Mailbag #50: Erik Cole
Your questions, answered by the former Canes forward
(Please Note: Some questions have been edited for clarity.)
What is your favorite memory with the Canes, other than winning the Cup? - @OneTrueZach
I can think of a couple of different pockets of time, not just moments, but it's hard to say anything other than winning the Cup.
Winning the Cup, at home in a Game 7, for me, that's the most special thing. Especially given what I went through that season.
To be able to have that opportunity to be on the ice and be a part of it after I'd been told 'no' so many times by so many doctors that spring, and them telling me that I wasn't ready. They said I couldn't play, they said I wasn't healthy enough. They said that I hadn't healed enough to get back in and to be able to play.
I was having thoughts about whether I would even touch the Cup if we'd won it, and had I not participated in the playoffs. It's just such a difficult stretch of hockey that I don't think people are able to appreciate just how difficult it really is.
Was it scary going back to playing after the neck injury? Why did you? - @cfeath87
I don't think I was ever really concerned if I wouldn't be able to play again. Early on one of the difficult things with the whole injury was just laying in a gurney, strapped to a board, half of your gear still on and you have some doctor that's not your team doctor telling you that you're lucky. I just remember laying there and being like, "man, I don't feel very lucky right now."
You're laying there just helpless.
The poor nurse that was keeping me company that night, she was trying to say comforting things and I just have tears rolling down the side of my face as I'm laying there on my back. I finally had to ask her to stop. [Laughs] I told her I appreciate what she was trying to do, but I just needed her to be quiet for a little while. I needed to deal with it in my own way.
It being the end for me was never a concern or a fear. My biggest concern was getting back to playing. We were having such a good year, and it was such a fun team to be a part of. I didn't want to miss out on it.
I think it made me more determined. Then, over the course of the rest of my career, I had a few more stretches like that [where injuries made me more determined], and it all stemmed from the neck injury.
Do you see any comparisons between the 2006 team and the 2023 team? - @MikeJaquish
I think so.
There's a mix of veterans and young players, and like '06], the younger players seem to be doing the heavy lifting. Back in '06, Eric Staal had an amazing, 100-point season. Justin Williams had a great year that year too, scoring 30+. Then, look at the rest of our roster - Rod Brind'Amour, Cory Stillman, Ray Whitney, Matt Cullen, Doug Weight, Marc Recchi, Kevyn Adams, Craig Adams, I mean, we really had a strong veteran presence. Guys that had been in the game for more than a decade.
I like the current mix though. I like that this team gets contributions up and down the lineup. It's really important that they don't just have to rely on their top six. When you have the ability to spread around the scoring right now, as they do, you give yourself a chance to get balanced scoring.
It makes them a much more difficult team to match up against.
**What is your favorite memory with Rod Brind'Amour? - [@JoshHoldner
*Laughs]*
I've got a couple.
He was so great to me when I came to the organization. He was always a really positive influence. He went about it pretty quietly, but the big thing with him was routine. Stick to the routine. Always routine.
We'd play a couple of overtime of games in the playoffs and he would be in there post-game doing the same routine that he would do after a regular season game. I was like, "Dude, we might have to do this again in two days. There might be another five periods of hockey."
My favorite funny story when it comes to Roddy starts with when Martin Gelinas left after the 2001-02 season. He came in that next year, grabbed me, and said, "You're my new training partner." Immediately I was like, "Oh boy."
Back then [former Head Athletic Trainer] Pete Friesen liked to do a lot of circuit training, 30 seconds on, and then 30 seconds off. In some of the exercises that we did, you were participating on both sides of the 30 seconds, whether you were defending the guy, pushing him, or whatever it was. We had a lot of moments that summer where we were just beating on each other.
That training camp, he was my roommate when we started in Florida. And remember, he's a routine guy. So he was always like, we're going to dinner here, we're doing this, we're doing that.
We'd be getting ready for bed, and I'd come out of the washroom to jump in bed, lights out. There he is, sitting there butt naked at the end of his bed, eating yogurt. I was like, "Are you kidding me right now? You can't put some freakin' clothes on?"
It was one of those moments. He would just sit there and laugh and make jokes about it.
I would tell him, like, "Dude, we've got an unlimited supply of shorts and t-shirts at the rink, I can go grab you some." It was pretty funny.
As I said, I've got so many good Roddy stories.
But from the first time I bumped into him, I was taken aback by him. To be able to work with him, train with him, and see how he operated, just made for a quick and easy learning curve. It was a good learning lesson to get myself into the league and how to stay in the league.
**What is it about the Raleigh area that makes so many players stay here after they retire? - [@IronCaniac
It's the community. It's the fans. The quality of life in the Raleigh area. It's all wonderful, especially in comparison to a lot of other NHL cities.
The lifestyle that you can live in Raleigh is more laid back. It's not a major metropolitan area. It's not intense with the media and them being on you about everything. Guys like that. It's a great place to raise a family.
My sister moved down here in 1994. I was coming down here before the team was even here. It was great, for me, because my sister is still here and I had her here as a support system when I was playing.
It's felt like home for me since day one.
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