway; you're only as strong as your weakest link. But at this point, your weakest link can take down your whole team."
The team's inner circle in the hub city will be fairly small, as well. Rosters are capped at 31 players (goalies included), and teams are limited to 52 traveling personnel.
"I don't think it's like the TV show 'Alone.' It's not like Tom Hanks is on an island by himself. We've got 20 guys who we hang around with all the time, and I don't ever get bored with those personalities," Williams said. "It's not going to be banging your head off the wall crazy. … Is it ideal? No. But one of the good things … is once we advance to the Conference Final, we'll be able to see our families. Our families will come join us in the bubble. That's big."
Another comfort of home that will be absent is a raucous crowd in the stands.
"The momentum swings the crowd brings, certainly at our home arena, are going to be tough to live without. There's no home ice advantage," Williams said. "But, I don't think you need to manufacture the enthusiasm. Once you get into competition, it's game on."
Williams' name can be found on the Stanley Cup thrice already, including once with the Canes in 2005-06. It will take 19 wins, instead of the usual 16, to have it engraved a fourth time.
That quest begins with a best-of-five Qualifier against the New York Rangers, a Metropolitan Division foe that swept the four-game 2019-20 regular-season series between the two clubs.
"Washington had our number last year, also. Playoff hockey is very different," Williams said. "We're certainly not going into this series thinking we're an underdog. We're a Stanley Cup contender, and we know that."
